krireshin

I think 3.75 is closer to my actual rating. While the movie was thoroughly enjoyable, the writing was sloppy. The soul-sucker ex-wife character did not need to exist. She had practically no impact on the storyline, and her role is cut unceremoniously short. She didn't even get her own unique "death." She had to share it with Lydia's fiance. The police character was also ultimately not very important except to emphasize the hastiness of the wedding. Had writers just stuck to the storyline focusing on Astrid's boyfriend it would have been much less all over the place, and I feel truer to the simplicity of the storyline in the original Beetlejuice. I also wish they had given more context to the "loophole" that allowed the Maitlands to move on from the Deetz house. Burton could have easily given them an animated sequence to explain what happened to them the same way he did with Charles Deetz. That would have been a better way to flesh out the movie rather than just to create new characters that are ultimately not important to the story anyway. That said, I did enjoy it and would watch it again, so a 3 star review felt too low, despite all my criticism. If you are a fan of the spirit and feel of the original, you will likely enjoy this sequel. If you are picky about storytelling though, maybe skip it and keep your memory of Beetlejuice pure.