Ghostbusters: Afterlife Movie Review

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

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Written Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman (written by), Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis (based on the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" an Ivan Reitman film written by)
Directed by: Jason Reitman
Starring: Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Carrie Coon, Sigourney Weaver, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Bokeem Woodbine, Paul Rudd
Rated: PG-13
Watch the trailer

Plot
When 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.

Verdict
It's difficult to rate this one. It's made for fans of the first film. The more you like (and remember) the first film the more you'll enjoy this. If you are unfamiliar with the first one this won't do much for you. It's difficult to separate the two as they are intertwined. This borrows frequently from the first movie, but this time we see two kids stumble upon forgotten Ghostbuster gear and then fall headfirst into an extinction level event. My favorite parts of this movie are the scenes steeped in nostalgia.
It depends.

Review
The first scene is great. It's mysterious and full of action, a preview of the enemy we'll soon see. This scene also sets the plot of the movie into motion while acting as a throwback to the original movie.

Mckenna Grace plays Phoebe

Callie (Carrie Coon) and her kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) have hit hard times and are evicted from their apartment. They end up at an old farmhouse in disrepair. That's where Phoebe finds a bunch of old equipment that turns out to be Ghostbuster gear. Trevor also manages to fix an old car he found which happens to be Ecto-1. They don't know about Ghostbusters despite the fact that the events from the first movie are part of this universe.

Paul Rudd plays Gary Grooberson

Phoebe befriends a kid named Podcast as he's in the movie just for comic relief. They bring a ghost trap Phoebe finds to their summer school teacher, Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd) who tells them about Ghostbusters and the Manhattan cross-rip of 1984. While the kids use the excuse of it happened before they were born for being completely unfamiliar, that seems like a pretty big deal and an event that would not only be in pop culture but also history books. Phoebe states earlier in the movie she doesn't believe in ghosts. Since this movie takes the events of the first Ghostbusters movie as cannon, she should know beyond a doubt that ghosts and spirits are real. It's been proven beyond a doubt.

This small town just happens to be the nexus for another event that threatens the world. Luckily the kids are in place with the right tools to fight the evil spirits. It was curious that ghosts can physically grab the proton stream. That's something we hadn't seen before in the movies. It just doesn't seem like something that could be grabbed, even if you are a ghost.

If it's a been a while since you've seen Ghostubsters, it would benefit a watch as there are a lot of references and Easter eggs. This script must have been written with a copy of the first script nearby. A big part of why I enjoyed this so much is the nostalgia trip. This had some touching moments precisely because of how long it's been and what's happened in real life. I'm revisiting the movie I watched as a kid through this movie. Without the foundation of the first movie, what this does wouldn't mean nearly as much. This feels like a nice coda to the Ghostbusters franchise, though I assume if this performs well there will be at least another film in the future.

SPOILERS

I didn't notice any references to the second movie whatsoever (upon some research the toaster shows up), this seemed to borrow specifically from only the first one. The terror dogs and Gozer that were the final act of the 1984 movie are the final act here.

I like how this did the first scene. If you know the movies, you know it's Egon but his face is never shown.

Callie's mother and the kids' grandmother is never mentioned or referenced. It's strange as Egon seemed like the least likely to have a family. Callie has a lot of resentment for her father, Egon, but you'd think she would at least mention her mother who I would guess raised her.

The very end pushes nostalgia hard. Egon back as a ghost is extremely forced, but it works as it's such a nice moment. It's also calls into question why he has a form at the end, but not in any scenes before when he interacted with Phoebe and Callie.

Watching the credits, I saw Sigourney Weaver's name and wondered if I had missed her appearance. After the credits she has a scene where she and Bill Murray riff on the 1984 movie's opening scene with  electro-shock therapy and ESP. That was a mid-credits scene and apparently there is also an end credits scene I missed with Winston (Ernie Hudson) talking about how he flew Pete and Ray in for the final fight and that he bought the original firehouse.