GHOSTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE (2021)
Another week, another soft reboot. Looking back, it seems as though the success of The Force Awakens is a deeply cursed moment in box office history. Now you can never escape the likes of another psuedo-sequel to Jurassic Park or yet another time-shifting Terminator movie. Even a series like Halloween that was already weighed down by remakes can't escape. And so we come to Ghostbusters, a one-time affair in which sarcastic humour and 1980s special effects wizardry came together to create real movie magic. The second instalment was a hit and miss affair depending who you ask. Then a lot of years went by and Harold Ramis passed away. How could a part three ever happen?
Bill Murray barely seemed interested in the first sequel. Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis went on to make less and less successful movies and eventually faded from sight. The creative juices had clearly dried up in films like Year One and Evolution. But that's okay, after all nothing lasts forever. Sometimes it's best to leave past classics stay as they are, they will always remain as high points. But of course this is another big money making opportunity for the suits at Sony Pictures, so nothing can ever be left alone. Now Harold Ramis can join the likes of Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher, yet another actor recreated as a CGI character that is spooky for all the wrong reasons.
This isn't really a spoiler because this whole misguided effort revolves around Egon Spengler throwing away his friendships, and his new family, to move to a mining town. Here he sets up a lot of lab equipment before failing to stop the supernatural forces at work. Is it weird that he died in real life so now the character has to be killed off? Not as weird as the way this is written just so that him and his buddies can be turned into angry old loners for no reason. Why would the Ghostbusters break up and not believe in his efforts? I might be outraged in that kind of 'not my Luke Skywalker' way I've often heard about, if I wasn't so bored by this whole movie.
Beyond the writing problems that reset this all to zero, for a second time, this is a bland and tedious affair. Only Paul Rudd as teacher Mister Grooberson feels like he's part of a Ghostbusters sequel. If he was a main character along with Carrie Coon as Egon's daughter it could work. Every so often there are glimpses of that old chemistry. But tonally speaking nothing else here feels like a continuation of the series. Instead of being full of dry wit it's all just really dusty and bleached out. The off-beat charm of the original has been drained out and replaced by a group of kids in an empty desert town. Because apparently nobody would sign on for a cameo in this unless it was another wannabe Amblin bike ride.
Is there anything new here at all worth speaking of? Not really. There are entire pieces of Elmer Bernstein's original score shoved in here randomly, making it a pretty distracting experience at times. There's rarely any new arrangement going on, so old cues are now used for new scenes in ways that don't fit. As things go on any attempt at making this a school drama or a teen romance are dropped, so that Callie and Gary can be possessed by the demon dogs Vinz and Zuul. Apparently old Gozer and pals were just sitting down in a mine all these years. Sow why did they need that complicated Manhattan portal in 1984? Don't ask questions, just sit and be amazed by all the recycled assets they have here.
As new kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Podcast (Logan Kim) explore the town secrets it becomes evident that there are hardly any ghosts in this film at all. As well has barely any town residents. In fact there are more food products being plugged than ghostly apparitions. But if it wasn't clear already that the writers involves are devoid of creativity and imagination, they named a character Podcast. To be fair many simple dramatic beats are all present and correct, and not all the elements are without charm. But this is supposed to be a sequel to Ghostbusters and it feels like a cheap soap opera far too often. Wit has been replaced by schmaltz, and the results are forced and awkward.
This isn't another giant mess like The Matrix reboot. But it is just another tired franchise being rebooted to manipulate old fans. It's a carefully constructed release designed to pull at the heart
strings and sate the viewers of a certain age. But the artifice is just
too apparent, and the source of each plot development can be traced not
to older movies, but to other reboots. Ghostbusters has been more of a product than a film series for decades, but that's never been more evident than here. Gary picks up Egon's old ghost trap with awe in the same way that Rey holds Anakin's lightsaber. There are brief moments of fun and occasional gags that land. The cast is solid and the film-making isn't terrible. But it's a drab over-calculated experience.
2/5
BONUS REVIEW
ENCANTO (2021)
Speaking of products, here's the latest Disney musical about magic and family. It's from the same production line as Tangled and Frozen, so even the one word title tells you what you need to know. It's cute and entertaining, the art direction is nice, and occasionally the dance numbers are catchy. If you like this kind of thing, it delivers. This has all the cute talking animals and anthropomorphic furniture you could ever want. In terms of dramatic themes and satisfying outcomes that follow a good through line? Not so much. But generally speaking this is a well rehearsed affair about generational tragedy and what it means to be special.
A married couple flee from an unspecified conflict in rural Columbia. During the escape the husband is killed but the wife is granted a miracle, in the form of a strange candle. She's able to escape with others to a valley, in which the villagers are protected by a magical mountain range and her children are given supernatural powers. They also gain a magical living house that grants powers to children born later. Why her family and not others who lost loved ones? Why these random gifts rather than powers that help the community more directly? It's never clear. Really I shouldn't have to ask these kinds of questions watching a fairy tale, but it's often more complex than it needs to be.
I expected the end result to be a story about how the villagers are over-dependant on the magical residents of House Madrigal. Instead it's kind of about the pressure of being something you're not. It's kind of about overbearing family elders. It's kind of about conformity. Which is ironic when the bulk of the film is firmly in the mould of prior Disney efforts. But Moana probably did it better and the older movies in this vein probably had more memorable tunes. Again, this delivers what you want but it stands as a repeat of old successes, instead of something more left-field. I'd say that would be more of a Pixar trait, but even they've managed to be lacklustre recently. In the end it's just the sum of the usual parts.
3/5
