Beetlejuice Makes a Poor Comeback

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” premiered in theatres on September 6th with a cast of old and new faces, inviting all audiences to enjoy. Winona Ryder makes her return as a now famed Lydia Deetz who’s struggling to connect with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) amidst the death of her father and visions of the always bothersome Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton).  

The plot is bizarre as we follow an older Lydia Deetz dealing with the return of her ‘ex-lover’, Beetlejuice, her father’s death, and her spontaneous wedding. There are so many events happening all at once in the film that it can become overwhelming to watch at times. For example, on Halloween, when Lydia’s wedding is planned to take place, every other conflict is also being resolved, making it easy to get lost in the entanglement. With that in mind, the movie is not great, but it is entertaining in a way that’s hard to look away from, like a car crash.

Beetlejuice is as raunchy as ever; all his scenes are funny and act as comedic relief from the dreariness of the drama between Lydia and Astrid–which there is a lot of. If Astrid isn’t blaming her mom for being weird and psychotic, then Lydia is complaining about how she can’t properly connect with her. Understandably, this is their whole storyline, but it’s too much at times. Astrid’s pettiness steals screen time from actually interesting characters, like the main villain, Delores LaVerge, who probably has a cumulative ten minutes on screen, and she drives one of the main central conflicts in the film.  

Unfortunately, this film is just another case of “Did this really need a sequel?”. Instead of having good, one-time films, Hollywood’s greed forces already underpaid writers to make nonsensical and usually bad second movies with loose callbacks to their originals. This trend of creating sequels–and even trilogies–ruins the reputation older movies have and is just terrible all around.

The film’s overall vibe has the eeriness of the original but with a more modern twist. Lots of old references kept longtime fans moderately entertained and connected. In general, though, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” falls flat. The plot and character are shallow and too quickly disposed of to properly enjoy. The cinematography, while it fits into Tim Burton’s consistent aesthetic, lacks the appeal it has in his other works. So, Beetlejuice, maybe do not come back.