‘BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE’ Review: Tim Burton’s Sequel Fails To Make the Past Come Alive Again

Courtney Howard // Film Critic

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE

Rated PG-13, 1 hour and 44 minutes

Directed by: Tim Burton

Starring: Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Willem Dafoe, Monica Bellucci, Arthur Conti, Santiago Cabrera

It’s always fascinating when filmmakers return to the metaphorical well to revive a moment in their career. Sometimes the return is recent, like Michael Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES duo. Other times it takes longer, as with Michael Mann’s MIAMI VICE and HEAT. Even Alfred Hitchcock revisited THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Now, 36 years after his original trip, director Tim Burton does the same with BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE, hoping to reinvigorate his professed waning love of filmmaking. Much to everyone’s chagrin, however, his second plunge into the world of the whimsically macabre fails to capture a large part of the magic of its predecessor.

The main culprit is the narrative, which has been farmed out to screenwriters seemingly sleepwalking through their assignment. Rather than keeping things clean-lined like the 1988 flick and letting its celebratory outsider anthems appear authentically, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar (working from a story by Gough, Millar and Seth Grahame-Smith) over-busy the proceedings, syphoning three fan-fiction-fashioned ideas into one multi-threaded story, dealing with grief, familial strife and vengeance. There are interesting aspects to where we find our beloved characters, minus the Maitlins (an absence excused by a generalized “loophole”). Yet where the creatives take them leads to disappointing results.

Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) is putting her strange and unusual gifts as a psychic mediator to good use as a MYTHBUSTERS-inspired TV host, but is still haunted by her own traumatic teen years. Her surly, agnostic teenage daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) is also wreaking havoc on her nerves, holding a childish grudge against Lydia because she’s unable to convene with her deceased husband Richard (Santiago Cabrera). Her insufferable, high-strung stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) is now the quintessential celebrated New York Artist. However, they’ve just been dealt a blow as Deetz family patriarch Charles (whose likeness is only shown as Jeffrey Jones in claymation form) was eaten by a shark while returning from a bird watching expedition. They’re to travel home to the picturesque town of Winter River for his wake, which Delia has turned into an art installation.

Meanwhile, Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton) is stuck in middle management, pushing paperwork in the Neitherworld when he hears his harpy ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci), a seductive leader of a soul-sucking cult, has unwittingly been raised from the dead and is hell-bent on revenge. Actor-turned-police-detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) enlists his help in stopping her from doing any further damage in the afterlife. Still, it’s not until a rebellious Astrid storms off and meets local cutie Jeremy (Arthur Conti), after her mother’s opportunistic boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) makes a grand proposal, that their situation escalates and the lines begin to blur between the living and the recently deceased.

The gestating generational strife between grandmother, mother and daughter isn’t exactly well-developed. It’s noticeably lacking especially when it comes to their inherent resolutions which are shoehorned-in and hurried through. This approach doesn’t allow for the poignancy to hit properly (one scene of the family gathered together does not make for good conflict resolve), nor does it let these ladies experience any growth to satisfy the needs of their arcs. It’s also disheartening that Astrid’s journey is wholly motivated by men in her life, from her dead dad (the catalyst of the grudge against her mom) to her suspiciously slippery boyfriend. Plus, Delores is a one dimensional adversary, despite Bellucci bringing a vivacious vibrancy to her underwritten character.

Even outside of the rudimentary plot set-up to reunite these characters in thoroughly expected ways, the filmmakers also lift story beats from the original and re-use them in subpar sequences without much added thematic commentary or entertainment value. Milestone markers like the appearance of the sandworm, a marital ceremony, and a lip sync’d dance (albeit to actor-singer Richard Harris’ rendition of “MacArthur Park”) are delivered at the same pace as they are in BEETLEJUICE. A fleet of shrunken headed “Bobs” gets loose in the real world, but they don’t do much with it, beyond a sight gag or two. It’s a questionable choice to use “Day-O” as Charles’ funeral ballad sung by a choir of young boys, when Jones himself is a convicted sex offender, with his charge involving a 14-year-old boy.

That said there are a handful of highlights. From the dialogue referencing Mario Bava’s classic KILL BABY KILL to his utilization of CARRIE’s “Main Title” instrumental, Burton drops in horror homages with gleeful delight. Most audacious and uproarious is when he leans full-tilt into influences like in a scene delving into the Bio-exorcist’s backstory composed as if it’s a Béla Tarr picture. He also finds time to playfully mock censors who only allow him the use of one f-bomb versus the original’s two. Colleen Atwood’s costume designs – particularly on Delia, Lydia, Rory and Betelgeuse – are awesome, embodying the characters’ personalities in patterns, colors and fabric. Practical sets and make-up effects are pristine and attractively grotesque. Visual effects are also immersive, adding a new textured identity, but still retaining the same spirit of the original’s god-tier designs.

As far as performances go, it’s nice to see O’Hara, Ryder and Keaton keep a firm grasp on their characters’ inner workings. They haven’t forgotten the fundamentals that drive their motivations. In terms of the new supporting players, Dafoe is a bright spot, having a grand old time sending up his burnt B-movie action superstar, perfectly accentuating his catchphrase, “Gotta keep it real.”

Grade: C-

BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE opens in theaters on September 6.