Movie Review: Ghostbusters - Afterlife

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Characters, story (mostly), fun

Cons: Pacing near the middle slows down

The Bottom Line:

Modern Ghostbusters

Builds on first one’s legacy

In fun way for fans

“None of This Rings a Bell?”  “It Happened 20 Years Before We Were Born.”

Since I didn’t grow up watching a lot of TV or movies, I missed Ghostbusters as a kid, watching it for the first time about a decade ago.  Oh, I heard about it at the time, so I knew something about it.  Watching it as an adult for the first time, I enjoyed it but didn’t fall in love (but that’s a review for a different time).  All that to say that I wasn’t dying to watch Ghostbusters:Afterlife when it came out in 2021.  But I heard enough about it that I was curious, so I decided to give it a chance.

This movie introduces us to Callie (Carrie Coon), a down on her luck single mother.  She and her two kids, Trevor and Phoebe (Finn Wolfhard and Mckenna Grace) have just been evicted, which makes her inheritance from her estranged father well timed.  They pick up and move to his dilapidated mansion on the edge of a small town in the middle of nowhere Oklahoma.

The town and mansion are nothing to get excited about, but Trevor and Phoebe start to make friends.  Callie even catches the eye of Gary (Paul Rudd), a local teacher.

But as Phoebe starts to explore their new home, she starts to realize that the father she never met was up to something important.  Can she figure out his legacy in time to save the world?

This movie is a classic example of a requel.  Yes, this does mean that many of the original cast of Ghostbusters show up for cameos here.  And this movie is set in a world where the events of the 1984 film took place.  (My memory of the sequel is dim enough I couldn’t tell you if they kept any of it as cannon or not.)  It does ignore the 2016 reboot completely.  I remembered just enough of the original to catch some of the references, although I suspect most of that was more just my basic pop culture knowledge.

However, you don’t have to be fluent in Ghostbusters knowledge and trivia to understand this film or even enjoy it.  Yes, I suspect you’d get the fan service more than I did if you love the franchise, but the movie explains everything you need to know.

In fact, I would say that was the biggest flaw to me.  Even I knew where the movie was going.  I felt the first act was pretty good at setting things up without being too slow about it, but then we stalled out for a bit.  It was like the writers didn’t quite know how to get the characters from some knowledge to full-fledged hero mode so we got lots of exposition.  I wish this part could have been cut down a little, but it wasn’t too bad.

The teens are really the stars of this film.  And they manage to do it without the adults coming across as too dumb and incompetent, which I truly appreciated.  The teen actors pulled it off with flying colors.  All four of them, the two I already mentioned plus Logan Kim as Podcast and Celeste O’Connor as Lucky, were fun to watch.  And you could feel their relationships building as the film progressed.  That’s not to take away from the adults, who also shine.  They just happen to have supporting roles.

The best part is, we care about all of these characters.  They have strengths and weaknesses, but these are never exaggerated.  Instead, they come across as real.  Yes, we can guess where some of the characters arcs are going to go, but it doesn’t matter because we are having fun hanging out with them.  And how those arcs play out is wonderful.

I also really enjoyed the effects.  While I suspect there were a few CGI effects in the film, they used a lot of practical effects.  The result is a movie that looks great.

Parents should take the PG-13 rating seriously.  There is a little bit of foul language and a few lines that are definitely adult in nature.  (Ironically, they come from the teens.)  But the biggest thing is the climax, which leans more into the horror over the comedy.  Kids who are easily frightened will find it too intense.  This is a case of know your child before you let them watch it.

Speaking of comedy, I haven’t mentioned that yet.  There is are some great lines over the course of the movie, not to mention a very funny scene in a Wal-Mart.

Obviously, I enjoyed Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and I’m more anxious to watch the sequel now.  Fans of the 80’s movies should definitely give this one a watch.  Even if you haven’t seen the original, you will still find this one entertaining.