For those of you who listened or watched our emergency podcast review of No Time to Die, you will have heard us comment that our next emergency new release video podcast would be on this return to the world of Ghostbusters. That is not the case. For what is there to talk about? Beyond the following 800 words or so you’re about to read below? Ghostbusters Afterlife is by all accounts a perfectly fine film and certainly better than it has any right to be, but on the other hand, it also feels deeply shallow. Everything new and original the film creates and presents is actually of a good quality and is easily investable in, however the film all the more strays and strays and waddles in the waters of nostalgia until the waters are so muddy that what is new is now a distant memory and all that remains is a lesser version of what once was. But above all, it’s all just perfectly average, not great, but not terrible, not even bad... just fine. The iconic recently passed musical legend Stephen Sondheim had his witch of Into the Woods comment upon the folks against her; “You’re so nice. You’re not good, you’re not bad. You’re just nice”. These are the aptest of words for this film too.
Let’s talk good; frankly, there is a lot of good. Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan in their script and Reitman in his direction of the film have conceived a lot of great new characters and a nice small new world, undoubtedly hindered by a swamping and debilitating need to reincorporate the elements of the original film and in some minor aspects its original sequel. When it comes to new characters, all of them are fun and interesting and played very well. Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, McKenna Grace and Logan Kim are all great additions to the world of Ghostbusters, with Finn Wolfhard and Celeste O’Connor’s characters falling behind for me in performance and writing in many ways. However the prior four all have great comedy chops and do service the dramatic elements and more sentimental angle that this film has chosen to take, for some reason. Reitman as a director and writer is skilled and has made films that I’ve liked an awful lot and when he’s not remaking exact set pieces his father did far better in the original, Reitman shines through once more as a great filmmaker. Really, when it comes to new stuff, this film has got an awful lot going for it. I liked it an awful lot. But then comes the wave of references, and one is immediately drowned and all happiness fades.
Now, let’s talk bad; what is there to say though, really? It is the same issues time after time that I have stated time after time in podcasts and reviews and articles and conversations with friends and family alike – ALL OF THIS IS TOTALLY POINTLESS. Remakes and reboots and soft-reboots and legacy sequels and characters returning and re-treading of plots, it’s all so lazy and deeply uninteresting to me. Nesscerary and not needed; pointless. We must be frank about these things now. I know money is the only thing that matters, but lets’ try at least. At least try for god’s sake. This is a valiant effort and for some reason I’m gonna give it a 6/10, for as a film in its own merit it’s worthy of that rating, but as a piece of media in a landscape where the rest of the movie world exists (primarily a world where the other Ghostbusters films exist), it is deeply uninteresting and, again, one must state... pointless. But it has to be 6/10 for there were times, many frequent times that I enjoyed myself, and that, I cannot deny.
A splendidly average 6/10 film which does have a lot going for it, but just strays far too often into the deep bank of nostalgia, taking whole plot points, characters and narratives and just using them again. What it creates is interesting and I certainly wish I was spending time with that instead of time with those I love, just in a lesser film. I have the original, I don’t need this. It’s harsh, but I felt nothing when certain characters returned, not even the slightest chill. This is the straw to break the nostalgia camel’s back. I just wish personally that it was a far worse film than it actually is, because for me this film is better than so many of these legacy reboots that we have had prior and has been saddled with being the breaking point, to some extent, one could even comment unfairly. But I have to say I was through with this fad a long, long time before this release.
P.S. But yes, God yes, is it better than 2016. Good God, so much better. It’s funny for a start. Is shot well. Is structured well. It’s not insufferable to sit through either, which helps in a movie going experience I often find.
- - Thomas Carruthers
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