Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ten Second Review: A joyous reboot that embraces being a modern 80s film. With a young cast that just nails it, this is the third Ghostbusters film I hoped for.

Ghostbusters was just the coolest film when I was a kid. Sitting in the same realm as Indiana Jones, it felt kind of grown up to be allowed to watch it. The jokes were a little nudge-nudge-wink-wink (and occasionally outright smutty), the characters seemed so cool and the story was so much fun. My mum loved it so it was one of those films that we’d watch together and her love for it certainly rubbed off on me. I still can’t help but get stuck watching it when I’m scrolling terrestrial TV and it’s on. 

When they announced the previous reboot I was dead excited. A bunch of actresses I love in a remake of an all time classic. Yeah, there was negativity from the outset, but I had faith that it would be fun. I’m happy to admit I was wrong. The film is riddled with issues but I think, it’s biggest problem was feeling it had something to prove. You watch the original and you know the Ghostbusters are smart. They are arrogant, and at points arseholes, but it’s clear they’re smart and comedy is built from that. In the sequel they really want to remind you constantly in a loud and obnoxious way how smart the characters are. It makes it feel like smart people are a joke rather than being funny, like there’s something to be laughed at for being smart.

Callie never knew her dad, but his death (and him leaving her a house) has coincided with her and her two kids being evicted so they’re packing up and leaving. When they arrive in a tiny town in Oklahoma people are shocked to find out that the “dirt farmer” had a family. Her two kids, Trevor and Phoebe, will slowly learn who their Grandpa was and why he was hidden away in the middle of nowhere, hopefully before all his work is lost!

There was so much to love and enjoy about this film, but how it portrayed it’s young characters was the thing that made me the most happy. We weren’t just told that they were smart, we were shown it too. In fact we were mostly just shown it! We weren’t told Trevor could fix cars, we were shown it. We weren’t told Phoebe was au fait with mechanics and electronics, we were shown it. Most importantly we had an adult tell them how cool it was and then tell the adults who laughed at them that they were wrong. In a subtle but joyous way it highlighted the importance of being yourself often being your greatest strength.

I could honestly just write about this and just go off for pages about SEN representation, embracing your passion and highlighting teen angst in a way that doesn’t just mock the kids. I’m sure some might even look at the possibility of queer coding in the film too. Too often “weird” main characters only really serve the function of being mocked and perpetuating the treatment of their real life counterparts, all under the defence that they are at least being represented in pop culture. Not here.

I also loved that it was unashamedly an 80s film. From the aesthetics to the use of puppetry, the filmography to the musical stylings, it wasn’t trying to escape its own cinematic universe, but just update it with modern cinematic technology. 

This actually leads on to the film’s best and worst quality (to varying degrees depending on your sensibilities); it’s use of nostalgia.

This is now among the top points of discussions in this era of remakes and reboots, is it just playing bingo with things we know to give us that rush and fool us into enjoying it. I would say it does well at toeing the line. There’s a slightly confusing use of nostalgia at the beginning of the third act. Certainly funny, just a little confusing of why and how it happens but forgivable because the payoff is worth it. I also think the ending could have pulled back a hair. It felt as though it had done so well and just overplayed it’s hand ever so slightly.

I ended up loving this film so much more than I expected. I won’t be surprised it is gets the Eternals treatment from critics, but I imagine audiences will enjoy it to end. Grumpy middle aged men annoyed that anyone would touch their childhood properties will likely think this film does a disservice to the franchise, but in the real world, I think it embraces the best parts of the originals while offering something new and current as well. I will certainly be rewatching and I hope lots of others do too.