Let’s set some records straight before we start to unpack the latest legacy sequel. I am under no illusions that the original “Beetlejuice” is some kind of masterpiece of storytelling. It is mostly remembered as a peak Tim Burton aesthetic with an electrifying performance from Michael Keaton, and an iconic musical number. I would venture to say that if you asked 10 people to recount the actual plot of the film without mentioning any of the aforementioned factors, 9 out 10 would stumble. “Beetlejuice” is about as thin and wonky as plots can get, loosely held together by a strong cast and unique vision but rarely obeys its own rules from scene to scene. “Beeltejuice Beetlejuice” feels like an overcompensation for that fact, lacking the novelty that overshadows the originals flaws to instead shine a spotlight on all of them by being an overstuffed, bloated piece of cinema.
Setting expectations and putting the original into perspective is important because “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” doesn’t work for a lot of reasons, and providing some retrospective context will help alieviate some of the “well, actually…” crowd when trying to re-contextualize its predecessor or worse, hurl accusations at me for not understanding or remembering the first one. I assure you, I have seen it many, many times – both with and without nostalgia goggles- and while this film maintains some of that shine, it’s not bright enough to hide how bad it is underneath. Its a film that looks great and maintains the love for Keaton in the role, but crumbles under Burton’s overindulgence into some of his worse storytelling tendencies. It feels tiresome at times, almost exhausting in how manic and disconnected and incoherent everything is and slows to a crawl any time Keaton isn’t on screen.
I don’t want to make this whole review a hit piece, as there are some things to enjoy. Burton excels at reveling in his practical macabre production design. The off kilter director owns every bit of his absurdist visual style, and reminds us all that when he’s free to do things his way, can designs some truly stunning set pieces. “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” actually spends quite a bit of time in the afterlife, which allows Burton to turn every weird thing in his mind into a cinematic playground. He really goes for it, and the sequel is better for this freedom. Keaton hasn’t lost a single step despite being away from the character for 3+ decades. Just like its predecessor, these films don’t work without him dialing it up to 1000, and thankfully the juice is loose to level 3000. He almost goes off the rails sometimes with bits that don’t quite land, but Keaton is so magnetic and funny in the role that it is one of the rare times that he’s able to overcome those flaws by sheer will and star power.
Catherine O’Hara is as good as she’s ever been, and in conjunction with Keaton has some of the funniest moments in the entire film. Justin Theroux is great as well, hamming it up as the “as close as you can get to” antagonist and leaning in hard to the much needed camp. Winona Ryder and Jenna Ortega are fine, with both largely being relegated to reactionary plot movers over any kind of character depth. Ortega really should be a perfect fit to the Burton world, but this film stifles her charisma and scream queen capabilities by forcing her to play everything straight. I get it (kind of), like young Lydia Deets she’s the audience surrogate, but something is lost in her translation of the absurdist mileu. This is by no fault of her own, it’s just kind of how things are written and how the multitude of stories take shape. Monica Bellucci (who I adore) and Willem Dafoe (who never anything less than wonderful) are fine but are so under baked and random you could delete them entirely from “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” and nothing in the film would change.
And that really gets to the heart of the problems with the film. However much fun you’re having watching Keaton and O’Hara and Theroux hamming it up, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is drastically hindered by way too much going on at any given time. Every scene feels disconnected from the last and removed from the next, feeling more like a loosely connected collection of abandoned Burton storyboard ideas slammed together rather than a fully realized film. All the ghoulish fun you can have is constantly undercut by relentless character introductions that also remove any tension from its jumbled narrative. By the time we reach the climax, there is so much going on all at once that even a very strange and largely misplaced song and dance number can’t distract from how rushed it all feels in its wrap up. Everything just kinds of ends, and every subplot that was supposedly the reason the movie is happening is settled with a little more than a simple line of exposition dialogue.
There is no method to the madness, which is what led to the success of its predecessor and contributes to the failures of this sequel. It’s all well and fine to full madcap cinema, particularly for fans wanting as much of that energy from “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” as we can handle. But there has to be more than just madness, and Burton is so unrestrained it bogs everything down dulls the kinetic energy that should come from this weirder the better approach. Bellucci and Dafoe are prime examples of this swing and a miss. Both are clearly made for this world, no strangers to macabre, and possess an undeniable onscreen presence that should make them easy standouts. But Burton along with his writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar seem completely clueless as to what to do with their stars. Their subplots meander along in the background, almost forgotten until they’re needed in the climax because, well, reasons?
There’s not even worthy payoffs for the characters that do matter because “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” is so unfocused we’re never given a chance to care about where they end up. There’s no anchor, nothing tie it all together in any meaningful way, and nothing to make sense of it all even at the most basic outline of a narrative. It is all so incomprehensible that giving a plot synopsis of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” seems asinine. Which frankly would be fine if it was more fun and less desperate. And look, to say I didn’t laugh or didn’t smile at all would be unfair, because there are plenty of moments from the stars who find the humor buried underneath the scattered plot lines, and those moments stick out even if they won’t be remembered for long.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” clings to these rare moments of haunted humor and stellar visual creations, but ultimately ends up being a disappointment. It is somehow both undercooked and overdone, leaving you feeling next to nothing by the time you leave the theater.
Danny Elfman’s score innocent.
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” hits September 6th. You can watch the trailer below.
