Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Early Reviews(Photo Credit –YouTube)
Advertisement
Tim Burton’s long-awaited sequel to the celebrated original film has garnered high praise from critics ahead of its theatrical release next month. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice premiered at the Venice International Film Festival on August 28, 2024. The early positive reviews suggest the long-awaited sequel is all set to blow your minds next month.
The sequel is releasing 34 years after Tim Burton’s celebrated original movie scared up impressive reviews and box office earnings. The original film titled Beetlejuice, starring Michael Keeton as a zany Ghost was released in 1988. It raked in $75 Million against a production budget of $15 Million. The film also boasts an 82% critics score on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes.
The early reviews suggest the highly anticipated sequel lives up to the vaunted legacy of the first film.
The prequel revolved around the Dietz family: The parents, Charles Deetz and Delia Deetz, played by Jeffrey Jones and Catherine O’Hara, and their goth daughter, Lydia (Wynona Ryder). The Deetz family move into a new residence haunted by a lovely young couple, the Maitlands, who died in a car accident. The Maitland ghosts then enlist the help of a bio-exorcist, Betelgeuse, a ghost specialising in scaring off the living. However, things don’t go according to plan.
The sequel sees three generations of the Deetz family return home after an unexpected tragedy. Things go awry after Lydia’s (Ryder) daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) discovers the model in the attic, and Betelgeuse (Keaton) returns to wreak havoc.
Early reactions
The early reviews for Tim Burton’s sequel, listed in review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, suggest a triumphal return. The film garnered rave reviews from several critics, including Indiewire, which described it as a “disciplined supernatural caper with a heart.”
Variety concurred with the assessment, noting, “It doesn’t give you the full monster-kitsch jolt that the original film had. Yet there’s good fan service and bad, and as stilted and gimcrackery as it can sometimes be, I had a pretty good time at “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.”
BBC added, “The nicest surprise is that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is that rare thing, a big-budget comedy which is actually funny.”
Empire Magazine praised Michael Keaton’s performance, writing, “Michael Keaton, barely aging a day in his panda-eyed demonic get-up, if anything seems to have more energy than he did 35 years ago, bouncing off the purgatorial walls with hilarious gusto, lifting everything around him.”
Mike Reyes of CinemaBlend praised the return of the old cast, adding, “Even with a cast of heavy hitters and incoming stars, Catherine O’Hara almost walks away with this movie under her arm. Seeing her, Michael Keaton and Winona Ryder return is a prime example of nostalgia done right.”
The stellar reviews come amid the sequel, projected to earn between $60 and $80 million during its domestic opening weekend, sustaining the summer box office momentum.
The film will open in theaters on September 6, 2024.
