Legacy sequels like Beetlejuice Beetlejuice don’t have a great track record. Unfortunately, neither does the great director Tim Burton, based on his last few movies. Sentence fragments are also in a questionable state. Despite those odds, this sequel is quite good, while retaining the charm of the original. 
 

After her encounter with Beetlejuice, Lydia (Winona Ryder), now hosts a show where she interviews people with supernatural experiences. Jenna Ortega also stars in the film in the most obvious casting choice ever made as Lydia’s daughter, Astrid. 

Of course, one of the major highlights is Michael Keaton as Beetlejuice. Catherine O’Hara ends up as a surprise highlight of the movie. Her comedic timing and overreactions stay funny through the whole film. Lydia and Astrid’s characters are also fine in the movie. Still, it seems as though Lydia lost a lot of her identity in this new role as a mother, and it seems that Tim Burton turned to Ortega and said, “Just do that Jenna Ortega thing you did in everything” and called it a day.

The overall tone of the movie retains a lot of that old charm, which is surprising because most of these legacy sequels fall flat in trying to recreate what made the original great. I like that there aren’t a ton of jokes about the internet or smartphones and that if that sounds like a low bar, then you’ve probably avoided some awful movies. It’s a rare and unexpected win for Tim Burton. 

One of the film’s shortcomings, however, is that it juggles various plotlines at once and Beetlejuice himself starts feeling like a sideshow instead of the main attraction. The story of his ex-wife (Monica Bellucci) hunting him for revenge has some legs, but that story doesn’t develop much before it converges with everything in the third act. It all ends up well in the end, though. 
 

 While the script isn’t as sharp as in the first movie, Beetlejuice himself is still charming and creepy. Whoever designed the props and underworld characters did a great job of making them look in line with the first movie, while also not making them grotesque. Quick jokes with some great visual gags don’t add up to the most intellectual script out there, but it’s a fun, engaging movie that works.

Even though some of the characters and plot points are disappointing, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice manages to be a worthy sequel to a movie that’s almost 40 years old -- which is like trying to peel an onion with a chainsaw. I can’t imagine that fans of the original wouldn’t like this, and it’s also an enjoyable watch for someone who’s never seen the original.

Author Bio:

Ulises Duenas is a senior writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.

For Highbrow Magazine