Tim Burton is right at home here, delivering his signature blend of quirky macabre, high school theater-style effects, and retro claymation. He’s always had a playful relationship with goth aesthetics and a light-hearted take on death, and this film is no exception. But my beef with Burton is that he pushes the creativity to the absurd. I wish his themes and stories were just a little bit smarter.
Michael Keaton’s return as Beetlejuice could have used a bit more edge. An R rating would have given Burton more room to push boundaries, which feels appropriate given that the target audience is largely adults who grew up with the original. It might have meant less money at the box office, but potentially a stronger, bolder film.
Ryder is still cute. While she has appeared strangely wide-eyed and spaced out in recent years, she mostly pulls this one off. Ortega has a nice presence and is a nice Winona Ryder proxy as the cute but edgy and angsty young girl. O’Hara is good as usual. Bellucci fits right in. Nice cameo by DeVito. Theroux is decent at deadpan, but his hairline looks weird.
It’s annoying how similar the sandworms are to the ones in the Dune franchise. Would have loved for Burton to come up with something a bit more original here.
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