As the title says, I went to watch the new Beetlejuice movie.
SPOILER WARNING: If you haven’t watched the movie and don’t want spoliers then save this post for later and click away. Return when your ready! If you don’t mind then by all means continue reading.
Plot summary
I won’t go into a detailed plot but if your curious here’s a summary.
Lydia, now a famous psychic and who gets along with her mother, has to return home to her father’s funeral. Her daughter, Astrid hates her because of she split from her father who later disappears on a Brazil trip (I think it was Brazil). All the while Beetlejuice is haunting Lydia and making her life a bit more complicated between her and her future husband. While visiting home, they decide to get married on Halloween night which upsets Astrid. She runs off and end sup having an accident where she meets a cute boy who turns out to be a ghost too and tricks Astrid into giving up her soul so he can be alive. Meanwhile Beetlejuice has an ex-wife hunting him down. Beetlejuice tries to marry Lydia so that he can get the ex-wife off of his back and help Lydia find Astrid somewhere in the afterlife. In the end, the wedding goes terrible, the ex-wife is stopped, the trickster cutie is stopped, and everything goes back to normal with a few changes.
I didn’t get every detail in there since I do want to same some surprises for you (the reader).
Basic reactions
Overall, it was good. Worth a watch in the movie theater because it was fun and kept me laughing. The plot was slow to build and Beetlejuice wasn’t in the movie full time until an hour and five minutes in. We get glimpses of him a few times but it’s more of a tease lol. This wasn’t a movie I walked out raving about though. I felt the same way for Deadpool and Wolverine so I think it’s just a me thing and not a fact for our story review.
I will say, towards the end I felt myself routing for Mr. Juice. I really wanted him and Lydia to end up together. He seemed like a really nice guy too during the wedding scene (and a little before it). I think it was some of the story telling that made it feel that way. Of course, I know that Beetlejuice should not be trusted lol. I think this will open up a lot of fan-fics for fans in the near future. I may just have to go and find them to read.
Where there story problems?
Yes. Minor problems and I’ve seen a few people talk about them already. Of course I think they were trying to undermine the movie which I’m not. I loved the movie with all of it’s flaws!
Here’s my list of flaws:
The character’s didn’t have enough time to breath on screen. Translation. I wish I had more time with Lydia, Astrid, and Beetlejuice because I feel like there were more details that could have been added to the story.
The movie had two unconnected villains. Now you don’t have to have all of your villains connected but does it improve the story if you do? Yes. More on this in a moment.
The ex-wife wasn’t as deeply developed as the other characters.
Flaws I can live with:
Lydia didn’t feel like Lydia. This is a minor flaw in my eyes because I still love the character! I think part of it is that she’s an adult. We change as we live and grow. I can guarantee that I’m not the same writer now that I was back as a teenager. This flaw felt plausible to me
How would I have fixed this story?
If I were the writer of this movie, I would have connected both villains. The cutie ghost guy makes a deal with the ex-wife to lure Beetlejuice out of hiding by convincing her daughter to come into the afterlife realm. The ex-wife gets Beetlejuice and the cutie ghost guy gets a soul so he can live again.
Then again, this is a bit of a trope. We’d expect them to betray each other but honestly I don’t think that would have happened. It’s hard to say since the ex-wife wasn’t as deeply developed as the others. But we’ve also known some of the character’s from the previous movie. I would have added another reason for the ex-wife to find Beetlejuice. We know she needs him for eternal life but that was while she was alive. Why did she need him when she was already dead too? Was it revenge? I don’t think it was but lets say it was. That would explain the mini rampage she had in sucking soul after soul in their world.
But I wouldn’t be a writer if I didn’t take it a step deeper. I know she married Beetlejuice because she wanted eternal life but why eternal life. This is where I would add some crazy god that made a promise but hey that’s my story telling style!
Keeping to the style of Beetlejuice, she’s probably apart of a cult. That’s the logical explanation. There may be another promise roped in there. We can add a second lover, a brother who promises something valuable, maybe even approval to a father figure. The ex-wife didn’t seem that type of woman to fit the father figure approval trope though so take it as you will.
There isn’t much I can add to the cutie ghost guy. His story was fine. He just needed ties back to the ex-wife so that the story could flow better.
Conclusion
In conclusion…
Sorry had to write that line. I’ve had my fair share of time writing reports on stories in college with that line lol.
BeetleJuice is not a bad movie. It’s not worth a Rotten Tomatoes 100% though due to the story issues above but those are minor compared to the fun that the movie provides. Fun always trumps minor story flaws.
So go watch Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and let me know how you liked it! Thanks for reading.
Great review. I really liked the first one and hope to get to the theaters for this one.