Though saying Betelgeuse’s (that’s once) name three times is courting disaster, it turns out the third time was the charm for Tim Burton’s legacy sequel. After “Beetlejuice in Love”—which would have seen Betelgeuse (twice) escaping the Neitherworld to pursue the girlfriend of a man who tragically fell to his death while proposing on the Eiffel Tower—and “Beetlejuice Goes Hawaiian”—intended to be an off-kilter mashup of 1950s surf films and German Expressionism—failed to manifest, the Juice is finally let loose once more in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Set thirty-six years after the events of the original classic and packed with thirty-six years’ worth of ideas, Burton delivers an overstuffed sequel that could benefit from a bio-exorcism of its own.

Returning players include Winona Ryder as goth idol Lydia Deetz, now the host of a supernatural talk show called “Ghost House” (think “Ghost Hunters” meets “Dr. Phil”), Catherine O’Hara’s Delia Deetz, continuing her creative pursuits as the hostess of a Soho art gallery, and, of course, Michael Keaton’s homophonically titular trickster, Betelgeuse (ah, shit). In the time between films, Jeffrey Jones—who originally portrayed the Deetz patriarch—was charged and convicted of sex crimes, so rather than recasting Charles Deetz, his death acts as the catalyst for the Deetz family’s reunion. The audience is treated to an amusing stop-motion animatic depicting Charles Deetz’s demise at the hands of a shark, with the character spending the rest of the film as a headless, half-eaten corpse wandering the Neitherworld.

The passing of her father spurs Lydia to pull her estranged activist daughter, Astrid, played by “Wednesday” superstar Jenna Ortega, out of boarding school as the family gathers in the fictional village of Winter River to mourn in their idyllic country home from the first film. No other actor of her generation is as perfectly calibrated for Burton’s aesthetic as Ortega, and their collaboration continues to pay dividends in “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Ortega anchors the film with the same dry charm her on-screen mother had in the first film, while also becoming the mouthpiece for some sardonic self-burns Burton wants to fire off. While cynical fun-poking is often grating in legacy sequels, filtering these meta-jabs through the lens of an angsty, sarcastic teenager is a clever stroke. Of the new cast additions, Ortega’s Astrid is by far the most crucial.

However, the film suffers from character overload, as most of the new cast is expendable at best, robbing precious runtime from our beloved returning characters. Having learned nothing from the events of the first film, Lydia Deetz once again faces the prospect of marrying a parasitic demon—this time in the form of Justin Theroux’s Rory, the vapid producer of “Ghost House.” Theroux’s performance is amusingly self-deprecating, but the amount of screen time dedicated to his character is preposterous. Then there’s Monica Bellucci’s Delores, Betelgeuse’s ex-wife, who’s out for revenge on her chaotic former lover for chopping her to bits. Delores raises the stakes as a “soul sucker” (heyo), with the ability to vacuum the spirits out of her victims, effectively making the dead even more dead. Bellucci’s role is a thankless one—her talents wasted in a part that feels like it could have been played by anyone. Her inclusion in the film seems more like a byproduct of Burton wanting his girlfriend on set, but honestly, who can blame him? Rounding out the high-profile new cast is the great Willem Dafoe as Wolf Jackson, a former B-movie star turned afterlife detective who delivers his police briefings via cue cards.

Willem Dafoe in 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice' Warner Bros. Pictures via MovieStillsDB

As Delores hunts Betelgeuse with the fury of a Franken-woman scorned, Wolf Jackson pursues Delores, aiming to restore order to the bureaucratic afterlife. Meanwhile, Betelgeuse concocts a scheme to attempt a second marriage to Lydia, still carrying a torch for her after all these years. A film where Betelgeuse attempts to sabotage Lydia’s marriage would work just as well as a film that flips the dynamic of the first, making Betelgeuse the prey of a jilted ex-lover. Unfortunately, “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” never picks a lane, resulting in a needlessly convoluted sequel that threatens to buckle under the weight of its competing plotlines at almost every turn.

And that’s only what’s happening in the Neitherworld. In the real world, Lydia struggles to reconcile with a daughter who resents her fame. Astrid views her mother as a fraud, since the famed ghost whisperer seemingly sees every ghost except the one that matters: Astrid’s deceased father. Clashing with her mother and soon-to-be stepfather, Astrid flees the family home on a bicycle, crashing through the fence of a boy named Jeremy, played by “House of the Dragon’s” Arthur Conti. Their meet-cute and subsequent romance (punctuated by a Sigur Rós needle drop) feels out of place in a film that otherwise maintains Burton’s signature style.

To “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice’s” credit, the film goes to great lengths to ensure visual consistency with its predecessor. Despite an extended CGI sequence in which Bellucci’s Delores reassembles her fragmented corpse—initiated by a cameo from another frequent Burton collaborator—“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” largely upholds the filmmaking techniques of the first film. Rather than over-relying on CGI, Burton returns to the stop-motion animation and miniatures that made the first film so visually appealing.

Though it occasionally dips into parodic sketch comedy territory, this mixed bag has decidedly more good than bad in it. Whenever the film threatens to fly off the rails, Burton reins in the chaos. The pedantic plot tries to mask the fact that it’s essentially a rehash of the first film (as most sequels are), but the return to the world of “Beetlejuice” is still a welcome one. Keaton hasn’t missed a beat, inhabiting the character of Betelgeuse with the same eccentric energy that made him a comedic icon in 1988. Ortega continues to be one of the most engaging young actors working today, and it’s refreshing to see Ryder back on the big screen after nearly a decade of being trapped on Netflix. The rest is icing on the cake, and while there’s far too much icing, it’s still a damn good cake.