Daniel's Productions’s review published on Letterboxd:
When it's closer to Corpse Bride than the original Beetlejuice
A couple weeks late but I saw the sequel to Beetlejuice and I'm quite mixed on it. There's some good ideas but the quality of the original wasn't really translated to a modern lense. I think this film drops too much of the camp and wacky feeling, with this more gothic and a general dull tone in the human scenes. This doesn't feel fun and spends the first half on another family conflict that isn't engaging. I like the idea to have Lydia deal with past trauma and having her life not put together well in adulthood. Still, the way it's done through daughter issues isn't interesting and just limits what stories could be told through the Beetlejuice franchise. The visuals and effects are good but also lack the same charm and appeal with this CG and more technological advanced world. I liked this stop motion flashback and worm but the rest visually is kind of bland and samey. It doesn't quite deliver enough darkness to justify this tone change. At most, I mildly cared about the stakes at moments. This also makes the character of Betelgeuse worse. I already didn't find him funny, but this makes his comedy routines not fitting the tone. This introduces a soul sucker trying to catch him that sounds like an interesting way to add to his role, but that always feel like an after thought and a thing I almost forget is happening. This introduces too many threats and subplots that the long third act is just a mess of trying to pick an order to resolve everything in. Astrid has a subplot and that actually had a well executed twist. However, there's so little time for that and it's conclusion that it just feels like wasting time for all the other stuff. This just adds a lot of rushed plots that don't feel satisfyingly concluded. That even applys to the plots that I liked. Lydia's step mother did more and was more entertaining than in the original. I liked her moments and the going back to the original house. If I had to say one main positive it's Willem Dafoe as a dead actor in charge of an investigation. He gets funny moments and feels like a layered character. Why couldn't there be a movie about him instead of only having 10 minutes screentime in a very crowded film? There's other parts I liked, mainly the climax sequence. The music was good with some nice callbacks. The attention to detail is here in a legacy sequel that gets most aspects right. It's just that it misses the highlight of the movie for me, that being Adam and Barbara. They didn't need to return but characters like that to explore these concepts is required to make it's style sink in. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice in turn makes the world feel smaller and blander the second time around. A third would make sense for it's title scheme, but I feel it will just be another where Astrid grows up and has problem with child. I find this has storytelling on level to a 2000s Disney sequel just with good acting and visuals, which is why it was close to 2.5 stars.
