Fun and nostalgia are not enough to make this sequel live up to the original “Beetlejuice.”

“Beetlejuice Beetlejuice” picks up 35 years after the original, with Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder) becoming a famous medium and dating her producer, Rory (Justin Theroux).

Lydia has become estranged from her teenage daughter, Astrid (Jenna Ortega), who attends boarding school. They are forced to come together and confront their tension when Lydia’s stepmom, Delia (Catherine O’Hara), informs Lydia that her father, Charles, died in an accident during a birding trip.

The three ladies and Rory head back to their haunted house in Winter River for Charles’s funeral and to get the house ready to sell.

Lydia had thought Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton) was out of her life for good, but he quickly comes into play when some supernatural things start happening that threaten Astrid.

Meanwhile in the underworld, Beetlejuice’s ex-wife, Delores (Monica Bellucci), who is a literal soul sucker, has come back to life after being dismembered and is out to get him, making him more eager to reconnect with Lydia.

Overall, this sequel is just for the fans. I would not recommend seeing it without a recent rewatch (or first-time viewing) of the original “Beetlejuice.” We rewatched it last weekend, and between some lingering shots and name drops, it was really helpful to have it at the top of my mind.

The trifecta of O’Hara, Ryder and Ortega really kept me going. I loved all of their scenes together, seeing three of my favorite actors having fun playing off of each other.

With the exception of Astrid, though, the new supporting characters, including Rory, Delores, Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe) and Jeremy (Arthur Conti), seem like plot devices to get the returning characters moving forward rather than any innovative new storytelling. Delores hardly has any lines, and the intentions of Rory and Jeremy, the respective romantic options for Lydia and Astrid, seem blatantly obvious, not necessarily the twists that they are meant to be.

That being said, I highly recommend this as an in-theater experience for big fans of the first film and/or the TV show. Seeing it in IMAX made it more special.

But if you are not a big fan, you can either wait for it to come out for home viewing or skip it altogether.

Rating: 3/5