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Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Review Some spoilers so please be warned. This film has four antagonists which is three more than what was needed. Beetlejuice the title character and intrisinct villain of the story is made to look inferior to and in fear of one of the other villains only for her to be dealt with all to easily, she was built up far to well for what the story used her for. Another is nothing more than an archetypical emotionally manipulative partner that is a constant nuissance throughout the film. And the last felt so predictable as the trope of "the daughter's first boyfriend must be a jerk that traumatized her", that I rolled my eyes the moment he appeared on screen. And the characters, okay so without the Maitlands and Mr. Deets we really don't have any level headed characters keeping the story grounded. Therefore we whiplash between the very eccentric and impractical Delia, the perpetually distressed phsychic Lydia and percosius emotionally troubled Astrid. And let me be clear I don't dislike what they did with Delia and I like Astrid as a character but Lydia feels so weak and frail when what made her so endearing in the original was her spunk and her resilience instead of her growing into her confidence she has become a traumatized seemingly perpetually befuddled victim of circumstances. Astrid is a an intelligent, outspoken character that the story did nothing interesting with, she is grieving her father and is distant towards her mother and is manipulated by a love interest its all pretty standard, "this character is a teenager" story telling, very predictable. Really only Lydia was such a let down to me. There is so much going on outside of the threat of Beetlejuices's return that I am not sure what it is we were meant to focus on and I so did not enjoy that this film focuses around three women that are fixated on the men in their lives and on the threat of a man predatoring on them. I do appreciate that is Astrid who rescues her mother and grandmother and that the aesthetic and score are exactly what they should be and because of that its not completely unbearable but the story being so disconnected ruins the film.