Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a fun time but had an absolutely messy script. I appreciate how Tim Burton stuck to the original's aesthetic, the CGI is purposefully dated, there is his signature stop motion effects from the original and the picture quality has a film grain to it that makes it look like it was originally released in the 1990's, which is precisely when a sequel to Beetlejuice would have been most relevant.

I really want to stress this before i go on, its not bad, i enjoyed it,
Michael Keaton slips back into the role like he never left, Winona Ryder still feels like Lydia Deetz and the chemistry between them is there as much as it was thirty six years ago; Jenna Ortega and Willem Dafoe are also welcome additions to the cast, Monica Bellucci however is underused and her presence adds nothing to the film.

And here is where we get to the films flaws, it doesn't know what story it wants to tell. Without giving away too much of the plot, there are several ideas that it has but it never leans into any of them, one in particular which easily could have carried the entire plot is thrown away as an afterthought when it was by far the most compelling aspect of the whole movie and could have been put front and center but instead Tim Burton wanted to focus on random things that don't matter and put his new girlfriend into the film to fill up the runtime.

The film should have been about Lydia Deetz recruiting Beetlejuice out of desperation to save her daughter from the afterlife after she has been tricked by a manipulative spirit, the film is sort of about that, but only for about fifteen minutes, then it is resolved so quickly if you blinked you would have missed it, the film then moves on to the third act rushing to the end.The film has no focus.

That is unforgivably bad storytelling.

So my final thoughts, I'm glad I watched it, I love the characters from the first film so I enjoyed seeing them back, I always wanted to see a sequel that felt like the 90's animated series where Beetlejuice and Lydia become friends and I sort of got that. So overall, i'm happy but i would have liked it better if it was actually coherent.