Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

★★½
I have not seen the 2016 reboot Ghostbusters, with its all-female cast a magnet for intense criticism, some of which is deserved if its infamous trailer is any indication. If I decide to see it, I'll be fair. Until then, we have this third official entry in the Ghostbusters canon, and though it neatly continues the narrative from the original movies, it still falls short of truly standing on its own. Too many callbacks to the first film, some genuinely funny, suggest that director and co-writer Jason Reitman was preoccupied with distancing his project from the reboot. It's not so much one step forward and two steps back—maybe one step forward and half a step back. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is clever, but once it was over, I felt like if another 30+ years went by without another entry, then I could just as well declare this series over.

Egon Spengler, once played to perfection by the late Harold Ramis, left behind all that he knew to live in the countryside and battle a new evil. That is all we know at the beginning before we jump to his estranged daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace). The Spengler family is suffering through financial difficulties, and Callie harbors resentment towards Egon, whom she feels abandoned her as a child. Her children are unaware of their bloodline. When Callie receives an eviction notice, she takes Trevor and Phoebe to Egon's farmhouse in Summerville, Oklahoma. There, the townspeople talk unkindly about Egon, calling him the dirt farmer who was largely aloof from the residents.

The children stumble around and slowly uncover clues that lead to a reveal of Egon's motivation. The inquisitive Phoebe, a lover of science, slowly comes to admire her grandfather, while her summer school teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) provides much of the background on the Ghostbusters, as he is an ardent fan and recognizes the Ghostbuster equipment that Trevor and Phoebe find. Ivo Shandor, the architect mentioned in the first movie, founded Summerville and mined the local ore to build the apartment building that was the center of supernatural activity in Ghostbusters. I appreciated the story's effort to explore Ivo's background and his obsession with antagonist Gozer. This narrative thread adds depth and a backstory and serves as a nice complement to the first film. I would have liked more revelations like this. A deep dive into a movie's origins can be a fascinating journey, one that does not need to be interrupted by mini-Stay Puft Marshmallow Men, whose appearance is humorous but doesn't follow the logic of the first movie, in which they were conjured up thanks to Ray Stantz's overactive imagination. Here, they emerge from Stay Puft bags at Wal-Mart, even though they aren't one of Gozer's minions. Their inclusion is simply for recognition.

Once the threat is fully revealed, the new Ghostbusters, comprised of siblings Trevor and Phoebe along with Trevor's co-worker Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) and Phoebe's classmate Podcast (Logan Kim), don the traditional Ghostbuster garb and weaponry to chase down ghosts and foil Gozer's comeback attempt. Along the way familiar faces and names enter the picture. Annie Potts makes a brief cameo as Janine, while Gozer lackeys Vinz Clortho and Zuul return to possess two bodies to gain humanoid form. A lot of this is fun. The soundtrack hits all the right notes, evoking the dreadful atmosphere while maintaining a comedic undercurrent. This is, after all, a comedy series, and there's some funny dialogue and humorous situations throughout. Handing the reigns over to teenagers was risky. The original Ghostbusters were adults who could fully analyze a situation to find the correct course of action. Here, the four teens could have easily come across as forced, as if the filmmakers were appealing to the children in the audience while putting these characters in unbelievable situations. Thankfully, the script by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman never puts them in serious danger. Late in the film, the teens even receive backup that takes the burden off their shoulders, making their situation manageable.

A lot of the movie works, but when it was over there was no feeling that this was an event. It's been over thirty years since we last visited this world, yet where's the feeling that we just saw something unique? The first film had a great concept (trapping ghosts for profit) combined with groundbreaking special effects and a music video that was an M.T.V. hit. Bill Murray's performance was also a selling point. Paul Rudd here doesn't even remotely approach Murray's pedestal. He was obviously cast so that the producers could include a popular actor in the ads (I wasn't familiar with anyone else, except for the cameo appearances), but ultimately this movie doesn't need him. The nostalgia factor alone is what audiences want to see. Rudd is a terrific actor, adding his personal stamp to Ant-Man to make that character his own, while his characters in Anchorman and This is 40 are uniquely his own creations. Rudd's Gary Grooberson, on the other hand, could have been played by anybody.

I appreciate that Ghostbusters: Afterlife is here. I understand why it was made. In fact, it needed to be made. Fair or unfair, 2016's Ghostbusters was the source of a lot of negativity, which needed to be erased. If Afterlife had never come along, then Ghostbusters would still have disappeared, but this movie acts as the coup de grâce, forever ensuring that the 2016 film will never spawn any sequels. Even if this movie falls short of greatness, it still served a purpose, so for that I'm thankful.

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