This review may contain spoilers.
Platinum 🍉’s review published on Letterboxd:
"Sequel's probably going to suck, will find out In September".
And here we are.
I had conflicting feelings about this sequel long before the teaser was released. Firstly, I'm getting tired of constant legacy sequels every year. This year alone, there have been Ghostbusters 4, Alien 7, Beverly Hills Cop 4, Twister 2, Bad Boys 4, and Mad Max 5. Each of them is of varying degrees of quality sure, but It's a lot. I once saw a video about the constant Jurassic Park movies where the guy said "When do our children get to have their own Star Wars or Jurassic Park, without just being another Star Wars or Jurassic Park film?" and I thought about that a lot every time a new legacy sequel Is announed. Secondly, while the promos kept saying "You waited an eternity for this", nothing about the original made me wonder what happened next, If I wanted more Beetlejuice content, I could watch the TV show. The trailers did make It look pretty good, though I remained skeptical as there have been times In the past when the trailer made me excited only for the results to be disappointing. (Sonic 2 for example.) Recently watching every Burton movie and appreciating his style even more than I did before made me Intrigued when he talked about It made him love filmmaking again after Dumbo nearly made him quit.
With all that said, I'm pleased to say that It's ended up being pretty good, might even be an 8/10 though I should wait until the recency bias Is gone and see It again to decide.
Danny Elfman's score Is as amazing as usual, still one of the best composers out there. The best part of any Burton movie Is always his score.
Michael Keaton doesn't look like he aged a day, he's way better at returning to this role than he was returning as Batman In The Flash. He gets more screentime than In the original even If It's not much. He's the kind of character that always leave you wanting more but can easily get annoying with too much screentime so It's for the best.
The 2nd and especially the 3rd acts were also extremely enjoyable. The time spent in the afterlife Is when the film Is at its best. The original doesn't spend that much time In It, so It's able to flesh It out more.
Hearing Micheal Keaton talk about how fun It was to work with practical effects again also made me Intrigued. And they are another highlight of the film. Way better than filming everything In a green screen.
I'm not usually one to laugh at the theaters, but there were plenty of times when I silently laughed. His song number In the 3rd act as well as the over the top way they went about killing Lydia's father were the highlights.
However, there's a reason It's not rated nearly as high as the original as there are plenty of flaws. A annoying trend a lot of sequels tend to do Is the whole turning the main character Into a mother and give them emotional conflict with their daughter. Chicken Run 2, Disenchanted, Little Mermaid 2, etc. It follows the same plot beat every single time and It's no different here.
The lack of Adam and Barbara Is felt as their relationship with Lydia, one of the best parts of the original Is no longer here, and the reason they explain for them being gone feels half-baked. What do you mean they found a loophole and moved on?
Beetlejuice's wife also could've done a lot more. Her Introduction was cool but she doesn't get any moments outside of that. She spends most of the movie hunting him down but by the time she finally finds him they use the sandworm on her a minute later and she's done, hardly a climax.
Willem Dafoe also feels like he could've done a lot more, but he's still Willem Dafoe so his screentime Is still entertaining.
While the comedy mostly works there are times when It's more gross than funny, such as when baby Beetlejuice shows up twice or when he gets Inflated.
While the times spent In the afterlife was the best part, the real world scenes got dull at times. I found myself sitting there waiting for them to go finally go Into the afterlife.
The nostalgia Is here and expected, It was obvious there was going to be a lot of It when the trailer played Day-O. However, It Isn't as frequent as I was expecting It to be like how the Ghostbusters sequels were. However, directly copying the opening credits Is when It starts to get annoying.
Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Is a legacy sequel that despite Its many shortcomings, still manages to work. I was against this movie's existence for the longest time, but It managed to win me over. There's a chance It might end up being like Indy 5 and only get worse on rewatch but that's something to find out later. Now, please don't make a 3rd one.
