If Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (now streaming on Max, in addition to VOD services like Amazon Prime Video) has a single raison d’être: the claim that anyone in their right mind would still want to marry Winona Ryder. But beyond the Class A Gen X crushes? Sledding is tougher, because a sequel that’s been 36 years in the making – note: we’re not using the word “legacyquel” here or else it’ll be whipped with undercooked pasta – has to overcome so many things just to be successful acceptable: Is it just a cynical rip-off? Will it be more than just a nostalgic trip? Should they have left it well enough alone and avoided the risk of tarnishing the memory of the original film? Speaking of 1988 Beetlejuice is beloved by many and helped establish Tim Burton as an A-list director (his follow-up was called ” Batman) and the king of all the Goths. He returns BJX2alongside Ryder, Michael Keaton and Catherine O’Hara, with newcomer/Wednesday Star Jenna Ortega as Gen-Z bait. And while the sequel was a hit, grossing $400 million worldwide, the question of whether it’s a creative return to form for Burton hangs in the air like, well, either the smell of those cinnamon almonds at the mall kiosk, or an… old stale fart. Now let’s find out which ones.

The essentials: I am “happy” to be able to report on Danny Elfman’s circus original Beetlejuice The musical score remains intact here and still makes me feel somewhere between very excited and downright crazy. The opening shot here is pretty much the same too. (What’s that old line about familiarity again?) One thing I can support is consistency: Ryder still loves everything. Her sullen, I-wear-black-on-the-outside-because-black-is-how-I-feel-on-the-inside teenager, Lydia Deetz, is now a middle-aged mother whose jagged bangs and monochromatic fashion she make a star of the charismatic host of Haunted housea television series in which she is a “psychic intermediary” who communicates with the dead. It’s not a gimmick either. She still sees dead people. But she also still sees the sleazy quasi-demon Beetlejuice (Keaton) in visions that are more reminiscent of acid flashbacks than hallucinations. I’m assuming this is a side effect that you just have to accept if you almost marry the guy.

As for marriage, the assumption is that if you could go back in time and tell teenage Lydia that she would eventually be a widow, she probably definitely would be pleased. Yes, her heart is broken, even though she is in a relationship with Rory (Justin Theroux), who talks about emotional therapy and who is also the producer of her TV show. And in karmic retribution, her daughter Astrid (Ortega) is rebellious and fearful, and the struggle to form a relationship with the child is very, very real – especially because Astrid is a hardcore skeptic who thinks ghosts and shit are fake . Nonsense. Lydia’s selfish artist stepmother Delia (O’Hara) is still vile and her work has become a series of indulgent self-portraits. At the beginning of the film, Lydia and Delia learn that their father/husband Charles has died, and we see his death in a stop-motion animation sequence because the actor who played him, Jeffrey Jones, is a real sex offender who was redacted for several years now. Charles therefore walks through the afterlife – which is just as crazy and Byzantine as the first film – like the lower half of a corpse that has been eaten by a shark.

At this point I have to address the far too many plot threads in this film. But I have to do it. No choice. Beetlejuice has an office in the afterlife bureaucracy where a bunch of shrunken heads act as his henchmen. Beetlejuice’s ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci) reassembles Frankenstein’s dismembered parts, stalks him, and sucks the soul out of anyone who gets in her way. Rory wants to marry Lydia. Astrid meets a cute guy, Jeremy (Arthur Conti), and they hit it off. Delia hangs around a lot and is loud and stupid. A police officer in the afterlife, Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe), has something to do with all of this. Astrid takes the opportunity to visit her father in the afterlife, but it’s a trap. To save her daughter, Lydia has to make a deal with Beetlejuice to get Astrid, which is against the rules since living people shouldn’t visit the afterlife, which involves Wolf (I knew he had something to do with all of this had to do). !). As the guy once famously said: It’s chaos, but in a way that’s not as fun as the chaos that was the first movie. That’s how it works.

What films will it remind you of?: As for the revived ’80s franchises, BJX2 is roughly on a par with the two youngest Ghostbusters Sequels are notable for their ability to be reasonably entertaining but ultimately disappointing. (Top Gun: Maverick remains the gold standard of don’t-name-them legacy sequels.)

Performance worth seeing: Ryder sort of single-handedly saves this film with her endearing characterization, which deftly marks her transition from angst to Big Winona Mom energy. You want to see her and Ortega in a serious drama or a smart comedy – and bring Christina Ricci in to create something you wonderful gothic girl trifecta.

Memorable dialogue: Beetlejuice is shouted: “The juice is loose!”

Gender and skin: No.

Our opinion: Full disclosure: The original Beetlejuice is definitely entertaining, with its charmingly laid-back vibe, but I like it less than most – I never really understood its unconventional meaning as a kid, so it never struck a nostalgic chord. Part of its charm is the sweetness of the on-screen relationship between Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin, which sharply contrasts the madness of Keaton’s Beetlejuice and the stark dysfunction of the Dietz family. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice lacks that dynamic, and replacing it is a whole lot of stuff. Too much stuff. There’s stuff here and stuff there and stuff everywhere, until the plot feels like a junk shop that has just received a new delivery full of clutter, several pallets of knick-knacks and a large box of miscellaneous junk.

So the film moves as if it’s distracted, wading through a mess, and it loses sight of its core relationships: the necessary fences between Lydia and Astrid and the tug-of-war between lust and loathing between Lydia and Beetlejuice (the latter doesn’t come until an hour later The film begins in high gear. The conflicts are mitigated by visual gags and flat dialogue; Bellucci’s character is set up as a great villain, but O’Hara is one purely nostalgic cast; even more exciting is the Dafoe subplot, and you know a film is in trouble when an entire Dafoe performance seems ripe for the cutting room bin.

Burton at least invokes the muse of the first film’s visual inspiration – BJX2 offers an essentially cleaner version of the original’s tactile aesthetic, stitching together whatever was lying around, with seams seen in crazy set designs and wild costumes. But a little too much of the sequel settles for rehashing familiar jokes, without the sharpness of the first – the inevitable lip-sync musical sequence, the climax of the original, is saved for the climax here – and Keaton, who was such a cracker in the year 1988, is tamer and more, well, foldable than he was before. In 2024, Beetlejuice just doesn’t have as much juice as it used to.

Our call: I say day. I say dayyyyyyyyyy-no. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.