A 36 year long awaited sequel that brings back Burton to his roots (even if it's not 100% through) and a good legacy that has it's entertaining moments. Keaton is just as good as he ever was back in the returning role of Beetlejuice while Winona Ryder and Catherine O'Hara (easily the standout of the movie) slips right back into their original classic roles. Jenna Ortega continues to show why she is one of the more rising talents in the film industry today as Astrid Deetz. I also like most of the supporting cast despite a few issues with them such as Willem Dafoe and Justin Theroux. Monica Bellucci, despite one issue with her, she's amazing here and for nearing 60, she's still a knockout of the Italian cinema and culture (in simple words: still fine as hell).

Tim Burton's direction is just as energetic and crazy and weird as it has been in a very long time. Great usage of old-school practical effects despite a few moments of digital, but the practical effects is something that's greatly appreciated especially with the sets, makeup, stop motion animation and the cinematography/visual aspects and I also really like a lot of moments in the story that were interesting and the story decision with Jeffrey Jones' character didn't really bother me as well. It's also decently paced minus one gripe and Danny Elfman's score is just as entertaining. Also the moments in the afterlife are a lot. There are some nolstalgic beats here from the original such as the music or certain things, but there's enough in here to make it it's own.

My main issue with the film is the pacing/story, which while I appreciate it's short length and the cast and director is full of energy here and they give it their all, much like Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, is that there is a lot going on here and same criticism I hold for that movie, is either you could've trimmed some of this or made this a little bit longer because there's some things here that are interesting such as Dolores looking for Beetlejuice and wanting revenge on him that kinda gets done easily and I was a little frustrated with the Astrid-Lydia storyline (since it's something we've seen before and I was hoping for something a little different) and also the relationship with Astrid and this boy she likes wasn't clicking until it goes in a different direction. The generational Deetz storyline was fine, but again, if we had at least 10 minutes more or 20 minutes longer to flesh out the other stuff, i'd give this a higher grade. And as much as I am praising Monica Bellucci and rightfully so, I wish there was more of her in here as Dolores because she's clearly having fun. And I didn't really like the subplot with Justin Theroux here. Could've also used a little bit more of the horror vibes here like the OG classic.

But other than that issue and aside that if some of you are not Beetlejuice fans or Tim Burton fans, I don't see some of y'all enjoying this, I had myself a very good time and for a legacy sequel that we were all worried about, I had fun with this. Despite my gripes, there's enough in here to warrant a recommendation and I may like this more than Frozen Empire (even though I don't hate that movie, it's perfectly fine) and I wouldn't mind adding this to the Halloween annual watchlist. Doesn't top the original, but I wasn't expecting it too, I just wanted a fun watch and I got my promise.

Grade: Epictastic