Tim Burton’s second feature film, 1988’s Beetlejuice didn’t deliver the dominant hit the director would get with his next release, 1989’s mega-smash Batman. However, the quirky dark comedy managed a then-strong $73 million in the US, good enough to land it in 10th place for the year’s receipts.

Despite this success, Burton took his sweet time when it came to a sequel. 36 years later, fans finally got a look at another adventure via 2024’s Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

A teenager in 1988, now middle-aged Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) remains haunted by her childhood experiences – literally, as she can see ghosts. This leads her to some success as the host of a paranormal TV show.

A widow, Lydia struggles to raise her semi-estranged teen daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega). When a variety of spooky elements arise, those involved find themselves with no other options and they must once again summon demonic “bio-exorcist” Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) to fix various problems – and cause some of his own.

In the category of “boy, did I get that wrong”, I thought Beetlejuice Beetlejuice would fail to find much of an audience. While the original 1988 flick maintains an audience, I never sensed a huge demand for a second chapter, and this one felt like it arrived 30 years too late.

Oops. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice made nearly $300 million in the US and $451 million total worldwide, more than tidy sums for a $100 million sequel to a movie released when Reagan was president.

That said, I got one thing right: the bad feeling that the movie’s trailers imparted to me. Those previews implied little to no creative energy behind Beetlejuice Beetlejuice so I expected an uninspired second chapter.

And I found an uninspired second chapter. Random and messy, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice fails to give us a compelling continuation of the narrative.

On the positive side, I appreciate that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice doesn't just remake the original. It leaves out the main characters from the 1988 flick – Adam and Barbara Maitland, a young couple whose ghosts meet Lydia’s family and Beetlejuice – and it follows different paths.

However, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice pursues far too many of these different paths. Although my synopsis implies a fairly simple tale, the actual movie comes with a slew of competing plots.

In addition to the mother-daughter struggles, we get threads connected to Lydia’s manipulative boyfriend Rory (Justin Theroux), Astrid’s burgeoning romance with mysterious local boy Jeremy (Arthur Conti), Astrid’s continued depression related to the death of her father Richard (Santiago Cabrera), and Lydia’s stepmother Delia’s (Catherine O’Hara) issues with the recent death of her husband/Delia’s dad Charles.

That’s enough for three movies – but wait, there’s more! Beetlejuice himself contends with the return of his literal witch of an ex-wife Delores LaFerve (Monica Bellucci) and we also see the attempts of dead TV detective Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) to deal with this mess.

Why so many competing story beats? The 1988 movie maintained a pretty basic plot and that worked fine, so it feels desperate for those involved with Beetlejuice Beetlejuice to pack in all that material.

There's no real narrative here. Instead, we just find a collection of plot threads vaguely linked into one largely incoherent package.

For instance, the movie could completely lose the Delores character and it wouldn't matter at all. Other elements feel nearly as superfluous and their presence means Beetlejuice Beetlejuice can’t concentrate on its primary characters as well as it should.

I think Burton came up with ideas for set pieces - love in the time of plague! a soul train! singing to "MacArthur Park"! - and just tossed these into a blender. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice changes tone and pace at the drop of a hat.

All of this delivers lots of contrived wacky weirdness that feels manufactured. Burton hopes to recreate the magic of the 1988 but instead ends up with a pale imitation.

Face it: the demented genius of 80s/90s Tim Burton disappeared years ago and seems unlikely to ever return. From 1985’s brilliant Pee-wee’s Big Adventure through 1999’s reasonably effective horror-fantasy Sleepy Hollow, Burton produced a solid collection of flicks that veered from excellent at best to very good at worst.

And then came the disappointment of 2001’s Planet of the Apes. While I find some positives in that movie, it nonetheless suffered from plenty of issues and failed to live up to the high quality Burton exhibited in his first 15 years as a feature director.

After that, Burton still produced good movies on occasion. However, he sprinkled in so many duds and disappointments that it seemed clear the inventive and wild Burton of the 20th century no longer existed.

Which acts neither as a surprise nor as a disgrace. People change and can't be expected to come up with the same level of fresh creativity in their 60s as in their 20s.

But this still leaves the sequel as a flick without real energy or spark. Burton just doesn't have the same zing anymore and despite its 918 plot threads and desperate attempts to entertain, the movie leaves me borderline bored much of the time.

Burton can't compensate for the decrease in his fertile imagination with greater depth. If he made a less wacky but more emotionally impactful film, that'd work.

This just isn't that movie. For all its attempts at dramatic punch, it never connects in that manner.

This happens largely because it really does fly all over the place. It chucks so many plot points at us that none of them develop to maturity.

Thus moments of potential emotional impact - which I'll not mention to avoid spoilers - fall flat because the film doesn't allow them to go anywhere. The film refuses to commit to these domains and they just feel like windowdressing.

I won’t call Beetlejuice Beetlejuice a bad film, as it manages enough movement to keep us with it. However, it feels like a pale shadow of the original and it displays precious few signs of the creativity that made the 1988 film a hit.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Expect high-quality visuals here.

Sharpness always worked well. Nary a sliver of softness impacted this tight presentation.

No issues with jagged edges nor shimmering materialized, and I saw no edge haloes. Source flaws failed to mar the proceedings.

Much of the film opted for a subdued teal/amber vibe, but the various supernatural situations opened up the palette to other hues, with an emphasis on the garish. The disc replicated these tones with appealing range.

Blacks looked dark and deep, while shadows seemed smooth and clear. I felt pleased with this strong image.

Though not quite as good, the movie’s Dolby Atmos soundtrack added to the proceedings. Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, the soundscape opened up in a satisfying manner.

As expected, the movie’s supernatural hijinks broaden the soundfield most often and most effectively. These use all the channels to involve us on the spooky shenanigans and form a solid sonic vibe.

Quieter scenes also manage an appealing sense of place, and music shows distinctive breadth. This became a solid soundscape for this kind of supernatural comedy.

Audio quality worked fine, with speech that seemed concise and distinctive. Effects boasted good accuracy and range, with warm low-end.

Music felt lively and full. This wound up as a positive soundtrack for the movie’s adventures.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from director Tim Burton. He delivers a running, screen-specific look at the movie’s title and development, sequel-related issues, story/characters, influences, cast and performances, sets and locations, costume and production design, effects and animation, music, and connected domains.

Across the first 10 films Burton directed, he recorded commentaries for all but the 1988 Beetlejuice and 1996’s Mars Attacks. After that, he bailed on the format, so this becomes his first commentary since he taped circa 2005 tracks for Batman and Batman Returns.

I don’t know why Burton abandoned the commentary format, though perhaps he got tired of fan criticisms. For the most part, I thought Burton delivered less than scintillating tracks, but they usually were reasonably informative and I felt the negativity so many aimed at his chats seemed overblown.

In any case, Burton returns after 19 years with another inconsistent chat. On the positive side, Burton gives us a mix of good insights related to the flick.

However, prior Burton discussions sagged because of dead air, and that becomes an issue here. This proves especially apparent during the movie’s second half, as Burton goes MIA an awful lot of the time.

When Burton speaks, he delivers an engaging view of the sequel. However, the gaps make this track less positive than I might like, though it still merits a listen.

By the way, Burton never touches on the elephant in the room: the absence of Jeffrey Jones. A key figure in the 1988 film, the actor’s career essentially ended after a child pornography scandal circa 2002.

Did I expect Burton to mention Jones? No, but I thought I’d note the absence of any discussion related to the topic, as it seems like a pretty major issue here.

Seven featurettes follow, and The Juice Is Loose goes for 27 minutes, 37 seconds. It presents notes from Burton, producer Tommy Harper, writers Alfred Gough and Miles Millar, director of photography Haris Zambarloukos, production designer Mark Scruton, editor Jay Prychidny, choreographer Corey Baker, set designer David Morrison, co-producer Natalie Testa, Vermont residents David Parent and Sarah Polli, and actors Michael Keaton, Winona Ryder, Catherine O’Hara, Jenna Ortega, Justin Theroux, Monica Bellucci, Willem Dafoe, Santiago Cabrera, and Burn Gorman.

“Loose” covers the sequel’s path to the screen, story, characters and screenplay, cast and performances, set design and locations, photography, choreography, and Burton’s impact.

Despite a lot of happy talk, “Loose” offers a fairly good overview of the production. We find a nice array of notes combined with useful shots from the sets.

The Ghost With the Most spans eight minutes, 34 seconds. It involves Burton, Keaton, O’Hara, Ortega, Ryder, Harper, Theroux, Bellucci, Dafoe, hair and makeup designer Christine Blundell, and costume designer Colleen Atwood.

In this reel, we look at how Keaton formed the title character back in 1988 as well as his updated take on the part now, hair/makeup and costumes. Despite some fluff, “Ghost” offers a mix of solid details.

Via Meet the Deetz, we get a six-minute, 52-second reel. We find remarks from Ryder, Ortega, O’Hara, Burton, Harper, Gough, Millar, Keaton, and Theroux.

As implied by the title, “Meet” examines the movie’s female characters. Despite a few minor insights, much of “Meet” acts as praise for the actors.

Shrinkers, Shrinkers Everywhere lasts six minutes, 26 seconds. It gives us info from Burton, Keaton, Harper, Gough, Millar, Theroux, Ryder, Atwood, creature effects creative supervisor Neal Scanlan, key prosthetic artist Jennifer Kewley, fabrication supervisor Fiona Barnes, and actor Nick Kellington.

Here we find a look at the movie’s expansion of the original’s shrunken-head roles and how the sequel brought them to life. Despite some self-praise, we get an appealing take on the practical techniques involved.

Next comes An Animated Afterlife. The featurette runs nine minutes, 14 seconds and provides statements from Burton, Harper, stop motion supervising producer Ian MacKinnon, stop motion producer Glenn Holberton, animation supervisor Chris Tichborne, animators Fabrice Pieton, Anna Pearson and Andy Biddle, stop motion cinematographer Malcolm Hadley, sculptor Beth Jupe, lead painter Paul Davies, and workshop supervisor Kevin Scillitoe.

The film’s stop-motion material comes to the fore in this program. Expect a satisfactory discussion of this work.

The Handbook for the Recently Deceased takes up 12 minutes, seven seconds. It offers material from Burton, Harper, Scanlan, Atwood, Blundell, Dafoe, Kewley, Barnes, Bellucci, and actor Danny DeVito.

Via “Handbook”, we examine aspects of the film’s afterlife situations and characters, with an emphasis on various practical effects. This delivers another solid little summary.

Finally, ’Til Death Do We Park spans seven minutes, 54 seconds. This one brings comments from Burton, Millar, Gough, O’Hara, Harper, Ryder, Keaton, Dafoe, Gorman, Zambarloukos, Baker, Theroux, Bellucci, Prychidny and Ortega.

“Death” discusses the challenges of the “MacArthur Park” segment of the film. It offers a nice view of these elements and wraps the set well.

36 years ago, Beetlejuice delivered a fresh and original mix of comedy, horror and fantasy. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice updates the characters and situations in a messy, disjointed and disappointing way that fails to remotely live up to the standards set by the 1988 original. The Blu-ray comes with strong picture and audio as well as a generally satisfying set of supplements. Though not a terrible movie, the sequel never seems particularly involving or delighful.