MovieGoer20’s review published on Letterboxd:
The original Beetlejuice was not a movie that I had that much nostalgia for. I had seen most of it over the years but only recently watched the whole thing all the way through very recently. Either way, I could easily tell why it was an iconic movie and I’ve always thought even through just clips that Michael Keaton was legendary in this role. With this sequel, I had fairly high hopes for it as it definitely looked like it would be keeping a similar tone to the original film especially with most of the original cast being brought back even though all I really cared about was that Michael Keaton was back. I definitely was interested to see what direction they would take the story though and I definitely had hope that it wouldn’t be a rehash of the first movie. This was definitely an anticipated release though either way and I definitely couldn’t wait for the juice to be loose again.
As I expected, everyone who reprised their roles once again played their parts very well once again. Winona Ryder is a great lead once again as we see her suffering from some visions of Beetlejuice and definitely has not moved past the events of the first movie. These visions can be pretty amusing at times and there is a decent gag when it comes to her breathing and how it sounds like a moose which was funnier than I would’ve expected. Catherine O’Hara once again played Delia in a very eccentric way and kept that same energy that she had from the first movie. The relationship between her and Ryder has gotten a bit stronger but they definitely still have conflict but I definitely still liked their dynamic especially when O’Hara mentions that it’s karma when Ryder’s daughter doesn’t like her because that’s how she treated O’Hara. O’Hara’s fate in this movie is extremely fitting for her character though and it’s honestly pretty funny. Even the newcomers in this movie ended up being decent. Jenna Ortega does a fair job as Ryder’s daughter even though this is your typical strained mother and daughter relationship. It’s a typical case of the daughter not believing that her mother can see ghosts and the daughter not wanting to be dragged to the more remote area. I do think that Ryder and Ortega could’ve used a little bit more development with their relationship because it does progress pretty rapidly when it came to their arc. Willem Dafoe plays this dead movie star who likes to give movie like speeches to the police force in the afterlife which was pretty amusing to see. Dafoe is usually great in anything and even though this performance is nothing that noteworthy, his character is definitely a highlight whenever he’s on screen. There’s a decent cameo from Danny DeVito as a janitor in the afterlife even though his character is very short lived in this movie. Then of course there’s Michael Keaton once again Beetlejuice himself. Every time Keaton is on screen, the movie instantly becomes much funnier as he once again kills it in this role. He’s still got the same sick sense of humor and still desperate to marry Winona Ryder’s character. I still could’ve used more of Keaton in this movie as once again he’s not really in this movie for too long but then again he wasn’t really in the first one much either so it balances out. I just think it could’ve been a little bit longer just to get more scenes of Keaton. This movie definitely explored the afterlife world more than in the first movie and it definitely felt like we expanded on the lore of what the afterlife in Beetlejuice’s work looks like. It almost felt like it was an episode of the Beetlejuice animated series in that regard which was appreciated. The film still kept a similar tone and vibe as the first movie too though and even kept the cheesy over the top effects that might not look very good but are still very memorable. We still get to see that waiting room and even the sand worm again while being introduced to new locations like the soul train which I personally thought was cool even though it was kind of generic looking. I know that some were upset about Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis weren’t in this film but I understand why they weren’t since they probably needed to look the exact same as in the original film and what more could’ve really been done with their story anyway? I know some people were upset by Jeffrey Jones’ character still being included given the Jones’ history but I think what they did with his character was probably what was best. His character might be in the movie but his face isn’t on the character which will make more sense when you watch it. It was actually quite humorous what ended up happening to his character in this movie in all honesty and I think it was handled reasonably well without having to invite Jones back. I think that’d one of my main issues with this movie were the other villains in this movie. One of them was played by Arthur Conti and I personally just found him to be very bland and not very interesting in my opinion. The other was Beetlejuice’s ex wife played by Monica Bellucci and even though she has a decent set up and there’s a decent backstory, it really felt like it was just thrown in there as another excuse to try and get Ryder to potentially marry Beetlejuice again and have another wedding scene even if that wedding scene is reminiscent of the dinner scene from the previous film which was great. It ended up feeling pointless given how brief the interaction is near the end of the movie anyway. Luckily though this part didn’t take away from the movie too much. I think that the ending even keeps it open for it another film to happen although I definitely don’t want this to become a franchise movie series that overstays its welcome.
Conclusion: I think this pretty much met my expectations. Everyone that returned for this movie did great and even most of the newcomers were pretty solid. Maybe if there were better antagonists, I might’ve rated it higher. Still though this is going to satisfy most Beetlejuice fans as it still has some of the elements of what made the first film great. Just see it for Michael Keaton alone though as that is enough to check this one out. It might not be as good as the first movie, but this was still a good follow up in my opinion.
P.S: JUSTICE FOR BOB!!!
LE
