Directed By Tim Burton

Starring – Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Jenna Ortega

The Plot – After an unexpected family tragedy, three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River. Still haunted by Beetlejuice (Keaton), Lydia’s (Ryder) life is turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter, Astrid (Ortega), discovers the mysterious model of the town in the attic and the portal to the Afterlife is accidentally opened. With trouble brewing in both realms, it’s only a matter of time until someone says Beetlejuice’s name three times and the mischievous demon returns to unleash his very own brand of mayhem.

Rated PG-13 for violent content, macabre and bloody images, strong adult language, some suggestive material and brief drug use.

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE | Official Trailer (youtube.com)

POSITIVES

Considering 36 years have passed since Tim Burton merged the worlds of life and the afterlife seamlessly, some elements of sequelitis were certainly expected, however this is one sequel that has clearly been on the mind of Burton for quite sometime, and as a result he meticulously recreates these worlds in ways that makes the film feel like it was made merely a couple of years after its predecessor. If you’re someone who craves the uniqueness of Burton pictures, where he crafted a hybrid of his own between humor and horror that many directors have since borrowed shamelessly from, then you’ll more than likely enjoy ‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’, which nails every vital element in sight and sound that refuses to short change its audience in experience. Sights in everything from the atmospherically weathered visuals of the presentation, with coldly damp consistencies and practical effects aplenty that feed into the limitless expectations of Burton’s imagination, but also sounds in another iconic score from Danny Elfman, who not only brings along the nostalgia of familiar tracks from the 88′ predecessor, but also original compositions for this particular chapter that ride the instrumental wave of the movie’s emotional versatility that feels like it shifts effortlessly between any two given scenes. On that aspect, the film definitely has a lot going on, as I will point out later, but tonally remains pretty truthfully authentic in comparison between the two films, and though the PG-13 rating is likely to worry some, who understand how watered down that rating has become since 1988, Burton continuously pushes the envelope, not only with vulgarity among his dialogue, which results in some effectively pleasing means of expression for his characters, but also legitimate stakes for the movie, which, like ‘Beetlejuice’, doesn’t cheat audiences on the permanency of death that keeps its film from feeling superfluous between book-ends. One of these is obviously expected, if you’ve paid attention to the marketing trailers, but there’s one key death in the movie that definitely moved my audiences into a collectively somber groan, providing depth and measurement into the frailty of life that a movie this silly could easily overlook while instead catering to the audience interests of refusing to rock the boat of their otherwise good time. Burton isn’t the only one who picks up where he left off, as Catherine O’Hara, Ryder, and especially Keaton step back into their respective roles with ease, with each donning a natural progression to their respective characters that feels very lived in, between the 36 years that have passed since we last saw them. Keaton is obviously the show-stealer, with a much-necessary increase in his on-screen time from the previous film, resulting in the same charming bewilderment from manic crudeness that chews as much four-dimensional scenery as Deadpool, with a palpable giddiness exuding from Keaton that, like the character, transcends him of age or gravitational toll that could break the concentration of the audience if even the smallest measurement feels off. As for new additions, Ortega is noteworthy for facial composites in evolving emotionality, despite the fact that she’s essentially just playing Wednesday Addams again, and Justin Theroux indulges in his inner Darren as a proverbial wet blanket on the proceedings of the family that surprisingly resulted in more comedic consistency than I would expect in these typically outsider kind of characters. Lastly, while the script is plagued with problems, the expansion of world-building of this evocative underworld is what kept the experience afloat, especially in Burton’s desire to spend the entirety of the superior second half there. While it does take a while for this direction to eventually kick in, there’s some uniquely refreshing ideas here that transcribes depth and even authority to this bizarre form of purgatory, which felt merely hinted at during the original, but here feeds into more of that aforementioned imagination that undeniably takes the film down some dark and very depraved corridors of a supernatural afterlife.

NEGATIVES

Truthfully, this screenplay is a mess in more ways than one, feeling like the Frankenstein assembled stitching of two entirely different ideas for a convoluted sequel that never converge with the kind of rhythm or transitional ease of something that goes light on the pacing. Considering this is a 99-minute film, the experience at times stalled that conventional run time, with an abundance of subplots that Burton goes out of his way evenly dividing towards each character. While it’s nice to give some form of justification to the characters assembled for this sequel, it’s simply too much to continuously unravel, with two antagonists, a wedding, a widow working through their grief, a blossoming love story between teenagers, and of course Beetlejuice’s resurrection each fighting for time, and only half of them being realized with the kind of commitment that makes them a key ingredient to what this film is selling creatively and thematically. The biggest loser in unfocused attention goes to Monica Bellucci’s soul-sucking antagonist bride, who with a compelling angle into the backstory of Beetlejuice, goes abandoned around the film’s midway point, only to be brought back when the script absolutely requires her to resolve her arc, which is as abruptly flat and unimpactful as disappointment can capably conjure. In addition to this, the film is tragically predictable in the range of its wildly bizarre and imaginative direction, particularly with a second act plot twist that I was effortlessly able to sniff out, as a result of some hints with the imagery and backstory to one particular character that feels borrowed from a few other movies, without feeling interested towards deliberately explaining the gifts of this one particular character. On its own, this subplot is fascinating for the way it establishes escapism towards one emotionally conflicted character, opening them up emotionally in ways that we haven’t experienced with them to that point, but it comes at the cost of wasted momentum that dissipates as quickly as it materialized, feeling like an exaggerated afterthought, with a payoff that quite literally drops out from underneath the character involved, who ultimately serves as a plot device to get us to the next setting. Finally, while Burton indulges once more in the marrying of humor and horror that have defined the best films of his career, the humor here doesn’t quite land as effectively as its horror, resulting in a series of embarrassing bombs of sight gags and lukewarm deliveries in dialogue that can be felt in the afterlife. I did laugh a couple of times during my engagement, but their effectiveness lent themselves to Keaton’s consistent energy in deliveries, instead of something cleverly constructed, and when it comes to scenes not involving the titular terrorizer, it instead results in unnaturalistic deliveries that feel every bit forced as they do fumbling, leaving the most obvious inferiority between films being the one that Burton often masters with ease.

OVERALL
‘Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice’ raises a 36-year-old franchise from the dead, with expansive world-building, three-dimensional practicality in everything from set designs to special effects, and one manically crude and abrasive performance from Keaton, who slides back into form seamlessly as the ghost with the most. Despite a convoluted and chaotic screenplay conveying too many characters and corresponding subplots, and inferior gags standing in the shadow of their iconic predecessor, the film is nevertheless a frenetic frolic at the crossroads of where life meets death, and for Burton one more chance to ignite the kind of morbid imagination that made him a household name.

My Grade: 7/10 or B-