Ghostbusters Afterlife has been out for a few months and I thought I would share some of my thoughts on the movie. I really enjoyed this movie for the most part, but there are a handful of things that stuck out to me.
My main issue with Afterlife is the recycling the villain from the original 1984 movie. I understand that it ties back to the original story but there are so many options, a ghost from the Real or Extreme Ghostbusters cartoons or the IDW comic book or just inventing a new one. To me it just really makes the Ghostbusters cinematic universe feel very small. As you can probably guess, I’m not excited about plans for a sequel with Vigo The Carpathian as the bad guy.
One actual complaint that I have about Afterlife is pretty commonly used in movies and that is genius children. I get it, some kids are smart, but I don’t think a twelve year old kid is nuclear accelerator smart. I know, it’s fiction and I’m nitpicking, but admittedly the idea of super smart kids makes me feel like a really dumb adult.
I loved the throwbacks and Easter eggs in this movie, but there was a point where it was just a bit too much. It kind of reminded me of when a rock band plays in your town and when it comes to the line in the song that mentions a towns name and they change it to your towns name. Of course the crowd goes crazy like they have never heard someone say the name of their town before.
One of the big things I have always dreaded about a Ghostbusters sequel is dealing with the death of Harold Ramis who played Egon Spengler, my favorite character. I think that they handled this very well in the movie by making him a ghost that returns to help his family, my only problem was how they made him a recluse who turns his back on his family and friends to keep Gozer from being freed. It turned the comedy Ghostbusters into a sort of bleak lonely end for Egon. I know he comes back and everyone makes up, but all I can think of is the years that Egon spent all alone in that house in the middle of nowhere.
There were also a few minor details that just kind of bugged me.The use of Elmer Burnstein music makes me think of NYC, probably because of the original movie, and felt really out of place in Summerville. Why did Lucky take off her shirt when she put on the flight suit? I have a Ghostbusters flight suit and as hot as it gets I have never taken off my shirt.
Although, like I stated earlier, I do really enjoy Ghostbusters Afterlife, I think it had a similar issue as the 2016 reboot, except where as people decided to hate Ghostbusters: Answer The Call before there was even a script, they decided to love Afterlife before there was a script.
