Cody Hamman busts out with some Film Appreciation for Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Many Ghostbusters fans spent twenty-seven years hoping to see a sequel to the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II. One that would have Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Harold Ramis suiting up as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, and Egon Spengler to bust some more ghosts. We probably would have seen at least one sequel during that time, if Murray wasn't so disinterested in the idea of starring in a Ghostbusters III. But then Ramis passed away in 2014, assuring that we'd never see the original team together in full again. A couple years after that, the franchise got a reboot. It had officially parted company with the original 'busters.
Then, an unexpected turn of events. It was announced that we were going to get a Ghostbusters III. One directed by Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II director Ivan Reitman - and also a director who said he would never direct a Ghostbusters movie, because he didn't make that sort of film. He makes movies like Thank You for Smoking, Juno, Up in the Air, and Young Adult. He joked that if he made a Ghostbusters movie, it would just be about the guys sitting around talking. But then he was struck by an image that he imagined. The visual of a young girl, wearing a ghost-busting proton pack, standing in a field. And with co-writer Gil Kenan, he started building a story around this girl.
As it turns out, that girl is twelve-year-old Phoebe, played by Mckenna Grace. She and her teenage brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) have been brought to the small, middle-of-nowhere town of Summerville, Oklahoma by their financially-troubled single mother Callie (Carrie Coon) to check out the plot of land and crumbling farmhouse that has been left to Callie by her absent father. Her now-deceased dad was known as a strange, reclusive "dirt farmer" to the people of Summerville, nobody actually knew who he was. His friend Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) isn't giving much information other than the fact that he left behind a lot of debt. But the audience is quite aware that this man was Egon Spengler. We even see him being killed by supernatural forces at the beginning of the movie. His family will also gradually learn who Egon was, why he was in Summerville, and why the place keeps getting hit with daily earthquakes.
Grace is really the star of the film, which makes sense given that her character was the younger Reitman's reason for making this Ghostbusters in the first place, and she does a terrific job bringing Phoebe to life. She may have never met Egon, she doesn't even know about the existence of the Ghostbusters until about a quarter of the way into the movie, but is exactly the sort of kid you would expect to be the granddaughter of Egon. She is a genius like he was, awkward, but making an effort to connect with people by coming up with corny jokes. Voluntarily attending summer school, she befriends a kid who calls himself Podcast (Logan Kim) because he has a podcast. She also crosses paths with seismologist Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who is supposed to be teaching the summer school class but instead just shows the kids movies like Cujo and Child's Play on VHS while investigating the inexplicable earthquakes. Being older, he knows exactly who the Ghostbusters were. He also has an interest in Callie. And being Paul Rudd, he brings some fun humor into the movie.
While the movie follows Phoebe as she pieces together the secrets of Summerville, there are also scenes dealing with Trevor making friends, pursuing a girl called Lucky (Celeste O'Connor), and fixing up that cool old ambulance he found out in his grandfather's barn. The Ghostbusters' vehicle Ecto-1.
Some viewers have said that Ghostbusters: Afterlife relies too heavily on nostalgia, that it has too many callbacks and features too many things from the original film. As the story goes on, we will see the Terror Dogs, and we will see a new variation on the Stay Puft marshmallow man - which doesn't entirely make sense because Stay Puft was in the first movie for a very specific reason. But maybe these supernatural forces have nostalgia and like callbacks, too. While repeating so many things wouldn't have been my choice, I don't think it's the worst thing a sequel could have done when it's been more than thirty years since the previous sequel and we're coming up on the fortieth anniversary of the first movie. At this point, celebrating the original is kind of the primary purpose behind making a sequel. It also makes sense for the story that the threat in this movie ties back to what the Ghostbusters dealt with in 1984.
Jason Reitman did bring a different tone and style to this movie than his father brought to the first two; in fact, there were times during Afterlife where I thought, "This is kind of what it would have been like if Steven Spielberg directed a Ghostbusters movie." I got a classic Spielbergian vibe from the way Reitman shot scenes and had the story play out. Not too surprisingly, given his comments on directing a Ghostbusters movie in the past, I did find that he handled the character scenes and the build-up better than he did the paranormal activity... but the ghost stuff works well enough, and Reitman captured some great visuals along the way.
He did an incredible job of making sure Egon Spengler was a presence in this movie, despite the fact that we lost Ramis years ago. Some of that is due to computer trickery, as actor Bob Gunton was the stand-in for scenes involving Egon, and his face was digitally replaced by Ramis's. But Egon is also around a lot, even when we can't see him. Then there are moments when we can see him, done in a respectful and effectively emotional way.
Egon isn't the only Ghostbuster who suits up. Murray, Aykroyd, and Hudson are in here as well. We get to see them as Venkman, Stantz, and Zeddemore again, something that had been looking like it would never happen. Murray said all along that he didn't want to be in a Ghostbusters III for very long if one was made, and he's not in this one for long. But Reitman found a way to have him only show up as Venkman for a short time and yet it's still satisfying.
It was great to see the original Ghostbusters again, and I enjoyed the time spent with the new characters as well. I was pleasantly surprised at how well Reitman included Egon. I thought it was awesome to see father and son Reitman working side-by-side on this film; not only was Ivan Reitman on board as producer, but he was also heavily involved in the marketing, often doing interviews and appearances with his son. And he's in the movie. For a shot of Egon's hands, Jason Reitman had his father stand in as the character. This was all nice to see at the time, and it became even more touching when Ivan Reitman passed away soon after the release of the film. It's really beautiful that Jason Reitman got to have the experience of making a Ghostbusters movie with his father before he lost him. Especially this particular Ghostbusters movie, which tells an emotional story about a father / grandfather.
I appreciate Ghostbusters: Afterlife for bringing the original Ghostbusters back. For continuing the old story in such a fun, interesting way, and doing it with so much heart. And for giving us a Jason Reitman / Ivan Reitman collaboration just in time.
That Mckenna Grace song that plays over the end credits is really cool, too.
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