Beetlejuice Beetlejuice | 2024
WINONA RYDER as Lydia and MICHAEL KEATON as Beetlejuice in Warner Bros. Pictures’ comedy, “BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE,” a Warner Bros. Pictures release.
Coming out some 36 years after the original Beetlejuice, Tim Burton's new sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice isn't exactly striking while the iron was hot. While the first film was a hit in the 80s, its reputation has only grown over the following decades, becoming a cult classic and Hot Topic staple.
Legacy sequels capitalizing on millennial nostalgia are all the rage, so a second trip to the Beetlejuice well seemed inevitable. Burton's track record as of late hasn't been exactly stellar; the filmmaker himself has spoken about falling out of love with filmmaking during this film's press tour, but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like classic Burton in ways we haven't seen from him in a while. Burton spoke of finding his spark again while making this film, and that spark is what makes it such an unexpected success.
Films like this often rely on the audience's nostalgia for the original to work. Burton, however, mostly avoids these traps. Sure, there are callbacks to Beetlejuice, but they feel integrated naturally into the story rather than shoehorned into the narrative for cheap nostalgia. The film finds Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) and her mother, Delia (Catherine O'Hara), return their beloved "ghost house" for the funeral of Lydia's father, Charles (an unseen Jeffrey Jones whose absence due to his disturbing criminal history, is humorously remedied by rendering him headless).
Lydia's daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), is also along for the ride. She's a sullen college student who resents her mother, now a famous medium, because she has been unable to conjure the ghost of her dead father. When she gets into some supernatural trouble with a seemingly ordinary boy from the neighborhood, Lydia has no choice but to turn to her one-time nemesis, Beetlejuice, to travel to the underworld and set things right. But Beetlejuice has his own problems, as his soul-sucking ex-wife (Monica Bellucci) is back and looking for revenge against the man who spurned her hundreds of years before.
The film as a whole is notable for two reasons. First - this is a rare major studio blockbuster film that actually looks like a real movie. It isn't the usual underlit gray sludge that we've come to expect from the Disney assembly line - Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels refreshingly tactile, with vibrant sets that feel like something out of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and colorful cinematography courtesy of frequent Kenneth Branagh collaborator, Haris Zambarloukos. While this is an admittedly low bar to clear, and Burton hasn't always been innocent of the modern visual sludge trend (see Alice in Wonderland), Beetlejuice Beetlejuice feels like a breath of fresh air.
Second - it doesn't simply wallow in nostalgia by relying on the audience's fondness for the original film. The pacing isn't always tight and it's certainly not on the level of the original, but there's a sense of fun here that doesn't simply feel as if Burton is going through the motions. In fact, Burton's films hasn't felt this energetic in decades. It's hard not to feel like I'm grading this on a bit of a curve, but to my surprise, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is mostly a good time. Keaton is clearly having a blast, and supporting players like Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, and Danny Devito are a lot of fun. This isn't just a lazy trip down memory lane, it’s an actual attempt to extend the story and broaden the world Burton first introduced in 1988. Mileage may vary, of course, but Beetlejuice Beetlejuice manages to avoid many typical legacy sequel traps and stand on its own two feet.
