Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

 6/10

 Starring

Carrie Coon

Finn Wolfhard

Mckenna Grace

Paul Rudd

 

Directed by Jason Reitman

 

This movie is not as amazing as the first two original Ghostbusters movies, but it outshines the third. When I saw the name Paul Rudd, I expected him to somehow take the spotlight and lead the way, but his role in the movie is more of a supporting character. He wasn't too present in driving the story. The main character and the lady who stole the show is Mckenna Grace, who plays Phoebe Spengler, the granddaughter of Egon Spengler.

Mckenna was so amazing in this movie that she became like a beacon for the other actors to reflect from. The movie doesn't focus on the adults, but the three young ones: Phoebe, Trevor Spengler, and their friend, Podcast.

Afterlife is the sequel to Ghostbusters (1984) and Ghostbusters II (1989). It is the fourth film in the Ghostbusters franchise and is set 32 years after the events of Ghostbusters II. This movie sidesteps Ghostbusters (2016), and I’m more than glad it did, treating it like it didn’t happen.

I like the idea of how they incorporated the passing of the late Harold Ramis into the movie and made him somewhat of a hero who sacrificed everything to save the world. The movie spent so much on location and sets but had little left for graphics, because the graphics in this movie were weak.

The story starts with an old man on a farm who seems to be setting up something to catch a ghost. The suspicion of who that was didn’t last long, as we discover many years later who it was and how he died. It was Egon Spengler, and he died at the hands of a ghost.

Now, his daughter, who is the mother of two—Trevor and Phoebe—is facing financial strain and chooses to live on her father’s farm. On getting there, we learn that Egon was called "the dirt farmer," as his farm had no produce and was covered in dirt, which he seemed to always be bothered to care for.

Phoebe soon discovers that there is a ghost in the house—a nice, friendly one—and when she gets to school, she learns that her grandfather was Egon Spengler, a ghostbuster. She makes friends with a young man in her class named Podcast, whom she shows the ghost trap that the ghost in her house showed her. Their summer class teacher sees the two with the trap and knows immediately what it is. He activates it and releases a ghost.

She then deduces that the ghost was Egon and, together, they repair a faulty proton pack. From there, she, Trevor, and Podcast become unlicensed ghostbusters. They chase down a ghost at a foundry and make a mess of the town using the single proton pack.

It was from there that the movie kicked off a new drive, as we discover what Egon was working on and why he distanced himself from his friends and family.

The movie brought back the old crew in one way or another. We even see Sigourney Weaver in the after-credits. The guys pick up their proton packs again and save the world. Harold Ramis, who passed away before the shooting of the movie, is seen as a ghost.