While Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a fun time at the movies it relies too heavily on the nostalgia and love for the original that it completely forgets to create its own story. Now, I love the original Ghostbusters, it’s absolutely hilarious and such a fun time. But, what this installment is missing is it’s own legs and own heart.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is fun and an easy afternoon watch. It has some good action and the Walmart scene is the best part of the movie in my opinion, after the final fight scene. It has it’s moments and it can be pretty funny at times. McKenna Grace is also so talented that I did enjoy her character. Paul Rudd is also doing his most Paul Rudd stuff which is always great.
That’s pretty much all I really enjoyed about the film. I was enjoying myself while I was watching it, but realized afterward that I would probably not watch it again after I left the theater and would forget a lot about it. It’s sad because the original is one that I still remember almost everything about.
What Ghostbusters: Afterlife is missing is it’s own story. The story relies too heavily on nostalgia and basically copies the original scene by scene. It makes the movie feel very dull and uninteresting because we have seen it already. There are a few new moments that are cool, yes, but about 90% of the movie is a shot for shot remake.
I feel as though we need to remember what an important sequel means. You can use things from the original to build a new story for the sequel. But, there needs to be enough new to keep audiences interested and engaged, but still enough from the original that the film still feels part of the same world and recreates that love. Ghostbusters: Afterlife missed that part and I felt almost no originality from this.
They could have introduced so many more cool ghosts or a new ghost leader, but instead went for the exact same concept. While you’ll enjoy yourself watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife, you’ll most likely not return to it any time soon or be begging for another.
I give Ghostbusters: Afterlife a C-
