Beetlejuice Beetlejuice: Overview in Writing
By Hannah Bertalot
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the sequel to the well-received Beetlejuice, takes a leap forty years into the future. Lydia Deetz is a grown adult now, running a supernatural television show that takes advantage of her ability to see ghosts. While filming the show, Betelgeuse makes a surprise appearance, and in Lydia’s recovering moments, news of her father’s death arrives. They travel back to Lydia’s childhood home, dragging her less-than-thrilled daughter, Astrid, with her. Astrid goes to explore the town and ends up meeting Jeremy, then agrees to spend Halloween night with him. It’s Lydia’s job to pull Astrid out of the underworld after she gets herself tangled up in a contract and falls back on old ties with Betelgeuse to help get her free.
As far as the plot went for this film, it felt scattered. There was an abundance of characters and conflicts introduced, and the viewer was dragged along on a wild goose chase to tie everything together. It’d take a generous pool of talent to pull off well. With Tim Burton’s supervision on board, alongside part of the cast of the original, that sort of high bar didn’t seem too unreasonable. However, in this case, if the viewer looked away for only a few minutes, they’d likely find themself utterly lost in the plot, with how fast-paced everything was.
The relationships felt complicated and rushed, and both Rory and Jeremy felt underdeveloped for their intended purpose— which was to bring Astrid and Lydia back together as mother and daughter. While not all characters introduced will have full development for the story's sake, it felt more like off-the-cuff writing pulled together by an amateur.
That’s not to say that it was all bad, though. Like many movies directed by Tim Burton, the visual design and cinematography was entertaining and visually pleasing. A prime example is the introduction of Delores, where she reassembled herself by stapling her dismembered body back together. The camera tracked with the motion and the stapler synced with the music. It was the type of thing most people would be used to if they’ve ever watched anything else he’s made; It was slightly macabre, but enthralling. The claymation used to summarize Richard’s death is the same way. It was visually striking and enjoyable to the viewer, and covered a rather morbid topic in a way that could easily be considered more family-friendly. The set design was also well done; it was dramatic, whimsical, and gothic in the way that would be expected from a Tim Burton movie.
After the wild ride that was the rest of the plot, however, the ending of the movie was rough; it felt rushed, as if the writers were too ambitious at the beginning and ran out of either budget, screentime, or ideas when the time to bring everything back together rolled around. There’s nothing wrong with a musical number, stolen weddings, fast forward, or the classic ‘it was all a dream’ trope, but the composition of them all together was confusing and left the viewer feeling whiplashed as the credits rolled. It can sometimes be pulled off if done well, but this time wasn’t the case.
Image Via: FreeMalaysiaToday.com
Overall, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was like dumping a loose puzzle in a gift box; the presentation and skill are on point, but looking inside, the writing is a total mess. Ultimately, it seems like yet another case where the sequel is a flop in comparison to the original, and officially, I rate this movie 6/10 stars.