An Unspirited Sequel Review by Alice Jones-Rodgers. If you thought Paul Feig’s controversial, woke-friendly 2016 reboot of ‘Ghostbusters’ was utterly pointless, then you ain’t seen nothing yet! For now, after no less than four COVID-induced delays, comes ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’, a sequel to the 1984 original and the 1989 second instalment directed by Jason Reitman, son of director of those cinematic classics, Ivan Reitman. From the outset, there is no doubt that Jason’s heart was in the right place when he set out to make this film, but the result, despite its hefty dependence on cues from his father’s work is, if you will pardon the expression, oddly unspirited. Of course, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ was at a major disadvantage from the outset, having to follow in the footsteps of two supernatural comedy films which, combined, grossed approximately $455million at US Box Offices alone and became nothing short of a cultural phenomenon. It also had the unenviable tasks of having to both rewrite the wrongs of that 2016 film
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and find a new angle to approach its subject from that would not upset too many ‘Ghostbusters’ fans. As we went to print, ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ had grossed approximately $90million at US Box Offices in just under a month. So, a promising start in terms of bums on seats, but the film has certainly failed to spark the imagination in quite the same way as its predecessors. Perhaps this is something to do with the very different tone of this latest addition to the ‘Ghostbusters’ franchise and the fact that it is something of a schizophrenic mess, on one hand attempting to be a compelling family story within a ghost adventure and on the other, wanting to be a film built upon good old-fashioned nostalgia. The main problem with ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ though is that in just over two hours, nothing actually really happens, with the whole first hour being spent getting to know its characters and remaining time being given over to, not just the ‘N’ word, but a massive over-indulgence in fan service. In comparison, within the first half hour of the 1984 ‘Ghostbusters’, we had gotten to know the three members of the original outfit (Egon Spengler, played by the late Harold Ramis; Peter Venkman, played by Bill Murray and Ray Stantz, played by Dan Akroyd) and they had busted their first ghost, Slimer. The plot of ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ itself is solid enough and one that we
