Ghostbusters: Afterlife - Dialing It In
By Liam Lacey
Rating: C
Jason Reitman’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a sequel to his father Ivan’s hit 1984 comedy about paranormal exterminators, is an exercise in family homage and over-familiar exorcism.
Though less than heavenly, it has some bright spots, including its star, a 12-year-old girl science-nerd protagonist named, Phoebe, with round glasses and a floppy pile of curls on her head that make her look a little like an adolescent Billie-Jean King. As played by Mckenna Grace, she’s deadpan and klutzy and endearing.
Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Podcast (Logan Kim, left). A new generation does the same old thing.
As the film begins, Phoebe and her teen brother, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard, of Stranger Things) are moving homes after their financially-strapped mom, Callie (Carrie Coon) gets evicted. They’re relocating to the small town of Summerville, Oklahoma, where Callie has inherited a dilapidated farm house from her long-estranged, eccentric “dirt farmer” father. The movie holds off on revealing who the father was and his connection to the original Ghostbusters’ movie.
Another bright spot is the way Ghostbusters: Afterlife nails the tone of ‘80s films, what critic J. Hoberman called the “re-illusionment” of the Reagan era: ie, the nostalgia for a more innocent period, a fascination with technology, the slightly quaint production design, the quirky kids and irreverent family humour. Phoebe’s mother’s advice for her social misfit daughter, heading off to summer school, is a typical family joke: “Don’t be yourself,” which seems a little cruel for a 12-year-old.
PROUDLY SUPPORTS ORIGINAL-CIN
What isn’t good is the jumbled organization of the film, and the way it attempts to force the past into the present. Co-written by Reitman and Gil Kenan, the filmmakers attempt to reanimate objects from the original film (proton packs, traps, and various puffy cartoon ghosts) in ways that submerge a potentially charming family comedy in the gloop of nostalgia.To be fair, there is an audience who have watched Ghostbusters many times and will be deeply pleased to see all their favourite things reappear on screen again. Jason Reitman has even promised the film is “the biggest Easter Egg hunt of all time.”
For the first hour or so, the pursuit is more about the story. On her first day of summer school, Phoebe meets a kindred oddball, a local kid who calls himself Podcast (Logan Kim), because he does a lot of podcasting, and Trevor meets Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) a cool local girl who works at the local roller-skate diner.
Even Callie finds a budding romantic interest with science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd). Grooberson shows ‘80s’ horror movies to his class. Soon though, he collaborates with the brainiac Phoebe, to trace strange earthquakes in the area.
By the time Phoebe and her friends have uncovered her grandfather’s old proton pack, ghost trap and Ecto-1 car in the garage, viewers will know grandfather was original Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (played by the late Harold Ramis, to whom the film is dedicated).
In short order, it’s the ghost-pocalypse all over again. When the kids end up in jail for a variety of juvenile crimes, they have just one phone call. But to whom?
In the movie’s last 10 minutes, some original cast members arrive onscreen, though not all in the flesh. There’s also the CG resurrection of the Sumerian deity, Gozer, who we didn’t know we missed. And as purple light streams from the sky, there is both mumbo and jumbo in great amounts. In other words, what should have been the narrative climax of the new Ghostbusters is a retread of the part of the original movie that’s best forgotten.
Director: Jason Reitman Written by Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman. Starring: Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Paul Rudd, Logan Kim, Celeste O'Connor. Ghostbusters: Afterlife is available in theatres as of Friday, Nov. 19.