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I saw Beetlejuice Beetlejuice last night and loved it. Sure, there were a few things that made me agree with our very own Joshua McCoy’s review of the film, but it was still an entertaining rollercoaster of one-liners and incredible visuals the whole time. After it had finished and I had gone home for the night, I went online to see what other people felt about it. There were a lot of opinions that I agreed with and a few that I didn’t. However, there was one thing that everyone mentioned as a flaw of the film that I couldn’t bring myself to agree with: too many plot lines.
If you’re one of those people, then here goes: I’m gonna attempt to prove you wrong.
What Was Going on In Beetlejuice Beetlejuice?
Yes, many things are going on at once in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. I’m going to go over them all below, so be warned that if you haven’t seen it, you’ll be in Spoiler Central. With that out of the way, let’s count all of the major things going on in the movie:
- Charles Deetz is dead, and Lydia’s boyfriend Rory uses the wake to propose and set up a wedding date for Halloween, which so happens to be in a couple of days.
- Lydia’s daughter, Astrid, is uninterested in everything that Lydia is and manages to find solace in a trapped ghost boy who lives nearby. He ends up being a bad dude.
- One of the biggest strains in Astrid and Lydia’s relationship is Lydia’s inability to see her late husband, Astrid’s father, despite being able to see other ghosts.
- Betelgeuse has an ex-wife, Delores, a soul-sucking seductress of sorts, who has her own plot line: She returns to take revenge on the man himself for killing her. Of course, he needs Lydia’s help with this.
Realistically, you could take any of the above plot lines and make an entire hour-and-a-half film. It could have gone into detail about another Deetz family encounter with the Geuse, with newcomers Rory and Astrid. It could have exclusively focused on Delores exacting her revenge on a weird graverobber who played an Uno Reverse Card on her straight to the afterlife. Hell, they even talk about Astrid’s dad so much that they probably could have made finding him the whole point of the movie. So, why did Tim Burton mash them all up into one movie? Well, because it’s way more fun that way.
The Geuse Chooses to Be Loose
You know that new type of content creation where people edit their videos explaining something important while gameplay of Subway Surfers plays on the side? That’s meant to keep viewers relaxed and interested, increasing their chances of actually remembering the content being talked about. Now, I’m not saying that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice was a relaxing movie, but all the stuff going on at the same time definitely made me pay attention.
Whenever an integral part of one of the above was revealed, the movie immediately moved on to the next. Oh no! Delores is being put back together. Oh no! Astrid is in trouble because of how much she hates her mom. Oh no! Delia suddenly died. In short, the movie never allows you to look elsewhere or think about anything except what is happening onscreen at that moment because if you blink, you’ll miss it. But what really makes the many plotlines so fun is that when the movie finally ends, they don’t even matter.
The Fun Is In the Journey
Betelgeuse is a trickster demon who lets every plot point in the film happen for the sake of it happening. With the power of his ego, the movie could have been over in minutes, but that wouldn’t be very Betelgeuse, right? I mean, Jeremy was defeated in seconds, Betelgeuse’s wedding contract easily became null and void, and the sandworm quickly devoured Delores and Rory. Even the man himself was quickly taken care of as he looked into Lydia’s eyes while she cast him away.
Everything was going on simultaneously because that’s what Betelgeuse is: chaos incarnate. At the same time, he proves that he can choose to stop it whenever he wants, and realistically, that’s what makes the whole journey so much more comedically funny.
In the words of Astrid Deetz herself, “I swear the afterlife is so random!”
