By Patrick Bartlett (Twitter: @alleywaykrew)
It could be said that we are living in the “IP age.” By that, I mean the vast majority of films and shows being released… either on streaming or theatrically (or both in some cases) are generally based on a property that’s already beloved or at least has recognizable name value. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” has either the advantage or disadvantage of coming after another attempt at bringing the beloved ’80s franchise back from the purgatory it existed within throughout most of the ’90s and 2000s. I’m happy to say that while this film is not without flaws of its own, it’s probably the best thing released with the name “Ghostbusters” since at least 1989 (if not 1984).
I ended up seeing it quite a while before its official release and have zero desire to spoil anything for anyone before they get their chance. That being said, I feel like if you’ve been excitedly waiting for this film as I have, you have a distinct sense of what the plot is without me saying anything at all. Egon Spengler (much like the man who played him, the great Harold Ramis) has died. It turns out that Egon had a daughter named Callie (played by Carrie Coon). Callie feels she was abandoned by Egon and doesn’t feel much connection to him, even when hearing of his death. She’s just going to the house that her father left her because she now has misfit children of her own named Phoebe (played by Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (played by Finn Wolfhard) and the family aren’t living in the best circumstances. When they arrive in their new town though, things aren’t anywhere near as boring as anticipated. Trevor is so desperate to get the attention of local girl Lucky (played by Celeste O’Connor) that he’s taken a job at the restaurant she works at (despite actively hating said job) as a means of getting close to her while also working on an old car left in his grandfather’s garage in his off hours. Meanwhile, Phoebe’s working on making relationships all on her own. However, she’s such a nerd that she makes friends with a teacher at her new school (played by Paul Rudd) and the self-monikered Podcast (played by Logan Kim), who help her learn the truth about her grandfather, who everyone in town assumed was crazy, and how whatever he was doing connects to strange occurrences happening around them.
The main thing that I will say ultimately sold me on the film is that it’s somehow both more and less emotional than I anticipated. I knew it would be very different from the last “Ghostbusters” film and probably even the original films that Ivan Reitman made because of how different Jason Reitman is as a filmmaker. Reitman’s primary interest as far as film goes seems to be character and that’s a big part of why I’ve enjoyed his work in the past. It’s definitely why I enjoyed this film. Granted, there’s also a lot of baggage that comes with the “Ghostbusters” films. As such, Jason Reitman is taking all that on, going from making mid-budget character pieces to blockbuster filmmaking and all that entails. With that, he pretty much nails it on his first try. In fact, I told the friend I saw the film with (and he agreed) that even if Jason Reitman was to do a proper horror film alone, he’d probably nail it. “Ghostbusters” as a franchise has always been a mix of comedy, horror, and action but in many ways… this probably is the scariest one yet. The only one that might come close is the first. It might not seem it to an outside observer but horror is a hard genre. That being said, Jason Reitman seems to have a solid grasp on scares… and that’s coming from a horror nerd. I can’t think of a single scare that didn’t work. The action scenes are pretty rock solid as well. It probably goes without saying that the character drama works like gangbusters due to that being the main stuff that Reitman worked on prior to this. Even so, the character stuff in this film worked better for me here than it did in some of his more recent work.
I will say that I’m not sure that anyone deserves more credit than involved in this film than Mckenna Grace. I really thought going in that my obsession with “Stranger Things” would cause Finn Wolfhard to be my favorite part of the cast by default. However, as entertaining as he is in the film, this is simply Mckenna Grace’s movie. One hundred percent. An incredibly young actress that was obviously even younger while the film was being made, she manages to put the whole thing on her small shoulders and effortlessly carry the massive weight of it. It’s incredibly impressive to behold. In fact, if she wasn’t as good as she is… Paul Rudd would have just stolen the movie right away from her. His performance is just peak “Paul Rudd.” It’s everything I could have hoped for or wanted from the man. Effortlessly charming and very funny in a way that I’m not sure anyone in one of these movies has been since Bill Murray. The whole cast is great, but they stand far out from the pack.
That isn’t to say that this film is without flaws. A seemingly integral part of watching films in this “IP age” is fan service. Granted, I saw it at a screening packed to the gills with ravenous Ghostbusters fans who ate up every bit of it thrown their way… but while some of it worked for me, some of it did feel unnecessary. I feel like the fairest comparison I can make when discussing “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” is to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in that both crib a fair amount from earlier entries in an attempt to please fans of what came before but I felt that “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” was actually less of just a redux of what you’ve already seen and was exponentially more able to stand on its own. In fact, the filmmakers more than anything use the previous films and the passage of time since their pop-cultural moment as something to deepen the story that they’re telling at hand rather than simply using what came before in an attempt to prey on nostalgia for no other reason than to fill their pockets with fans’ hard-earned cash.
I’m not going to lie. I’ve been excited to see “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” for over a year. Having said that, I go into stuff like this prepared for the worst but hoping for the best. I had a general idea of what to expect going in but was ultimately still really impressed with what I got. What could have been yet another legacy sequel exhausting a well of goodwill from fans was instead a beautiful film that’s as much about people as it is about its genre trappings. It’s deeply felt while also possessing maybe the best scares in the franchise and some of the best action up to this point as well. In that respect, as great as the original film is, this is probably more of a worthy follow-up to the original film than anything else that came in its wake. It’s as much a tribute to what (and who) came before as it is an interesting road towards the future. I really can’t imagine anything else you’d want from a “Ghostbusters” film after all these years but it’s more than I dared hope for.
To find out where this film is available to stream, click here: Just Watch