Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) Review

 "What does a hamster have in common with a cigarette?"

-Phoebe Spengler

After Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) passes away, his estranged daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon), inherits his farm, which is located in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma.  Callie's children, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), soon learn about Egon's past with the Ghostbusters and what he was really doing in Oklahoma.

What Works:

Off the bat, I want to give this movie some credit for doing something different, at least for the first 2/3rds of the movie.  Ghostbusters II and the 2016 version are both basically the same movie as the original.  Why bother making a movie if it's going to be virtually the same as the original?  This one at least has a very different cast of characters and is more of a coming-of-age movie rather than a comedy.  The 3rd act reverts back into overly familiar territory, but the tone is very different throughout the entire film.

Mckenna Grace plays our main protagonist and she is fantastic.  Phoebe is extremely similar to Egon, but her performance never feels like an impression.  Phoebe is her own character and a unique one.  I really like Grace's chemistry with the other actors and she is probably my favorite part of the movie.

Paul Rudd is the other big highlight, to no one's surprise, I'm sure.  He's a goofy science teacher who lets his students watch horror movies while he does research.  He's really funny and I love his interactions with Phoebe.  Their scenes together are the best in the film and I wish there were more of them.

Finally, the car chase through town is really fun.  It's something that we haven't really seen in the Ghostbusters movies before.  The focus was never really on the action.  We got a little bit of this in the 2016 version, which I give that movie credit for, but it's better done here.  It's got lots of fun moments with some classic Ghostbusters equipment and some new updates.  Plus it gives Phoebe, Trevor, and Podcast (Logan Kim) a moment to shine and each play an important part in the chase.

What Sucks:

Holy fan-service, Batman.  The characters in this movie couldn't swing a dead cat without knocking over two references to the original movie.  It was actually obnoxious.  I don't necessarily mind fan-service, but it has to be in service of the story.  The Ecto-1 for example.  Fans love that car, and it is very cool.  I don't mind it being here because it actually matters to the story.  The Twinkie and the "Who you gonna call?" line on the other hand...added nothing to the story and were only distracting and worthy of eye-rolls.

Like a lot of other sequels to beloved classics, Afterlife relies a lot on references to the original movie, but all that does is make me think of the original, better film and how I wish I was watching that instead.  These types of movies need to focus on being their own thing rather than on what came before.

Trevor's storyline mostly involves his crush on Lucky (Celeste O'Connor).  I cannot emphasize enough how much I did not care about their story.  Honestly, I wish Lucky had been cut out of the movie completely.  This movie would have been stronger if it had focused on the bond between Trevor and Phoebe instead.  Every time the movie cut to Trevor and Lucky, I felt myself instantly become bored and wanted to go back to any of the more interesting characters.

I really like Carrie Coon as an actress.  She's great on Fargo and she does what she can here.  The problem is her character, who I think we are supposed to like and sympathize with, straight up sucks.  She's a pretty terrible mother, but all of her crap is played off like it's quirky and endearing.  Nothing takes me out of a movie faster than when how I feel about a character doesn't match what the movie wants me to feel.

Finally, I would like to mention that I think the filmmakers of this movie don't fully understand what makes the original so great.  It's not the ghosts or the deep mythos surrounding Gozer and Zuul.  The first movie is about a group of schlubby guys who start a wacky business together.  The movie works because of how the characters interact and the dynamic of the cast.  It was never about the spectacle or the special effects.  Go back and watch the original.  There really isn't much actual ghostbusting going on.  If we're going to get any more films in this franchise, I really hope the filmmakers go back and take a look at what made the original a classic.

Verdict:

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a big step up from Ghostbusters II and the 2016 film, but it comes nowhere close to the heights of the original.  Grace and Rudd both do a great job, the car chase sequence is a lot of fun, and I appreciate the movie for doing something different (for the most part), however, some of the characters suck and the reliance on references to the original film is simply obnoxious.  It's a mostly entertaining film, but don't spend any money on it.  Wait for it to come out on Netflix or something.

 6/10: Okay