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Ghostbusters Afterlife


Darth Krawlie
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So many thoughts. First, this feels way closer to the originals than the remake did. As someone put it, the originals were horror films written by and starting comedians, the remake was straight comedy. Also liked the hint about him being Egon's grandson, which would've been my guess. Great way to keep him in the story even though he can't be in the movie.

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Funny thing is I didn't like Ghostbusters 2 when it came out. It just didn't have the same charm as the first. Watching it again and again on TV, the movie grew on me because it had its own charm. Still not on the level of the original, but enjoyable as part of the "universe".

 

I actually walked out of the remake thinking it was okay. I did fall asleep for the last 20-25 minutes according to my wife. When it came out in video I was glad I feel asleep. OMG that ending was horrible. Instead of blaming the bad story it had to be sexism.

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Answer The Call was fun, but it was very forgettable fun. The leads in it actually did a good job to save it from totally being trash. McCarthy was a little too over the top, but Wiig and McKinnon killed with what lackluster material they had to work with.

 

I'm super interested in what Jason Reitman is doing with this. He obviously will have no apologies for both going with his indie-talkie vibe or taking it to an entirely new space. Going a totally different direction with it makes me totally in.

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So many thoughts. First, this feels way closer to the originals than the remake did. As someone put it, the originals were horror films written by and starting comedians, the remake was straight comedy. Also liked the hint about him being Egon's grandson, which would've been my guess. Great way to keep him in the story even though he can't be in the movie.

I actually think it feels way off-- tonally nothing like the original. Don't get me wrong, I think it looks cool, but it doesn't strike me at all as the same universe as the original.

 

I do love they added the side gunner chair from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon to the Ecto-1.

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I think

 

1) this reverent approach to earlier pop cultural material and integrating of the processes of production into the narrative embodied by this trailer is just going to be the default for every one of these make'em'ups from here on in until the seas boil and the sky falls down, huh? Everything's gonna be a Force Awakens / Jurassic World (which literally had Jake Johnson wandering around inside itself wearing old merch commenting on plotholes) / Endgame no matter how poorly that angle of attack matches the story they're continuing, because that's what made the biggest bucks and if you're gonna be making a make'em'up you might as well shoot for that as your target.

 

2) considering that Netflix doesn't publish any consistent and externally verifiable metrics of how successful their stuff is it's, uh, strange to see everything become Stranger Things. How popular is Stranger Things? It could be the most popular television show of all time. It could just be a hit with show-biz people, nerds, and a smattering of regular folks. I guess what I'm saying is that in light of that absence of Nielsen ratings or box office results the transmutation of so much of our popular culture into Stranger Things represents a bold creative choice.

 

3) GET THAT MONEY, CARRIE COON! GET EVERY DOLLAR THEY"LL THROW YOUR WAY WHILE THE GETTING IS GOOD! YOU DESERVE IT! YOU DESERVE IT ALL!

 

[4) I thunked another thought! The overseas market, v. spec. the Chinese one! Are they going to retitle Ghostbusters : Afterlife into something different in Mandarin, just like they had to do a scant few years ago for Ghostbusters : Answer The Call (The Call Being Little Else Than Paul Feig's Entirely Laudable Need To Provide A Surfeit of Minor To Major Roles To The Cast Of His Recently Cancelled Yahoo!Television Series 'Other Space', Honestly, Good For Him)? The one true science, socialism w/Chinese characteristics, as exemplified by the Great Helmsman, Leader, Eternal Core of the Party, Xi Jinping, innovator of Xi Jinping Thought, just does not allow whatsoever for the explicit acceptance of folk supernatural phenomena! There is no life after death! Religious dogma is poison! They're going to get their ghost movie (but the ghosts aren't really ghosts, Xi, we promise!) rejected, China only allows a handful of select blockbusters to play in their theatres! Sony! Sony! Sony! This elegiac tone and clear thematic preoccupation with the ravages of time, how our pasts define us, all this funereal horror, this sense of unmistakable capital-D Death, the Terrence Malick of it all, it's gonna eff up all these plans big time! Them putting that Bill Murray quote in the trailer and recontextualizing it from a moment of humour into near-pathos practically dooms the entire commercial enterprise, I mean, "Call it fate, call it luck, call it karma, I believe everything happens for a reason"? Karma? Karma? Karma! They may as well be advocating for the speedy return of the Dalai Lama to his Tibetan homeland! Should have just let Dan Aykroyd in a moustache party around w/the ladies from the last movie while shilling his vodka, Sony!]

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  • 1 year later...

It was good, if only for some solid performances, and it's well shot.  Nothing memorable though.  Just a retelling of the first film, for the most part.  

Quite a few things to nitpick but if I saw the original film at the age of 44, I'd probably nitpick the shit out of that as well. 

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I loved it!  I wasn't expecting to enjoy it so much going in.  A couple of minor nitpicks...

SPOILERS...

1) I find it hard to swallow that Egon's teammates wouldn't believe his apocalyptic claims.  They thought he was crazy?  After everything they'd seen, how does anything still sound crazy?

2) No Slimer cameo!  Not that big of a deal, but how does a Ghostbusters film not have a slimer cameo?  Did I miss him somewhere?  

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I loved it. I'm that kid watched birth the Ghostbusters and Real Ghostbusters cartoons. I'll agree with a few of the criticisms of the movie. Not many of them affect the overall product imo. The one that nails it is that this movie doesn't stand in is own. It relies heavily on nostalgia. When i realized who was haunting the house I was sold. I'm surprised i haven't read about Phoebe being a Mary Sue. She kinda was.

I agree Q about Ray's explanation. Even if you wanted to move on from the Ghostbusters, not believing Egon after what you went through is preposterous.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm guessing it has something to do with this being Nostalgia: The Movie. Some of it was way too on the nose... HEY REMEMBER THAT TIME GOZER ASKED IF I WAS A GOD AND I SAID NO LAST TIME WELL THIS TIME I'LL SAY YES LIKE WINSTON TOLD ME TOO WON'T IT BE FUNNY WHEN IT STILL DOESN'T WORK. I enjoyed it but I don't expect it'll be something I revisit, like the first two movies.

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That was definitely part of it. Forced nostalgia is awful. It's such a fine line. I don't think it shouldn't exist, but you have to know how to use it. Look at SW. Why do all the winks and nods in the ST ruin it, while Mando and R1 work amazingly? For me, Afterlife did it the bad way.

Also, I HATE coincidences in movies. It's weak storytelling. So many things happen in this movie just because the story needed them to. The first time Phoebe puts on a proton pack and there just happens to be a ghost next door? The only person who cares about Ghostbusters happens to be her teacher? The demon dogs escape and have an entire town of people to choose from and pick the two adult characters? I hate when things happen without logic or reason for the story, and only because the story requires them too.

Worse than coincidences, is when a movie breaks its own rules/logic. Why did the PKE meter only sense Egon? Why was Egon not effected by the super ghost trap at the end? And as a couple of you pointed out, why would the team not believe Egon when he was right about everything else? I also can't stand it in horror or horror adjacent films that destroy logic by escalating too quickly without recourse. Phoebe, Podcast, and Ant Man free a ghost, then just go about their business. Stranger Things sees shit down in the mine, it flies past him, and then he acts like nothing ever happened.

Probably the biggest thing for me though is that as far as storytelling goes the script makes a major mistake in that there is no conflict. We get TOLD Gozer is coming back, okay cool. But no one ever has anything really go wrong that we feel. Okay, mom is poor and sad about her dad, but they never sell it.

I absolutely HATE the term Mary Sue. It's an anti-feminist criticism that comes from bro-critics when they can't handle a female lead character in their nerd fantasies. Rey and Captain Marvel were not Mary Sues. Phoebe though... the girl never makes a wrong choice, never fails at anything, knows how to do everything, is right about everything, never loses anything to fight to get back, and never changes a single bit. I don't mind a little girl being the her, but imagine if she was more like one of the Stranger Things Kids, or Elliot from ET, or Mikey from Goonies. Kids should be a bit of a mess and always adapting in fun ways.

And okay, I lied there is one thing I think is even a bigger sin being committed with this movie: it wasn't funny. Sure, there were a few chuckles and guffaws, but tonally and structurally, it was NOT a comedy. Given that the original is, I find this to be unforgivable. Structurally speaking, every movie follows the same sort of 3 act structure, but the way you build on that varies from genre to genre. Afterlife was written in the Star Wars / Marvel style. It was an adventure movie with big set pieces, with a lot of light hearted goofy characters who face big moments. A comedy, like say the original GB, is written around ACTUAL JOKES. Every scene in a comedy is built around at least 3 set ups and punchlines. Afterlife didn't do that, and I have a big issue with sequels who decide to not tonally match the original. 

I'm not a total monster, I liked things here and there. Podcast stole the movie for sure.

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I can understand your critiques. Especially that the movie really isn't a comedy. Phoebe's dad jokes were cute, but it wasn't enough to carry the movie.

I think any real continuation of this story is best left for a television series. I'm thinking animated, but i don't see that having any legs. If cast right a live action show could be good. Which brings me to the second post credit scene. At first i was like "yeah what happened to the containment unit?" Then my memory kicked in. Didn't Ray tell Phoebe that the building was turned into a Starbucks or something like that? Yet Winston buys the old rundown building and wants to restore it? They focus on the containment unit and infer that something is still inside it. But dickless shut it down in the first movie. That's what caused the Gozer incident in the first place. They started the business again in the second movie, but the only ghosts we see them catch are the Scoleri Brothers. I'm probably overthinking this one.

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