Ghostbusters Afterlife came out on Nov 19, 2021, and it is an Adventure Comedy Fantasy movie. It is two hours and four minutes long.
So is it worth a watch? let’s find out…
Ghostbusters Afterlife Movie Review
Ghostbusters Afterlife is directed by Jason Reitman, the son of the original director, Ivan Reitman. This is the much-anticipated follow-up.
The film is about a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.
So I had a chance to see the film early tonight and naturally, I was looking forward to it, although I kind of wish it came out around Halloween.
But they probably didn’t want to compete with a lot of other Halloween releases. It’s still nice to have an infusion of creepy goodness even in November.
It snowed yesterday in Ohio. So thanks state of Ohio for that. That was nice. In my review of Ghostbusters 2016, I mentioned that I don’t really hold any nostalgia for Ghostbusters. I wasn’t allowed to see the movie when I was a kid.
Jws, as it turns out, aren’t too big on ghosts and so ghosts were bad. It was bad stuff wasn’t allowed to watch it.
I saw Ghostbusters for the first time in my 20s. So when it comes to fan service or nostalgia or things that are trying to hook me when the story itself might be weak, it’s not going to have much of an impact on me.
So I went into this movie just hoping that it was good and that the story that this film presents interested me.
And Jason Reitman actually had an introduction before the film started and he mentioned that his dad was basically sitting next to him almost every day on set, looking at every shot that he set up.
And he jokingly said that was rather difficult. He was like, Imagine having your father come to watch you at work every day.
But he described it as a family movie, something that was very deeply personal to him. And you can tell from the first frame.
There’s a lot of love and care to everything in this movie, from the look of it to honoring the original to presenting action sequences that are actually fairly exciting. But more importantly, new characters that you can actually get excited about.
Mckenna Grace plays Phoebe, a young girl who’s moved to this place with her mom. She never really knew her grandfather very well, has no idea who he is.
She has a very deep interest in science, and she’s incredibly smart. She’s almost unrealistically smart.
Paul Rudd plays a summer school teacher who’s also into Seismology, and when they meet up, they can have completely coherent conversations with each other, despite the fact that Paul Rudd is 50 years old and she’s a little girl. That’s how smart she is.
A character like that could easily come off gradingly annoying, especially when most of the major fans of this franchise are my age or in their 40s at this point.
But Mckenna Grace is a superstar. She is so likable and so fantastic in this movie that I could easily watch an entire series of Ghostbusters films just about her exploits.
I could easily see kids of today being inspired by this character and wanting to learn about science or engineering. Paul Rudd he’s got to be the most likable human being on the planet.
Halloween six, You like Paul Rudd as Tommy Doe. He’s Paul Rudd, and he’s very funny in the film. I will say he’s not in the movie as much as I wanted him to be, though.
He’s in the film fairly often, but then at one point, he’s just not and I found myself missing him. I wanted more of that character.
I think one of the biggest takeaways from this movie for me is actually how well it is directed because Jason Reitman isn’t exactly known for making big-budget movies. Hollywood movies.
He tends to do smaller things, character studies, and comedies like Juno or Young Adult. And from his perspective, I can’t even imagine this daunting task. You’re basically carrying the legacy of your family on your shoulders.
Probably Ivan Reitman’s most famous and loved film and having him actually be there with you. And you also have a fan base to satisfy.
And they haven’t liked every Ghostbusters movie, so I can’t even imagine. And I think he did a wonderful job.
There is one action scene in this movie, in particular, a chase scene that was handled so efficiently. I was actually jealous.
It also has that creepy vibe that you really want from this kind of movie, that type of 1980s Amblin vibe. Of course, we have Finn Wolfhard from Stranger Things, and I’m sure that was no mistake.
But there’s an aspect of the movie that I won’t get into that was surprisingly very heartfelt and could easily be handled poorly and perhaps disrespectfully.
And I think they did the best that they could with it. I think they handled it in a way that fans would be very satisfied with.
I’ve read some reviews of this movie that have mentioned fan service quite a bit of unnecessary nostalgia. The film can’t stand on its own. Blah, blah, blah.
I have feelings about this. I have intense feelings about this, actually, because when it comes to fan service, I’ve talked about this many times on this website.
For me, if a movie is going to have nods to an original or something that we all know and love, it’s sort of like that guaranteed, Yes, the writers know audience is probably going to like that because we already know they like that, and it’s viewed as a cheat or an easy way out, like too much voiceover or something in a script where it’s like, Well, yeah, that’ll help.
The way they view it is that if the story itself can stand on its own. If I already liked the movie, like if they’ve done all the work, if they’ve set up new characters and a new story and a new place, and they’ve done all that work, and then they say also here’s a little bit of extra that you could possibly enjoy. That’s the best way to do it.
And Ghostbusters Afterlife does have some things that fans will probably go, oh, wow. Look at that. Again not having seen the film when I was a child, I’ve only seen the first Ghostbusters two times, and I like it. I think it’s very entertaining, but I’ve only seen it twice.
I’ve seen Ghostbusters two once, same with the 2016 Ghostbusters one time. So when certain things happen in this new one, I was like, oh, yeah, that’s interesting. What a fun little Easter egg.
Now some of the people might be screaming and crying and their heads might explode. But I was genuinely interested in this story, and I liked the way it was made.
I thought it was a pretty funny movie. There are some good jokes and there are a few scares that I could see little kids being like, a little fucked up by, and that’s great. I love that shit.
I just think sometimes people get a little up in arms about fan service and nostalgia and films, and they tend to focus on that a lot as I am doing right now.Â
It’s probably going to be hard to see a review or read a review of this movie without people mentioning it.
Despite all of the clear work that went into telling an original story that does not follow the formula of the 1984 film and the way it presents events that are happening and it is new.
It just has some old stuff, too, and I don’t know that’s great to me. To me, that works really well.
Like I said, as long as the setup and the new stuff are good, then the extra stuff just feels like icing on the cake.
And when it comes to Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I went in with extreme skepticism. I have to be honest, and it surprised me.
I think Jason Reitman did an excellent job, and I think the entire cast, especially Mckenna Grace, is really good.
And I do think the Ghostbusters fans are going to have a big silly grin on their face for most of the movie. Â Ghostbusters afterlife will be on streaming soon, but it is now in Theaters So check it out in theaters this weekend.
So I am going to give Ghostbusters Afterlife Movie a B.
Guys thank you so much as always for reading the review of Ghostbusters: Afterlife. See you next time with another movie review.
Ghostbusters Afterlife Movie Trailer
Check out the trailer of the new Adventure, Comedy, Fantasy movie Ghostbusters Afterlife.
