James’s review published on Letterboxd:
This long awaited sequel is about on the same level as the original.
The film follows Lydia Deetz as she returns to the home she grew up in following the death of her father only for her daughter to get caught up in some ghostly business requiring Beetlejuice to lend a helping hand.
Well, this has been high on my most anticipated list since it was announced that Burton was actually going to make it. I really love Beetlejuice, sure, it's a flawed movie (not much there in terms of plot, emotion nor stakes), but it's a damn fun one, and that's really all I wanted/expected and I got a damn fun movie. Burton is back on his A game after really being off of it for the past decade or so (everything he made after Sweeney Todd has felt pretty soulless to me), bringing his gothic, colorful take on the afterlife back to life with some wonderfully macabre production design, awesome looking undead (most of whom are created with some excellent practical effects) and some really cool set pieces, that at times do mimic the original a bit too much (they attempt another Day-O type scene towards the end that doesn't work as well in my opinion), but make for a really fun experience throughout.
The cast here is also pretty excellent, retaining a ton of talent from the '88 classic and bringing some fun new blood with them. As for the old guard, they're great. Winona Ryder is solid as Lydia, now a famous paranormal investigator whose life got turned upside down by a personal tragedy and a strained relationship with her daughter, Astrid (played wonderfully by Jenna Ortega). Catherine O'Hara continues to play up the camp as Lydia's stepmother, Delia, somehow leaning even harder into her artistic side. Then there's the man himself, Keaton returning as the titular bio-exorcist. I love the character, I find him very wacky and endearing, and there's a bit more of him here than there was in the first. If you were worried that he would take centerstage and become the de facto protagonist of this film, worry not, he's still a supporting character, but with the film's longer run time and greater focus on the afterlife itself rather than the concept of hauntings, you will see more of him. The new guys are also pretty solid, with Willem Dafoe being a solid campy actor turned hard boiled detective antagonist, Monica Bellucci is great fun as Beetlejuice's long gone lost love, and Justin Theroux is a decently slimy tv exec trying to swindle his way into Lydia's life.
All that said, the film does have a pretty odd plot with very inconsistent pacing. I mostly enjoyed the first half due to Burton's dark sense of humor and fun visual stylings (he plays around with a few different styles of horror in the front half), but narratively, there was little to grasp on to. I thought there may be a bit more exploration into Lydia and Astrid's relationship to give us some kind of emotional core, but the two rarely ever share a scene, leaving the first half kind of empty in terms of narrative or character progression, instead filled with exposition and gags. When the plot does get going, it's fun, but it's chock full of villains, none of whom get the time of day, most of whom get dealt with in a fairly uninteresting, anti-climactic way. I had fun with the film, but, much like the first one, I felt that the narrative was a bit lacking.
In the end, I did have a pretty good time with this, and have no real issue recommending this to fans of the original or Burton in general.
