John Patrick

This is the sequel nobody needed. There’s too many characters for their development to make sense. Beetlejuice’s ex-wife makes no sense, has no character development, and adds literally nothing of importance to the plot, all while taking time away from the main antagonist, who isn’t Beetlejuice for some reason. I guess they’re making Beetlejuice into more of a kind of trickster figure rather than primarily an antagonist, which could work given his overall demeanor, but doesn’t really work here. I think they were somewhat successful in getting around having to work with convicted child porn fiend Jeffrey Johns, but I’m totally unconvinced his character or Delia needed to be in the movie. They added nothing but weak fan service. The song sequence (an obvious throwback to the Day-o scene in the original) doesn’t make any sense at all and also does nothing to advance the plot in any meaningful way. I guess mostly this was a bunch of self indulgent crap, but they did well in preserving the 80s aesthetic of the land of the dead and the movie was kind of fun on balance. But over all, it’s probably time for Tim Burton to retire.

TLDR: Boy enslaves sentient being to labor in place of his truck's engine. 5 stars.