I wanted to like this.
Since 1988, I've probably watched the original film at least five or six times over the years. This movie was found wanting in cohesiveness and stakes. There is a frenetic pace of randomness and stupidity at times that would make you think you were under the influence and other times where the pace crawls and the weirdness makes you think you're under the influence. Maimed corpses walking around, sand worms and disjointed storytelling.
The main characters resolve their problems without any challenges, Ryder's original and amazing portrayal of Lydia has been supplanted by a movie version of Joyce Byers, neurosis and all, and Ortega's Astrid might as well have been Wednesday Addams. Not a lot to see here, folks.
Catherine O'Hara is fun to watch. Justin Theroux's Rory character starts out as a bit of an annoying simp boyfriend, but we learn the truth about him and he is dispatched in two seconds, which seemed to be an over the top and lazy solution to his problem character and Bellucci is wasted on screen as a nearly meaningless entity of evil that is dispatched simultaneously with Theroux. We get no insight into her or anyone else.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Keaton. In the first movie, he was just bad enough you didn't want him to win. This go round, I was rooting for him over some of the characters we were supposed to like. He just seemed to play Beetlejuice as likeable.
Oh well, maybe someday writers will go back to stronger, more plot-driven stories than to settle for a series of scenes and situations. Time will tell.
Since 1988, I've probably watched the original film at least five or six times over the years. This movie was found wanting in cohesiveness and stakes. There is a frenetic pace of randomness and stupidity at times that would make you think you were under the influence and other times where the pace crawls and the weirdness makes you think you're under the influence. Maimed corpses walking around, sand worms and disjointed storytelling.
The main characters resolve their problems without any challenges, Ryder's original and amazing portrayal of Lydia has been supplanted by a movie version of Joyce Byers, neurosis and all, and Ortega's Astrid might as well have been Wednesday Addams. Not a lot to see here, folks.
Catherine O'Hara is fun to watch. Justin Theroux's Rory character starts out as a bit of an annoying simp boyfriend, but we learn the truth about him and he is dispatched in two seconds, which seemed to be an over the top and lazy solution to his problem character and Bellucci is wasted on screen as a nearly meaningless entity of evil that is dispatched simultaneously with Theroux. We get no insight into her or anyone else.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Keaton. In the first movie, he was just bad enough you didn't want him to win. This go round, I was rooting for him over some of the characters we were supposed to like. He just seemed to play Beetlejuice as likeable.
Oh well, maybe someday writers will go back to stronger, more plot-driven stories than to settle for a series of scenes and situations. Time will tell.
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