by Cain Noble-Davies
Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Cary Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Paul Rudd, McKenna Grace
Intro:
... a love letter to the franchise and its fans, made by a fan.
If news broke that the working title for this was Ghostbusters: The Next Generation (or The Ecto-1 Awakens), it wouldn’t be that surprising, since that’s the tone that this film takes overall. It features the grandkids of one of the OG Ghostbusters discovering their family legacy and getting in on the ghost-catching, and the actors here work nicely within that framework.
Finn Wolfhard as Trevor is a little underwhelming here, but that’s offset by McKenna Grace’s Phoebe, who owns every single frame she’s given. The fascination with science, the jargon, even the intentionally-corny jokes, establish her as the natural heir apparent (and possibly ND). Having Paul Rudd as the avatar for the original fan base helps.
As a result of the kid-friendly focus (and not just with the main cast; the humour is also a lot more family-oriented this time around), the film leans towards dramedy rather than scares. It follows the series tradition of taking a while to really get going, but once it’s past the requisite introductions and setup, the action scenes are pretty cool.
But primarily, this is as rose-tinted nostalgic as a film about ghost hunters can really get, which takes on a meta context with the main characters and the film’s director honouring their family history. It’s full of reverence for its predecessors, which manages to find a good niche in its own nostalgia-bait sub-genre (the past coming into contact with the present is how we get ghosts in the first place, after all), and when it gets into full-on tribute, long-time fans had better be prepared for waterworks.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is exactly what Jason Reitman wanted it to be: a love letter to the franchise and its fans, made by a fan. Its nostalgia-heavy trappings will shorten the film’s shelf life, as it doesn’t quite measure up to what it’s tributing, but it’s still a comforting serve of chicken soup for the geek.
