#i tend to take awhile to digest and recontextualize movies so my take might change

[xx-meat-clown-xx]

My overall verdict is: it was cute! I had fun! Was it good? I'm not the boss! But I think maybe a little. Hope this helps.

Full thoughts below with spoilers, warning i am not sober and very sleepy

The good:

Elfman composition (despite his... situation... I'm a sucker for his work and overall vibe)

strong and cohesive visual theming and design

all of the actors played their roles well in my opinion but catherine o'hara was as usual as talented as she is beautiful (if you don't have a crush on her get help /silly) and dafoe's role was as fantastic as he is handsome. (is this getting old? should i stop announcing when I have a crush on an actor?? ... i'm going to keep doing it) keaton as beetlejuice is as silly, crude, and irresponsibly alluring as always.

I like the general vibe of the plots intermeshing in the film, I think the story about the living family was more compelling personally but i really loved delores and her aesthetic and her actress is beautiful.

the dedication to the surreal and macabre is awesome

The bad:

I'm not sure if I'm just being a hater today cause I feel icky and sleepy but the plot with the ex-wife felt... not great to me? I think it would've done better being explored in a spin off or standalone thing... As it stands, it felt like an unnecessary complication to allow them to shoehorn in a backstory. However, there's many moments that came off to me as intentional fanbait and this was probably one of them--I'm sure many people really liked this. I haven't seen any expanded media outside of the film so! YMMV.

The soundtrack felt inconsistent but I think I'm actually genuinely just being a hater on that one. (the funeral music was top tier choice though of course.)

I am not... huge on the whole thing with mr juice being fixated on lydia but i also get that her growth as a character is to stop tolerating men who want to take advantage of her... but i wonder if that should've been lydia's battle to begin with. this film, in my opinion, struggled passing the bechdel test. delores girlie i love you but you need to at least kill another woman until you pass.

i think my primary issue is that for me the plots largely didn't have a satisfying conclusion and felt kinda strung together. dafoe's role was a standout to me but i wonder if they felt he needed... more to do? maybe a cut of the film with all his good bits would've felt like "too much" without other justifying plots? i don't know, i don't know how writing works, i don't know how late stage big plot rewrites can be done-- im just thinking out loud.

finally, i think my biggest issue is that they consistently asked only if they could and not if they should. for me a lot of it hit as sort of as if they were throwing every single idea at the board and refusing to edit out anything. the pacing of the original was wacky but the pacing in this one feels very odd and disjointed as a result. in particular the wedding scene was very up and down for me lol. some bits lasted way too long but then it'd redeem itself but then wear on too long all over again lol.

final judgment:

i liked it quite a bit but i can't blame anyone who didn't like it lol. for me the second half of the film was more interesting but for others it's the other way around--which makes me question again if the plots should've been cut down to focus on resolving them in a satisfying way? idk! but the creepy-cute cartoony aspects make it worth watching on its own imo.

tl;dr: RIP bob u were a real one, I hope that the shrunken head dudes are frolicking in the fields finally free

going to see beetlejuice beetlejuice today. heard it Wasn't Good. Will update.