Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Movie Review

Tim Burton directs best movie in a decade even if not every element of the film comes together

3 and half out of 5

This is Tim Burtons best film in a decade going back to what put him on the map crafting a solid sequel that is so much fun and very entertaining to watch. However, this film runs into what a lot of sequels run into by having too many plot threads some more interesting than others so when you are following one you don’t care about you want the film to go back to the more compelling and fun storylines and characters. The third act feels like mishmash of stuff that does not come together in a way that feels satisfying the way you would like over relying on dream sequences and some supporting characters in the film are underused with wasted potential. The cast despite some of them being underwritten are all great and having so much fun which is infectious when you are watching.

After a family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life is turned upside down when her teenage daughter, Astrid, accidentally opens the portal to the Afterlife. Tim Burton’s  direction in the film is filled with passion, creativity, an energy I haven’t felt since he directed Big Eyes the colors, the world building, the animatronic puppets, makeup effects are all so well realized that pull you back into the world of Beetlejuice make you feel warm if you love the first film, if you are new he introduces it to you in a wonderfully creative way. The way Burton paces the film is good it never drags where I’m bored even if I have issues with some of the characters and their storylines the film moves at a good pace. Burton does a great job of not overusing Beetlejuice so many times when a sequel comes out, they always forget what made the character work in the first film but not here he has a little more screen time but just enough to make the film work.

The cast of the film starting with Winona Rider returning as Lydia Deetz is fantastic, she returned to the role and fit like a glove like she never left giving her the same charm she had in the first film but older and has a great dynamic with Jenna Ortega who plays her daughter Astrid Deetz who does not believe in ghosts and is grieving her father who died when she was young. Their relationship is the strongest in the film to them at odds with each other over Lydia being a celebrity for believing in ghosts and how that progresses and pays off in the film is good just wish the rest of the characters in the film had some of that. Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice what can you say he’s amazing just as much of scene stealer as he was in the first film my favorite part of the film which is no surprise he can do no wrong in my eyes. The rest of cast William Defoe as an afterlife cop who was an actor alive is good but could have been so much more as a result is disappointing like Monica Bellucci as Delores Beetlejuice’s ex wife who wants to suck his soul to return to the world of the loving is a great idea but is one note, Catherine O’Hara is great has some great moments that are hilarious like when she’s in the afterlife and tries to be a privileged rich person the way that blows up in her face had me laughing out loud in the theater.

Like I have mentioned the big weakness of the film is the script the way its structured, having too many characters as a result the third act falls apart. Many of the supporting characters are slightly wasted they don’t do as much as they could have William Dafoe as the dead cop is the prime example of this, he is great as always but there were so much more creative things the writers and Burton could have done to plus that character to make the film even better. The nostalgia in the film feels shoehorned instead of organically like you would like it to be the call back of previous ghost couple, the dead husband of the Catherine O’Hara as a headless corpse is funny but for me gets old quick. The structure of film is not strong there are times the film feels so unfocused and all over the place that it feels like Burton and the writers had so many ideas they tried to shove them all in one movie, as a result the movie suffers compared to the first film which is so tight from beginning to end.

Final thoughts on the film are despite my issues with it I had a great time in the theater and it was so much fun watching Tim Burton’s passion for filmmaking come back to life hope this is a sign of things to come if he can build upon this getting more great Burton movies would be glorious.