We are in the Age of the Legacy Sequel. This summer alone we saw Twisters (2024) and Alien: Romulus (2024). The nostalgia-soaked trend can be hit or miss, often feeling like an unnecessary walk down memory lane that leaves you wishing they just left your favorite movie alone. For every Top Gun: Maverick (2022), there’s a handful of The Exorcist: Believer (2023).

Enter Tim Burton. Despite his more disappointing recent outings, Burton is a director who can carve beauty out of the macabre and marry the whimsical with the morbid. The idea of tackling a sequel almost forty years after one of his most notable works seemed like a major gamble or one of our auteurs selling out. On the other hand, it could be an opportunity to return to familiar territory that allows him to thrive.

Unlike other legacy sequels focused solely on cramming as many Easter eggs into its runtime as possible, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice (2024) aims to broaden the scope of its familiar world and deepen the characters we’ve come to love. For a movie about the dead, this legacy sequel manages to have a little bit of life in it.

The film follows Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), now the host of a Ghost Hunters–esque reality show, dealing with residual trauma from her encounter with the infamous Betelgeuse (Michael Keaton). She has managed to build a relationship with her stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) while her relationship with her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) grows more strained by the minute. The three generations of Deetz women are summoned back to Winter River after a death in the family where Astrid accidentally opens a portal to the Afterlife and sends their world into chaos. 

Ironically, while the Deetz family makes their way home, it feels like Tim Burton is also coming home. He’s operating with his usual whimsy in an enhanced style. It’s confidently directed, with a wacky tone that is tethered by a beating heart. The choices are distinct and clever (especially with the way it handles the Jeffrey Jones of it all). The incorporation of practical effects and stop-motion pays off and adds to the wacky, and it feels like Burton was allowed to finally let loose–and the film is all the better for it.

Even though this movie is a homecoming of sorts, it never drowns itself in nostalgia. In fact, it excitedly dives headfirst into expanding the familiar, particularly when it comes to the Afterlife. Thanks to Mark Scruton’s fabulous production design, the Afterlife feels as immersive and detailed as ever. I found myself longing to be in the land of the undead whenever we were with our mortal characters. It’s the perfect blend of spooky and outlandish. 

That’s not to say the human world is an eyesore either. The rich, fall palette pops beautifully but never at odds with wackier characters like Delia and Lydia thanks to Haris Zambarloukos’ cinematography. Everything comes together in a chaotic tandem. It’s rich and vibrant without going too overboard, the perfect contrast to the Afterlife.

When revisiting the beloved characters, Ryder and Keaton don’t miss a beat stepping back into their shoes, but it’s Catherine O’Hara who almost runs away with the entire thing. Delia is still as zany as when we met her thirty-six years ago, but she has a bit more of a soul this time around. O’Hara effortlessly takes these two pieces of Delia and molds them into another fun character for her canon, further solidifying herself as one of our greatest comedic talents.

The new players fit seamlessly into the fold, matching the original players’ game and zany energy. Willem Dafoe’s Wolf Jackson is an outright blast and Justin Theroux swings for the fences with Rory. Meanwhile, it’s Jenna Ortega who becomes the beating heart of the film. Astrid is an angsty teen at odds with her mom which we’ve seen time and time again; however, Ortega infuses Astrid with a palpable pain and defiant energy that makes her interesting and compelling. She continuously highlights herself as one of our brightest rising stars.

When it comes to the balancing act of all these personalities, unfortunately, the film starts to buckle under its own weight. There’s a bit of an identity crisis at the center. We have a goofy cat and mouse chase, a story about mothers and daughters, a couple of stories about grief, a love story, and a race against time in the Afterlife all competing for attention. A lot of these individual pieces are interesting concepts, but they never get explored to their fullest potential, resulting in some underwhelming conclusions and half-cooked ideas. 

Some characters get maligned in the process, like Delores, played by the criminally underused Monica Bellucci who has maybe four actual lines of dialogue. When the film focuses on being one thing, particularly a mother/daughter story, its humor and heart shines. But most of the time, Alfred Gough and Miles Millar’s script is overstuffed.

The script’s saving grace is the fact that these threads culminate in an electrifying third act that had my theater erupting into applause and raucous laughter. Burton and company fully let loose and remind us of why the original Beetlejuice (1988) shined so brightly in the first place.

In a tidal wave of legacy sequels, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice manages to be a little light. It’s flawed, but it is fun and will surely elicit laughter and joy from the family. At the very least, this feels like a welcomed return to form for Burton and serves as evidence of what happens when we allow him to let his freak flag fly.

Review Courtesy of Adam Patla

Feature Image Credit to Warner Bros. via Screen Rant