Ghostbusters was more of an accident than people want to accept. Everything I’ve ever heard about the production was a mess. There were several competing ideas and a script that was still coming together. The idea itself – high concept Sci-Fi comedy – is a tough thing to balance in the first place. Comedy tends to diffuse the stakes, so films typically have to choose whether the comedy or action is dominant. That the original Ghostbusters became a decade-defining hit is pretty crazy. Since it is such a unique and identifiable IP, I understand the desire to bring it back. I worry that they’ll be forever chasing the high of the original.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is the latest attempt to bring the franchise back. It comes with slightly more blessing than the 2016 movie, given that it’s directed by Jason Reitman, son of Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman, and Afterlife is a more direct homage to the original movies. It exists in the same timeline as the original and stars the daughter and grandchildren of Harold Ramis’ Dr. Egon Spengler. After the death of her estranged father, Egon’s daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon), moves her children, Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), to the small town where he died. Callie and the kids know very little about his past life as a Ghostbuster but quickly learn more about it, thanks to him leaving behind all the toys in his rundown farmhouse. I’ll spare you the details, but it turns out that Egon chose this location due to ghostly activity which is now erupting for the first time in decades, and his family must stop the ghosts.
Where the 2016 movie maybe leaned too hard into the comedy aspect, Afterlife swings in the more dramatic direction. This isn’t a very funny movie. It almost feels irresponsible for IMDB to label it a comedy. It throws in a few jokes by bringing in Paul Rudd, but this is no more a comedy than most action movies. Instead, it’s a very reverent movie. They seem to have gone into this with the idea that if they are going to make this, they need to memorialize Harold Ramis’ passing. He’s the silent lead of the movie, guiding the characters from beyond the grave. I respect that. It’s nice to see that Reitman and company take this franchise so seriously, but it does miss the point of why this franchise is so well remembered. (I suppose I should give a spoiler alert here, but if you didn’t already expect what I’m about to say, then you don’t understand how movies work) Late in the movie, when the surviving three Ghostbusters appear, I was struck by how much more I enjoyed that than the rest of the movie. And I’m not someone who holds the 1984 movie in high regard. They just brought a relaxed levity that the rest of the movie was missing. There was actual banter. It didn’t feel like they were afraid to step on the toes of the franchise’s legacy.
The movie is fine. Reitman isn’t the best director for this. Jason Reitman specializes in darker comedies with more bite. He wisely backed away from that for this (no one wants the Young Adult version of Ghostbusters) but didn’t replace it with much else. This became a movie that could’ve been directed by anyone. The big note I came away from the movie with is that it had mystery but little curiosity. There’s definitely a puzzle to the movie, but it doesn’t have much fun exploring the world of Ghostbusters. What would a world with Ghostbusters look like 40 years later? Apparently, according to this movie, their impact is that of a seldom read Wikipedia article. Say what you will about the 2016 movie, but it’s clear while watching it that Paul Feig is a big fan. You can tell he brought a lot of ideas to that movie. In Afterlife, Reitman doesn’t take advantage of the richness of the world at all. It can’t even decide how much people do and don’t know about the original Ghostbusters. Something tells me if there was really an attack on New York City in the 80s, more than just a nerdy science teacher would remember it.
I do think some of the casting is pretty good. I always welcome Carrie Coon into anything I watch. Rudd plays his role like someone who was a lifelong Ghostbusters fan excited to be in a Ghostbusters movie. It’s not a special performance, but you can almost see in his eyes him telling his agent to get him an audition. Mckenna Grace is the standout for me. She basically turns into a tween girl Egon Spengler, which is really impressive when I consider how different her past roles have been. Finn Wolfhard is very much just along for the ride. There’s little use for his character other than being someone who can drive. So I can’t knock him for doing little with the character. All the cameos are fun. Most of them jumped back into their characters nicely.
I wish I could be more positive about the movie, because I really didn’t hate it. My feelings are closer to apathy. Other that some sweet homages to Harold Ramis, little in the movie made me feel anything. I didn’t realize Jason Reitman would leave out so much of what makes him distinctive as a director. This was just…dull.
Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend
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