The the failure of Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters in 2016, the franchise is getting another chance with Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Set 30 years after the events of Ghostbusters II, Ghostbusters: Afterlife follows single mother Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), who after being evicted from their home, move to a farm inherited from Callie’s late father (Harold Ramis’ Egon Spengler), located in Summerville, Oklahoma. When the town experiences a series of unexplained earthquakes, Trevor and Phoebe discover their family’s link to the original Ghostbusters team and decide to continue their legacy by taking care of whatever is messing with Summerville (which is also strongly linked to the original team), with the help of some of the old Ghostbusters’ equipment and Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd), a local seismologist.
Like many other reboots in recent years, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is relying a lot on nostalgia, with the main characters directly linked to one of the founders of the original team and the surviving returning for this new adventure, and while that’s a big hook to get the attention of the audience, it doesn’t mean that the movie is flawless. At the time of writing, Ghostbusters: Afterlife holds a 66% rating on Ghostbusters: Afterlife to be an improvement even from the original movie, as it offers more developed characters and establishes a new generation without messing with the original characters and their own stories, and find that its sense of humor fits well with the first two movies. Here’s what some of the positive Ghostbusters: Afterlife reviews are saying:
“Without revealing major spoilers, fans of the original two films should have plenty of moments to spark the joy of watching them for the first time. Plenty here is shiny and new, yet just as charming and cool as anything those original films had to offer. [...] It shines brightest when Reitman finds new ways to spin these callbacks, rather than just repeat them. Overall, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a hoot. Truly one of the best sequels in recent memory, offering just enough of the familiar to justify its title, while also bringing so much heart and fun and originality along for the ride.”
“Jason Reitman’s thoroughly lovely Ghostbusters: Afterlife doesn’t try to be exactly like the originals, made by his father, Ivan Reitman. A sequel-slash-restart, it instead shoots for its own version of goofy buddy comedy and funhouse scariness. It’s not quite the same as the Ghostbusters we know, but it entirely feels like Ghostbusters.”
THR:
“Afterlife’s engaging cast has the comic beats down, and they also play more fully fleshed people than the first film offered, reflecting the director’s interest in character-driven stories. [...] But it’s Phoebe who’s the movie’s true protagonist, and Grace is thoroughly winning as an impatient and dismissive smarty-pants who subtly undergoes a seismic shift, not unlike the mother with whom she often clashes.”
“The special effects are again dynamite here, and the cast just could not be better, with Grace leading the way. She is terrific in her nerd-like quest to find her own legacy and worth, as she uncovers that of her late grandfather’s. [...] Perhaps the real star here is Jason Reitman who, like Phoebe, rediscovers and reinvents his own family cinematic legacy, and in doing so, provides a warm, funny, exciting, nostalgic, emotional, and altogether winning return to the pure joy of that 1984 classic by making something that also seems very new in all the right ways.”
“McKenna Grace gives the standout performance in this new bunch. Once you realize which O.G. Ghostbuster she is channeling, her precise mannerisms, calculated sense of humor, and smarter-than-most attitude plugs directly into the unique atmosphere of the first two movies. Grace is confident and funny, stubborn, and practical. If the franchise wanted to move forward with her in a leading role, I’d say we were in good hands.”
A lot of praise is going towards Mckenna Grace’s performance as Phoebe Spengler, who seems to have been given the role of the one who will carry on with her grandfather’s legacy, all while also bringing a good dose of humor into the mix – after all, it’s a Ghostbusters movie, and there has to be humor in it. However, while Halloween). Here's what some of the negative Ghostbusters: Afterlife reviews have to say:
EW:
“The tone is overall rather dour; Callie is constantly lashing out at her absent father in what comes off like Reitman (who brought his father to set every day as executive producer) trying to imagine what a broken family would feel like, and not quite getting the tone right. Intentional or not, Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a stark reminder of how much of modern American culture consists of excavating the ruins of past glories.”
"Afterlife is supposed to be about family and legacy, about finding your place in the world, but what it really feels like is the placating smile you have to put on when your drunk relative makes a scene at Christmas dinner. You suffer them because they're family, but you don't necessarily enjoy it. The characters themselves feel like someone pressed 'random' on a diversity generator tool, cropping up with a combination of box-ticking traits, rather than organic character developments that feel real and purposeful to their overall arc and the plot.”
“Still, what threatens to undermine much of our goodwill takes place in the film’s nostalgia-fueled finale, where nothing is sacred and the spectacle culminates in all-too familiar patterns. All the risks taken up until that point to deepen character drive and further thematic profundity on forgiveness, friendship and familial strife are given an entirely expected safe landing. Add to this a run time of two-hours plus, where every minute is felt, and this new journey feels a bit more busted than one would hope.”
“Ghostbusters: Afterlife comes so close so many times to being that perfect sequel fans have wanted for years. But when it becomes too obsessed with its past instead of its future, it loses much of that power.”
The nostalgia elements that worked for some didn’t appeal to others who believe Reitman relied too much on them and who felt they were all cramped up in the final act of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and there are also opposing opinions on the movie introducing a new, young Ghostbusters: Afterlife and the shadow of the failure of the 2016 reboot, Afterlife was somewhat destined to a divisive critical reception, and with such contradictory reviews, it’s ultimately up to each viewer and their own experience to decide if it’s a worthy sequel to Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II or if the franchise should be laid to rest after this.
