OnScreen Review: "Ghostbusters: Afterlife"
Ken Jones, Chief Film Critic
The 1984 original Ghostbusters might be my favorite comedy of all time (The Big Lebowski is also a comedy, but it is my favorite film of all time. I need these qualifiers because I love them so.). I saw it at a very impressionable young age. I think everything about the movie is comedy genius on display. But I also understand that it has a special comedic alchemy that had all the right elements coming together at just the right time. That special something has not been duplicated, despite several attempts, including Ghostbusters II and the 2016 franchise reboot/reimagining that spawned one of the darker moments of 2016, Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters: Rise of the Toxic Fandom (Ok, I made the subtitle up, sorry for saying the quiet part out loud). The inflammatory discourse over that film overshadowed the actual film itself, which never got a fair shake. Shortly after, it was announced that there was going to be a direct sequel made to the original Ghostbusters, and then Jason Reitman, the son of Ivan Reitman, director of the original, would be helming things this time around, bringing Ghostbusters to a new generation.
This film is set in the present, in a small midwestern town somewhere in Oklahoma where Callie (Carrie Coon) has moved her two kids for the summer after being evicted from their New York City apartment and inheriting a farmhouse from her estranged father. Her son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) tries to ingratiate himself into the flagging social scene in town, taking a job at the local diner because of a girl named Lucky (Celeste O’Connor). Her daughter Phoebe (McKenna Grace), enrolls in summer school, finding a fast friend in a classmate named Podcast (Logan Kim), and befriending her science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) with her inquisitive mind and terrible dad jokes. Phoebe also begins to experience strange things around the house, like playing chess with an unseen foe; while Trevor discovers an old car in the garage that he begins working on with a license plate that says “Ecto-1”. More strange phenomena begin to occur in town, as Phoebe and Trevor begin to discover who their estranged grandfather was and what he was up to.
Unlike the 2016 film, this is a true sequel to the first two Ghostbusters and not a reboot. And it really leans into the trappings of everything Ghostbusters. This movie is dripping in nostalgia. Easter eggs abound throughout the movie. At times, I appreciated the nods to the past, like an odd stacking of books in the farmhouse living room or seeing the PKE meter come to life again for the first time. I even got genuinely choked up at the end of the movie at a specific moment that must not be described for spoiler reasons. Much of the score is even lifted directly from the original 1984 movie. Some aspects certainly feel nice and familiar. But this is definitely a double-edged sword.
Despite the nods that I enjoyed and appreciated, there was as much if not more that crossed the line from nods and easter eggs into outright fan service. There is more than just the very divisive Stay Puft marshmallows scene in Walmart with Paul Rudd that was shown in the previews. I’ll refrain from more specifics for the sake of avoiding spoilers here, but a lot of this is a rehashing of the original plot of the 1984 movie, and a very much unoriginal villain at the center of it all. Frankly, all the fan service feels like an overcorrection to the backlash from the 2016 Ghostbusters.
Also, the film is distinctly less funny and an outright comedy than the original two movies (which stands to reason as the likes of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis, and Rick Moranis are not prominently featured), but this does have a slightly more serious tone overall and less of a fly-by-the-seat-of-their-pants vibe to it. In fact, the movie felt more like an homage to The Goonies at times or other 80s kids adventure movies, which made it feel a bit like how Super 8 was one big, giant homage from JJ Abrams to Spielberg.
The sequel does boast a very fine cast. McKenna Grace is an incredibly promising young actress. I enjoyed her journey of discovering her family. She is something of a nerd and outcast without a lot of friends, and finding out information about her grandfather helps her understand who she is more too. Finn Wolfhard also gives a solid performance as Trevor. Even as far back as Thank You For Smoking, Jason Retiman has gotten good performances from child and teenage actors, so this is not surprise. Paul Rudd is a perfect cast but Carrie Coon feels a bit underutilized in her role as the mom. And of course, the original Ghostbusters make their presence felt at the opportune time. It’s something akin to a nostalgia act in wrestling, like seeing Hulk Hogan or Ric Flair come down to the ring in their 70s, but there’s still some juice there.
Though I think I would prefer to just leave the franchise alone and have them stop trying to make Ghostbusters a relevant, modern thing, I think I would be more optimistic about another sequel just for the fact that I believe Jason Reitman or someone else could use these new characters and branch out to tell their own stories in relation to busting ghosts. Another sequel would hopefully be far less beholden to the past, which is something that Ghostbusters: Afterlife is not able to shake. Fans of the franchise will find plenty of things to geek out over, and that may be enough for some, but I was hoping for a bit more than what I got.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars