Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is not going to “ruin” anyone’s childhood. It’s just not going to make anyone’s either. Tim Burton’s decades-in-the-making sequel is a mixed bag. It has some inspired moments and fantastic performances. But it also has way too many characters, more plot than it knows what to do with, and pacing issues. The result is an entertaining mess that ultimately leans more “entertaining” than “mess” because, even though it has a sentimental side that is oddly out of place, it’s still fundamentally a Beetlejuice movie.
If you love seeing dead people stuck in an eternal state of discomfort, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice delivers the goods. The very present, much-visited afterlife is full of recently deceased who met their end in increasingly hilarious ways. It’s packed with wonderfully “random” aspects that make it a wildly interesting place to revisit. And while it’s full of Easter eggs and nods to its predecessor, they rarely feel forced or corny.
It’s also where you’ll find a character we were led to believe would not be in the film at all. Well, they’re sort of in the movie. What do I mean? Sorry to be so cryptic, but it could be any number of original characters, so I won’t spoil who. I’ll only say their “inclusion” greatly surprised me and how the film uses them is going to lead to a lot of “discourse.”
As for the characters we knew we were returning, two do more than standout. They carry the movie. The first is Michael Keaton. He slips back into his bio-exorcist pinstripes so seamlessly it’s like he never took them off. If, like me, you hold the original film sacred, he’s everything you want from the Ghost with the Most. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice doesn’t overuse him, nor does it misuse him. He is a little different, though. He’s a lot less sinister, but that totally works because the movie shows how his previous encounter with Lydia changed him. It’s one of the film’s smartest evolutions.
The other is Catherine O’Hara’s Delia Deetz, the other original star who steals every single scene she’s in. Every single one. With age—and success—Delia has morphed into her best self, but that doesn’t mean she’s any less absurd or hilarious. The movie never suffers from any real dead spots because O’Hara is always around to keep you laughing.
Newcomer Jenna Ortega doesn’t get as many chances to be funny as her counterparts, but she’s excellent as Lydia’s skeptic daughter Astrid. She’s still mourning her dad’s death, and in a movie full of (maybe too much) ridiculousness, she adds a grounding element that helps it keep a good balance. Astrid’s story is also responsible for adding two things that are big parts of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice even though they were, at most, minor elements of the original film. This sequel has real heart and sentimentality.
How you feel about that will very much influence how much you like or dislike the movie. It didn’t really work for me, for the same reason it hasn’t in the new Ghostbusters movies, another ’80s franchise whose modern entries have also leaned into pulling in your heartstrings. The good news is Beetlejuice Beetlejuice‘s sentimentality isn’t nearly as cloying or annoying as Ghostbusters. That’s likely that because unlike its spectral counterpart, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice never forgets that it is a comedy first and foremost.
What it does forget is pacing and how to develop plots, both main and sub. The movie’s story feels rushed, as does its actual pacing. There’s too much going on and everything happens way too quickly. That’s all a byproduct of way, way, way too much plot. Whereas the original film is more about experiencing a fascinating world with a story loosely holding it together, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice puts its plot front and center. Then it adds even more plot to the wings until it overflows out the windows.
The main plot is essentially squeezed into the last hour of the movie. Meanwhile its B-plots are so underdeveloped, they’re more like D-plots. Two characters, Willem Defoe’s Wolf Jackson and Monica Bellucci’s Delores, add almost nothing to the film. In fact, each could be cut entirely without issue. That would actually make it a stronger movie because it would feel more focused. There are simply too many characters without enough time to do anything with them. Belluci’s Dolores especially feels like they forgot to include 75% of her scenes, which makes no sense considering she’s billed as the primary antagonist.
Two characters the movie doesn’t forget about are Justin Theroux’s Rory and Winona Ryder’s Lydia. Rory is annoying and sleazy, but as much as I love Theroux, he’s essentially too good in the part because I found Rory really annoying in a bad way. (Whereas I think the original film’s Otho is annoying in a good way.)
As for Ryder, her Lydia has undergone the worst evolution of the original cast. Burton made his most interesting, complex character…well…boring. At one point another character actually asks Lydia to rediscover that “annoying goth” teenage girl she’d once been, and in that moment it feels like everything she’s done so far is prelude to who she’ll become now. Only she never does. She never comes close to offering up anything as dynamic or layered as teenage Lydia.
It’s very frustrating, in large part because Lydia’s current life is incredibly interesting! The movie simply fails to fully explore why, saddling Ryder with an underwritten part.
Like I said, it’s a mixed bag. But not all mixed bags are equal, and I walked out of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice happier with the good parts than I was upset by the bad ones. The good aspects—notably the afterlife sequences, humor, Beetlejuice, and Delia—are really freaking good. The bad aspects—too much plot, too many characters, a weird sentimentality, poor pacing—aren’t bad enough to make toruin the film. They’re just bad enough to keep it from being really good.
The result is that, unlike its still perfect namesake, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is okay okay.
Mikey Walsh is a staff writer at Nerdist who gladly shares a name with Michael Keaton. You can follow him on Twitter and Bluesky at @burgermike. And also anywhere someone is ranking the Targaryen kings.