‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ breathes fresh new life into a classic

Hollywood always returns to tried and tested formulas with the hopes of bringing the audience to the theaters and scoring a hit in this very unpredictable landscape of movies. With comic book adaptations cornering the theaters – pushing comedies and non-Oscar bait dramas straight to streaming – the old checklists of ensuring a hit in the theaters is completely gone. This has led to some unappealing remakes and reboots of some “classic” IPs. There was Tom Cruise’s ‘The Mummy’ and ‘Men in Black: International,’ who had a great cast but a hollow script, ‘Terminator Genisys,’ and a few others. Appealing to nostalgia is a difficult juggling act as you have to introduce new audiences to the material while trying to satisfy the fans of the original but still delivering something new and refreshing.

It’s why I was wary of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ because what if this is just another appeal to nostalgia? Another cash grab of a famous IP, especially since ‘Ghostbusters: Answer the Call’ was met with some mixed reviews and was not the big hit it was expected to be. 

I shouldn’t have worried. From the very start, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ felt refreshing and new. Sure, there were rampant Easter Eggs left and right at the beginning but the focus of the film is on the new characters that they bring in. We are introduced to Callie (played by the very versatile Carrie Coon), who is struggling to make ends meet and she has to uproot herself and her whole family – Trevor (played by Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace) – to Oklahoma to a farm her estranged father had left her. The house is a wreck and they don’t know anyone in town but having no choice, the dysfunctional family has to try and start a new life here.

Director Jason Reitman and screenwriters Reitman and Gil Kenan take their time to really establish the family dynamics. Trevor is rebelling (as all teenagers do) and Phoebe, who displays antisocial tendencies but is truly gifted with science and machines, and both have a tenuous relationship with their mother. Callie is at her wit’s end and she now has to face her unresolved feelings with her father as she deals with the legacy he has left behind.

And this is where the story begins to tether into Ghostbuster lore. Because, as hinted by the opening scene, Callie’s estranged father was a Ghostbuster. Slowly and organically, as Trevor and Phoebe discover who and what the Ghostbusters are (showing clips from the old movies as news footage) the worlds of the original film and this sequel start to collide.

As the trailer shows us, the little town of Sommerville in Oklahoma is about to be run over by ghosts, and Phoebe and new friend Podcast (the hilarious Logan Kim) must take the mantle that was left behind at the old house and stop the ghosts with the help of Trevor, his love interest Lucky (played by Celeste O’Connor) and Phoebe’s science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd).

The film really takes its time to develop characters, relationships, and then the discovery of who and what the Ghostbusters are, and while all these elements are being brought up, Reitman weaves them into each other so that the film never feels scattered and all over the place. There is heavy use of elements from the first two movies but it’s never self-referential. It’s the story that was chosen to be told and it connects it directly with the first two installments of the franchise and this makes it feel like it’s doing something new with the IP.

The story is fast-paced and there’s quite a great number of funny moments and tense scenes, and at the very heart of it is a sensitive and touching story about a family that needs to embrace – not just their history and legacy – but their weirdness. 

‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ is a fun movie that can be enjoyed by people who loved the first films or who’ve never seen it. There’s space in the filmmaking for both audiences. McKenna Grace manages to carry the film with the strength of her performance (and with a lot of help from Logan Kim, whose comic timing is impeccable) and I will always watch any movie with Carrie Coon in it. I shouldn’t have worried. This is how you make a new installment out of a thirty-year-old franchise.

My Rating:

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Ghostbusters: Afterlife is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures and now showing in cinemas nationwide. Find a cinema near you.

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