Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is the long-awaited sequel to Tim Burton’s 1998 cult classic. Having surprisingly opened the Venice Film Festival this year, building up a layer of expectation with the returning stars of Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder and Catherine O’Hara whilst adding a supporting cast of Jenna Ortega, Willem Dafoe and Justin Theroux.
The film follows the Deetz family’s return home to Winter River as Lydia aims to reconcile with her rebellious daughter Astrid; however, soon, the haunted spirit of Betelgeuse reappears to cause havoc. Meanwhile, Monica Bellucci plays Dolores, Betelgeuse’s former lover and Willem Dafoe plays an afterlife cop who is hunting down the disobedient Betelgeuse.
While for some this will be a fun family adventure for a wide range of ages, for me, this was a snooze fest of redundant ideas without any form of commentary or themes it aims to explore, but rather as a way to repeat tried and tested ideas, that leave the film feeling vapid and empty.
This is partly a return to form for Tim Burton, after his past two films, Dumbo and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, fell flat, without the Burtonian spark of his classic films, of a slightly haunted spookiness and dreamlike fantasy. However, it never uses his style, heavily influenced by German Expressionism, to explore thematic depth.
For the most part, Bettlejuice Beetlejuice provides too many plot threads with not enough meat on any of the several bones. At times, going 15 or 20 minutes before returning to a particular strand loses the simplicity that made the original as iconic as it has become, as it cannot wrap these several plot threads into a satisfying conclusion. If only Burton condensed his ideas into a couple of solid moments.
Having said this, Burton attempts to find moments of reconciling the broken family. In particular, Santiago Cabrera’s Richard has a couple of heartwarming scenes towards the film that bring together the otherwise tired tropes of the unliked stepfather, played by Justin Theroux.
While some fun moments attempt to evoke the fun of the original, and certainly Michael Keaton attempts to go full whack to try and drive some life into this hollow peace, the comedy and horror moments often fall flat.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice although potentially a crowd-pleaser for some, fails to create concrete ideas that lead to a coherent narrative. Although there are some fun moments and a surprisingly vibrant colour palette, this is another legacy sequel that falls flat.
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