It's been 32 years since the Ghostbusters saved the city of New York from Vigo the Carpathian. After their second successful standoff against a supernatural threat to humanity, the Ghostbusters began to quickly lose business. It's not that nobody wanted them. Nobody needed them. Ghost sightings dwindled until there was just no business left. Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) went back into academics. Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) became a successful business man. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) went back to running his Occult Bookstore. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) severed all ties to his team and his family. Somewhere along they way, he had a daughter Callie (Carrie Coon). Egon predicted another humanity-threatening supernatural apocalypse. He took all their equipment and went to the source of the future destruction: Summerville, Oklahoma. The Ghostbusters never talked to him again. His daughter never knew him. The residents of Summerville thought he was just a crazy dirt farmer. And that's where Ghostbusters Afterlife begins.
Egon Spengler is seen racing away from Shandor's mine in his pickup truck. A full ghost trap on the seat next to him. A none-too-pleased spook chasing him. Spengler leads the ghost to his farm. A trap to catch the spirit. A trap that fails and costs Egon his life. To his estranged daughter Callie and grandchildren Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), he had a heart attack and left them nothing more than his worthless farm and a mountain of debt. Not exactly what Callie needed having just been evicted from her current apartment, unable to keep up with the bills.
Coming to grips that this run down shack is now their home, Callie and her kids attempt to make the best of their situation. Callie begins sorting through her dad's "junk", Trevor gets a job at the local burger shack, and Phoebe enrolls in summer school where she meets Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd). Immediately, they find equipment left behind by Egon, they begin seeing inexplicable phenomenon, and there are seismic rumblings that don't make sense. Mr. Grooberson recognizes the equipment and shows the children video footage of who the Ghostbusters were. It is soon revealed, they are the direct descendants of Egon Spengler, the Ghostbuster.
Ghostbusters Afterlife is being hailed as the sequel fans have always wanted. And for good reason. After the success of Ghostbusters 2 in 1989, several writing efforts went into making a 3rd installment, but some of the cast (namely Bill Murray) were more than just a little hesitant. In 2016, instead of a sequel, a reboot was made and failed to deliver the same magic. The original team got to work and created Ghostbusters Afterlife.
Ghostbusters Afterlife is truly a family reunion project. It was directed by Jason Reitman (son of the original director Ivan Reitman); it was written by Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman and Dan Aykroyd; it was produced by Ivan Reitman and Dan Aykroyd; and the list of appearances from the original films include Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, the Ghost-mobile Ecto1, and the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man. What more could you want?
The biggest question I had going in to the film was the kids. They're young, but they're seasoned veterans and this style of film should be right in their wheelhouse. Finn Wolfhard is best known for his roles in Stranger Things and the modern Stephen King's It. Mckenna Grace has an even longer resume with roles in The Handmaid's Tale, Designated Survivor, Ready Player One, and Amityville: The Awakening. Neither are strangers to the big screen and both have experience in the spooky and the supernatural. They were perfectly believable as the two Ghostbuster descendants fully capable of picking up the proton packs on their backs to carry on the legacy.
The story is the same plot line as the original. Gozer the Gozerian wants to take over the world and needs the help of The Gatekeeper and The Keymaster to do so. In the original, it was Dana Barrett (Weaver) and Louis Tully (Rick Moranis). In Afterlife, it's Callie and Mr. Grooberson. The special effects were perfect. Reitman and his effects team took the original creatures and weapons from the original but just made them so much cleaner and realistic.
I gave Ghostbusters Afterlife a 4.5 Star Prediction. Remember, my rating scale doesn't necessarily mean this will be an Oscar-worthy film. It really has to do with how honestly the preview portrays the movie and how much I enjoyed it and want to watch it again. And this movie delivers everything fans would want and modern movies will want to see. It is smart, new, fresh, funny, entertaining, with just the right amount of spooky. I am sticking with my original prediction and giving Ghostbusters Afterlife a 4.5 Star Rating. There was just enough nostalgia for fans of the original to get their sentimental fix while still making it a movie that stands on its own for today's audience.
I only had a few small critiques of the film. It took me a while to warm up to Trevor. For about half of the movie, I didn't really see the point of his character. Half-way through, it seemed the only point he really served was that he was old enough to drive. But then he quickly turned into a formidable Ghostbuster and I bought into him for the remainder of the film.
I have mixed feelings on Egon Spengler's appearance. It was similar to the feeling of seeing a digital Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia at the end of Star Wars Rogue One. It was good, very well intentioned, but just felt a little off and not quite right. But it was still sweet and certainly done to pay huge homage to the late Harold Ramis.
Another fun touch I think they could have worked in in a subtle way was a descendant of the antagonistic Environmental Protection Agency inspector Walter Peck (William Atherton). His character was just so juicy and easy to hate in the first movie. He set in motion the events that lead to the final climax and he got what he deserved in the end with a shower of exploding Marshmallow Man. I feel like they really could have found a place for a Peck presence in this film.
And I was missing a "Bill Murray" character. Understandably, there is no one like Bill Murray, but it was a missing element from the film. Phoebe was a clear descendant of Egon with her mind, mannerisms and humor. Her friend Pod Cast seemed to fit the Ray character, and they share a special bond at the end of the film. Trevor's love interest Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) fit the Winston position as the late-comer but equal contributor to their overall success. Grooberson and Callie seemed the modern Dana and Louis. And then there's Trevor. If he was supposed to be the Pete Venkman of the bunch, it was a complete failure. It looks more like Reitman agreed that there was no replicating Bill Murray, so they didn't even try. Not a huge deal, but a noticeably missing piece of the original movie.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed Ghostbusters Afterlife for both it's nostalgia and it's originality. There were audible cheers and laughs from the audience with the throwbacks to the original film and for the new cast and story. It's one I'll want to watch over and over again. So, what movie will be on my mind next? We shall see.
