Ghostbusters: Afterlife

[batson]

Fuck yeah, new trailer!

I don't want to sound hyperbolic but I have litteraly waited my whole life for this movie. I was born in 1986, and I have been watching the original 1984 Ghostbusters for as long as I can remember, and I'm pretty sure that I saw Ghostbusters 2 as soon as it came out on VHS as a toddler in 1989. Throughout my childhood in the 90's, I dreamt about a Ghostbusters 3. Me and my younger siblings used to act out our own versions of Ghostbusters 3, and I even once wrote my own script for the movie. And my hope that the movie would eventually materialize kept being upheld by the fact that every now and then news would pop up in the media that "talks are being held regarding a third Ghostbusters movie". This continued into my teenage years and my adulthood.

Now of course the big elephant in the room is that there was a third Ghostbusters movie, namely the 2016 film. But as for me, it never felt like the actual Ghostbusters 3 for one very simple reason; it was a reboot. It was a movie that pretended that the first two films never happened, and that Ray, Egon, Venkman and Winston never even existed. That' s just something that I personally could never accept.

But here we are in 2021 and in a few moths my childhood dream, as well as the childhood dreams of millions of other people, will finally come true! And from the looks of this trailer, it looks like it could be one hell of a movie! We'll get to see spooks of all kinds including familiar faces like the terror dogs and new kawaii versions of Mr Stay Puffed. Oh and when Ray answered the phone right at the end ofthe trailer? Goosebumps!

Out of all the upcoming works of pop culture coming in the near future, this is by far the one I'm most excited about! What are your thoughts?

[KingMario05]

Ey, this looks cool... but I'm still confused why Sony isn't showing us jokes. They didn't forget that the first one was a comedy, right?

Spoiler

Only asking cause it's Sony... there is a non-zero chance they did this and you know it.

 

[Winston]

I'm way too excited for this film. Jason Reitman has made some incredible films, even if there have been a few stinkers here and there, but he is an extremely talented director and writer. I'm sure he is giving this film his all, especially given this is his father's legacy. The cast looks great, Paul Rudd especially fits a Ghostbusters film, and I can't wait to see the original cast playing the same characters again. I've wanted a Ghostbusters sequel for so long, and although the video game is the true Ghostbusters 3, this one seems to be a good send-off for the original team while also honoring Harold Ramis. 

I've also been seeing a lot of people mention the lack of humor on other sites, but I don't mind it evolving into something slightly more serious if it gives us a good movie in return. Ghostbusters is also a very dry comedy, so you're not going to be getting bombastic comedy moments all the time, so I'm sure they're saving some of the more funny scenes for the film. 2016 failed horribly at the comedy because it was constantly loud and in your face, the antithesis of the original's humor. I'm a much bigger fan of this direction than going all out on obnoxious comedy, but I doubt it'll be devoid of jokes. Paul Rudd was cast in this for a reason, and I think he's pretty good at dry comedy so he fits the bill. 

[Danj86]

35 minutes ago, Winston said:

I've also been seeing a lot of people mention the lack of humor on other sites, but I don't mind it evolving into something slightly more serious if it gives us a good movie in return. Ghostbusters is also a very dry comedy, so you're not going to be getting bombastic comedy moments all the time, so I'm sure they're saving some of the more funny scenes for the film. 2016 failed horribly at the comedy because it was constantly loud and in your face, the antithesis of the original's humor. I'm a much bigger fan of this direction than going all out on obnoxious comedy, but I doubt it'll be devoid of jokes. Paul Rudd was cast in this for a reason, and I think he's pretty good at dry comedy so he fits the bill. 

I agree with you on that one. I feel like those expecting a Ghostbusters trailer to be all laughs, don't understand what the Ghostbusters were all about. They always balanced the tones of horror/occult and comedy a very specific way. It felt like the movies had steaks because they took the horror elements seriously. Something 2016 failed to do. (Among other things.)

Yes, it's a comedy. But it also had some very weird stuff going on. It was very grounded in how it handled the themes, making immersion more significant and the characters more likable as a result.

[batson]

I also prefer a Ghostbusters movie with slightly more muted humor over one with obnoxiously loud and in-your-face humor like what we saw in the 2016 film. Of course in the best of worlds it'd be perfectly balanced humor like in the first two films, but, you know, given one or the other.

[batson]

So I just saw the film.

You know, I'm gonna be a total hypocrite now considering that I recently wrote a long post in another thread where I lamented how nostalgia for older franchises overrides modern audiences appreciation for anything new, but...

That was nostalgic as fuck and I fucking loved it!

The movie is good. Not great, but good. The new main characters are actually charming, the nerdy girl especially. The story feels a little thin for a lot of the movie but it really picks up towards the end. The ghosts and monsters are great too, both the returning ones that have in some cases been partialy recreated with the same technology used in the original film (practical Terror dogs yo!) and the new ones that truly manage to feel like they come from the same universe as the classic ones. Also a fun easter egg for Ghostbusters super nerds like me to spot the one "new" ghost based on one of the classic Ghostbuters toys!

Spoiler

Of course for me as a lifelong Ghostbsuters super fan, by far the highlight of the movie was seeing the original ghostbusters reunite after all this time. I more or less had constant chills for the whole time they were on screen. It's a feeling caused more by nostalgia than by anything built up by the new movie, I know that, but sometimes you just gotta let yourself feel without at the same time questioning why you feel. You can do that once you get home from the theater instead.

Speaking of nostalgia, I have to admit that I do kinda agree with a lot of critics that say that the movie doesn't stand all that well on it's own, that it almost requres not just knowledge of but maybe even appreciation of the first film in order to truly work. It's a movie made for Ghostbuters fans, basically. Of course you could argue that this is acceptable due to it being a direct sequel as opposed to a reboot, but then again some sequels do manage to stand relatively well on their own in the sense that they're equally enjoyable to people that don't have any kind of relationship to the older movies (Terminator 2 is a good example). Don't get me wrong I'm sure it's an enjoyable movie even for people who don't care about Ghostbusters, but I don't think any non-Ghostbusters fans are gonna consider the highlight of the movie year.

As for me personally though, I'm glad this movie exist. It satisfied an itch I haven't been able to scratch for 30 years. I guess now that "see Ghostbuters 3" have been accomplished, I have to think of a new life goal.