Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice had its premiere at the Venice Film Festival a couple of days ago, and the reviews have started to flow from both that event and various early screenings. What is the consensus?
Mostly very positive.
The movie begins when three generations of the Deetz family return home to Winter River after an unexpected family tragedy. Still haunted by Beetlejuice, Lydia’s life soon gets turned upside down when her rebellious teenage daughter discovers a mysterious portal to the afterlife.
The reviews, as usual, have a slight divide between legacy print media reviewers and online outlets. Here are some quotes:
“Quirky, joyous, vibrantly macabre, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice managed to recreate the original’s winning mix of innocent, childlike wonder and morbidly mad imagination.”
Zhuo-Ning Su, Awards Daily
“It’s not Burton at his very best, but like its fiendish antihero, it does the trick”.
Time Out
“It’s a silly little sequel to an equally silly original, and it’s hard to imagine wanting or needing much more from it.”
Siddhant Adlakha, IGN Movies
“The movie is just a lightweight riff on Beetlejuice — a piece of fan service, really. It doesn’t give you the full monster-kitsch jolt that the original film had.”
Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“…manages to avoid the feeling that its only obligation is to dutifully run through everything familiar one more time” and watching it is a “small but significant relief, like reconnecting with an estranged friend.”
Vulture
“Miraculously, it represents Tim Burton getting his groove back, successfully returning to the dark comedy and outrageous visuals that marked his extraordinary early work.”
Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“This gleefully zany farce is one of Burton’s most enjoyable films and a welcome return to his own brand of oddball creepiness after the Disney dud that was his 2019 live-action Dumbo remake. ”
Nicholas Barber, BBC.com
“Fans of Burton will definitely not be let down…Tim Burton is back.”
Ben Rolph, Discussing Film
“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is a legacy sequel in all the right ways.”
Alexander Harrison, Screen Rant
“Few would mistake Beetlejuice Beetlejuice for a confessional or particularly self-revealing work, but it does hew closer to that original artistic spark that dimmed once the director became a trademark.”
Ben Croll, The Wrap
“Keaton occupies the role with the same off-the-wall pizazz as previously, but — how to put this — he is less annoying, more restrained, slightly melancholic (maybe).”
Sophie Monks Kaufman, IndieWire
“The addition of Willem Dafoe, who is known for his various kooky roles, is perfect for Burton’s world…Dafoe hams it up every moment he gets and draws in plenty of laughs as a result.
Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is just as funny, vibrant, and campy and will satisfy both nostalgic audiences for the first film and those just discovering this amusing world from the creative mind of Burton for the first time.”
Ema Sasic, Next Best Picture