Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) serves as the sequel to the 1988 Michael Keaton hit Beetlejuice and takes place around 36 years after the first movie. So far, it has made over $264 million at the box office. It keeps the same humor as the original while adding new aspects and not letting itself just rely on the success of the first movie.
While the film has both strengths and weaknesses, the good outweighs the bad, and overall I’d recommend seeing it, but watch the original first.
Beetlejuice has amazing comedic aspects and keeps the same style of CGI from the original movie while being more polished. There are many recurring characters in the movie, along with a fresh batch of new characters. A big gripe I have about it is the screen time ratio of this movie, with the main cast getting a lot of screen time while some newer characters barely get any at all.
There are also some important characters from the first movie that get a passing mention and nothing else, a mention that’s easily missable if you aren’t paying attention. There is a big reveal of a surprise villain, but they don’t have any real buildup or foreshadowing and the primary antagonist doesn’t have even half the screen time as the protagonists do. It really sucks because the primary antagonist did amazing in the movie, and whenever she’s on screen she does amazing. Watching the first movie isn’t entirely necessary to understanding the plot, but I still heavily recommend it because you won’t get the callbacks to the first movie if you don’t.
The movie centers around Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) from the first film and her daughter Astrid Deetz (Jenna Ortega), along with Lydia’s boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux) and her mom Delia Deetz (Catherine O’Hara). The plot explores Lydia and Astrid’s relationship along with Lydia dealing with the recent death of her father. After Astrid discovers a mysterious portal to the afterlife, Lydia must form an unlikely alliance with Beetlejuice to save her.
The main antagonists are Jeremy Fraizer (Arthur Conti), Delores Geuse (Monica Bellucci), and of course, Beetlejuice. The ghost couple from the first movie is only mentioned in passing during a conversation between Lydia and her mother. Now, Lydia works as a paranormal investigator and does interviews with people who are experiencing hauntings.
The movie starts out slow but that isn’t a bad thing as it shows great moments with all of the characters. The primary problem is that it starts speeding up too much as the movie goes on. It doesn’t feel rushed but it feels like we didn’t get enough moments with Jeremy or Delores. Delores’ introduction was great as it includes Delores stapling her body parts back together, but it lags from there. The movie is at its best when it’s showing more of the characters, and it never feels like we see too much of anyone.
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” does hit us with twists and turns. The main problem is that it didn’t last long enough. With more run time the movie could’ve had more moments dedicated to the characters. All the characters serve their roles perfectly, but I was left wanting more of them.
