Ghostbuster Afterlife
Very entertaining if you liked the franchise
The movie was rewarding, nostalgic, and humorous but not entertaining.
Jason Reitman is a great director and the touches and flourishes he did for the movie cannot be overstated. You can learn a lot about film construction and humor by watching his films and taking note. He is not a comedic director seeking laughs, but someone searching for humor in situations that may appear sad or depressing at first glance. Unfortunately, Ghostbusters is a big movie franchise so Mr. Reitman was constrained by the legacy of it all.
Essentially, the problem I have is who will see this movie? It’s catered for a younger crowd, but the only people willing to see it are someone who has had some happy memory of the Ghostbusters franchise. So most of the movie results in refreshing everyone’s mind about previous movies and its lore: the car, the power packs, the fire station pole, slobber, and the pseudo-science. It made the movie longer than it should have been and took away from the drama and adventure.
Some allusions that came to mind when watching were: the small town invaded by the deadly robot in Thor 1, a 1950s California town, American Vampire (comic book) mining vibe, and Karate Kid 1. Not comprehensive and you may have your own, but to sell this film, Reitman needed to create a setting and family you can immediately identify with since he’s going to drag this film out 40m longer than it should have been.
The light touch that I note here are the asides by the single mother trying to make the most of her current condition. The ghostly presence of Spengler playing chess, and helping his grandson fix the ghost cars carburetor to get it to start. Dynamics of children interacting and engaging in a new foreign town. In addition, small town kids making the most of empty space and little to do. I like bad jokes, or rather dad jokes, and they went there! They sprinkled a bunch of one liners throughout like: “how do you know an atom is lying?” And a first for big budget movies, Reitman showed details of items like the power pack … not justshowing how cool it is, but a real physical dirty item that has no safety standards whatsoever. Every prop that is not normally featured in a film is carefully focused on and has a purpose in this film.
And he wouldn’t be Ivan’s son without a good sense of humor which he does when the ghosts are out to prowl and we relive the Ghostbusters 1 movie but with a modern twist. It’s sad to know that Harold Ramis died way too soon, but the way they honor his memory is something to behold and really sells the third act which for most films is the worst part of the film, yet the best here.
I know it was good since my daughter loved it but for me, I like going forward and not living in the past.