JoeHalcyon’s review published on Letterboxd:
I just thank God that they didn't decide to bring in anyone from the uncanny valley ghost dimension... 🐞
I had a surprising amount of fun watching Beetlejuice earlier this year. I didn't really come in with my expectations too high, but I still had some excitement for this. With Tim Burton being back at the helm, I wasn't too worried about it being devoid of any charm...
Here's the good...
You gotta admire that Burton's set design will always be good. I can't even lie that I started smiling the moment they show us the afterlife. There's so much authentic nostalgia that it makes me happy to know you got a whole generation who gets to experience it.
Michael Keaton is obviously the standout. The man is still just as good as he was back in the day, and you spend most of it just waiting for him to come back. Catherine O Hara was also really good, and had me cracking up in several scenes.
To their credit, you could appreciate them for trying to make an effort to make a followup from the original. It's like they were slowly taking their time to build up a story that continues the original.
Beyond that...
It's clunky...
Monica Belluci is in this....yeah. You would've thought that they'd set her up to be some memorable villain, but I damn near forgot that she was in this midway through. They then decide to introduce another big bad. It's like they're only introduced to move the plot along, and save for an immortal line by Beetlejuice...I just didn't see what the hell the entire point of them was.
Somehow these plots end up coming together, and it feels so sloppily. Hell, even with the conclusion, it just made me wonder...huh?
You got a few new characters in there, but bless their hearts...I really didn't care about any of them. It's like they tried to give one of them an emotional backstory, but it's so hastily rushed that it lacked any true heart to it.
There's a reason why the Maitlins don't return and I clicked my lips so damn loud that I'm surprised nobody turned around.
I'm going to be brutally honest, without Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis this just didn't feel as good as it could've been. Granted, these folks probably cost billions of dollars now but I thought that they were one of the bigger reasons why the original was so good.
They already knew that Jeffrey Jones was a problem, and they made sure to get his ass out the paint quick. However, you still got that likeness floating around. Even down to a quirky claymation. It felt strange.
The musical sequences worked amazingly well in the first film, and you can easily see why it made the film more iconic...but there's one here that feels more like padding than anything else.
Overall, this just made me appreciate the original more. It wasn't terrible, but it just wasn't for me. It's forgettable in such a bizarre way.
With the inclusion of the Soul Train, you can't deny Burton finally acknowledged that black people exist... 🤷🏿♂️
#JusticeForBob
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