REVIEW:
Tim Burton used to be a mastermind. There was once a time when everything this guy touched turned to gold. But that time was the nineties, when he was working with Johnny Depp and Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder in nearly every film, and delivering wonderfully fantastical and original stories. That time was pretty amazing, but it is long gone now. Burton hasn’t made a decent movie since 2010, with his Alice and Wonderland, and 2007 before that with his Sweeney Todd (both of which starred his muse, Depp.)
Over the past two decades or so, Burton has become an IP man. That means instead of going for original content (like he once did with movies like Edward Scissorhands,) he is now all about making “his” version of already existing content. Whether that’s a take on Willy Wonka or Dumbo or Dark Shadows (based on an Adams Family-like show,) or Planet of the Apes, Burton has more or less given up on making original content, and the results show.
His latest film, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, is at least a sequel to one of his own original films, but it is also clearly a cash grab, going back to the well, to see if there’s anything left. And it appears like the reason this one was made was because of the current day popularity of the films original stars. Winona Ryder disappears from the limelight for over a decade, but found herself brought back into the hold with the hit series Stranger Things. Catherine O’Hara had a similar situation until she hit it big with the show Shit’s Creek. And Michael Keaton began his career resurgence when he took on the role of Vulture in the Marvel film Spider-Man Homecoming. So these stars of the first movie are now popular once again. And to add to the mix, this sequel has brought in actress Jenna Ortega of the Scream movies and Wednesday Adams on the hit show, to see what she can contribute.
The results aren’t all that great. And that’s because the stories aren’t great. Lydia Deetz (Ryder) is now a medium with her own reality show and a producer, Rory (played by Justin Theroux,) who wants to marry her. This guy is a slime ball all the way, and you can tell that from the very beginning. Meanwhile, Lydia has a daughter, Astrid (Ortega,) who strikes up a romance of her own with a local boy in the neighborhood. Then there’s also Delia Deetz (O’Hara,) whose story is basically just that she’s trying to sell her house, Delores (Monica Belucci,) who used to be married to Beetlejuice and is now trying to find him again, and Wolf Jackson (Willem DaFoe) who used to be an actor but now is in charge of the dead army police patrol in the underworld. If that sounds crowded with characters, it is. But you will also notice that it’s very weak on story. And then there’s Beetlejuice himself, who is hardly in this movie, compared to the other characters. His role is to help Lydia find her daughter once Astrid gets into some trouble in the underworld.
Here’s the thing… the Astrid story, where there’s a plot twist with this boy that leads to some trouble, is interesting. But it’s about the only interesting story in this entire movie. And it doesn’t appear until the second half. Meanwhile, we are being bombarded throughout the film with all kinds of nonsense. and uninteresting ideas. There isn’t anything funny in this movie, which is also a problem. Yes, it has one decent story to it, (Astrid’s,) which is better than nothing, but it’s certainly not enough. And it is worth noting that the only interesting story belongs to a character who wasn’t even in the original film. If that doesn’t tell you that there was no reason to make this sequel, then I don’t know what does. It’s not the worst sequel to come out this month (that crowning achievement belongs to the Joker Folie A Deaux,) but it comes pretty close.