Review – Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Every 2-3 years throughout the 90s and early-2000s, a rumor about Ghostbusters 3 would pop up and get the fanbase excited. These rumors would usually stem from a Dan Aykroyd interview that he had given while trying to stir up publicity for whatever new UFO documentary that he was promoting. He would always say something along the lines that they had a script and that it was happening within the next year. It never happened, but the rumors persisted. There was the rumor that the original team would return to pass the wand over to Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, and Chris Farley. There was the rumor that Ghostbusters 3 would feature the original squad — with a ghost version of Venkman — going to hell itself to fight Lucifer. And then there was that nasty rumor from a decade (or so) ago that had the writers of The Office penning a sequel that was led by Seth Rogan, Jonah Hill, and James Franco.
For each rumor about a potential new Ghostbusters film, there would be several rumors for why it didn’t happen — the most consistent of which was Bill Murray’s disinterest in returning. But after Harold Ramis’ death in 2014, not only did that seemingly end hope for a new film, most of the fanbase seemed to think it was for the best at that point. After all, why even bother if Egon isn’t involved?
That’s where most of the resentment for Ghostbusters: Answer The Call came from. It wasn’t that it had an all-female cast or the tone and humor were all wrong, it was that fans of the franchise had been dicked around for over 20 years, and that’s the film that got made?
So, with all of that said, Ghostbusters: Afterlife had an unfair amount of skepticism surrounding it right out of the gate, even after Ivan and Jason Reitman signed on. That didn’t get any better once some of the news about the casting began to circulate online. Paul Rudd aside, the younger cast made it very apparent that this film was going to be targeting the same people that watch shows like Stranger Things. Nothing wrong with that, but, again, now what I or a lot of other fans of the franchise were looking for.
So, when I grabbed my seat with my popcorn and cherry vanilla-flavored Coke Zero for a noon showing of Ghostbusters: Afterlife — my first theater experience in nearly two years, thanks to Covid-19 — I was going into it relatively blind. And I must say, likely because of that, I enjoyed the hell of it.
It’s a film that has its faults. Does it play it a bit too safe by taking so many plot points from the original Ghostbusters? Sure. Does it fall into that Star Wars: The Force Awakens trap where it relies on nostalgic moments? For sure. But under these unique circumstances, I feel like Jason Reitman nailed it. It manages to honor the legacy of the previous films while laying the groundwork for the future of the franchise. As for old shits like me that have been wanting to see Venkman, Stantz, Spangler, and Zeddemore suit up again for 30+ years, well, we got that.
