Ghostbusters Afterlife (Review)

Review:

When a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.

Ever since Ghostbusters II was released in 1989, talks of a third movie seemed like they were nothing, but rumor. There were ideas and scripts written by Harold Ramis that would have had the original team venture through hell or the "ghost world" to fight the devil. It even got to the point where the 2009 Ghostbusters video game was being considered as the third official movie by fans since it continued the story taking place two years after the events of Ghostbusters II. While there have been many ideas that floated around of a third Ghostbusters film over the years, a third film would not have been green-lit if it was not for the 2016 reboot, Ghostbusters: Answer The Call, bombing at the box-office.

That brings us to where we are now with Ghostbusters Afterlife, which I am glad to say that this was a really fun movie that stayed spiritually true to the first two movies. The story is slow paced, but it doesn't feel like it dragged for the entire two hours. It had me more invested on the story of Egon's family that felt they were abandoned and were annoyed that they had to drive out to a small town in the middle of nowhere to discover a run down farm, which this family inherited.

Mckenna Grace plays Phoebe, who is the main protagonist of the movie. Her character mimics that of Harold Ramis’s character, Egon, in terms of her interest in science and being an all around super nerd. In contrast, she is socially awkward and apparently has a hard time making friends. That is until Podcast introduces himself allowing her to open up her personality. Between her, her mother, Callie, and her brother, Trevor, Phoebe is the one that takes the most interest in unraveling the mystery behind her grandfather’s legacy.

Logan Kim plays Phoebe’s friend, Podcast, whose personality is like that of Dan Aykroyd’s character Ray. He is always very enthusiastic about everything that is related to the paranormal and unsolved mysteries. He assists Phoebe in solving how her grandfather is connected to the Ghostbusters as well as prepare the traps for the ghosts.

Carrie Coon plays Egon’s daughter and single mother, Callie. She has feelings of resentment towards her father because she felt as though Egon abandoned her when she was a kid. She does not want anything to do with her father’s legacy even keeping the Spengler name hush-hush from her kids until Phoebe discovered the truth.

Finn Wolfhard plays Phoebe’s brother, Trevor, who is a typical hormonal teenager. He is annoyed with his mother for not being able to make enough money to live a stable home life and blames her for falling back on his grandfather’s rundown farm. He takes a liking to a girl named Lucky, which she works at a fast food restaurant called Spinners and lies about his age just so he can get a job at the restaurant and get closer with this girl. The trailers made him out to be the protagonist of the movie, but his only contribution to the movie was fixing and driving the Ecto-1 and not much else. Wolfhard seemed like he was just there going along with the ride of events.

The same goes for Celeste O'Conner who plays Lucky. She seemed like she was only there just to give Trevor something to focus on while the movie tries to find some way to make both of them Ghostbusters. Her acting isn't bad, but O'Conner's character just didn't leave much an impression.

Paul Rudd plays Mr. Grooberson, which is this movie’s version of Rick Moranis’s character, Louis Tully. In contrast, Mr. Grooberson is a little less awkward and less clumsy than Louis. He is Phoebe’s summer school teacher and a seismologist who has been recording the earthquakes that occur on a daily basis through out the town. He has also been a fan of the Ghostbusters and remembers the world ending event that took place in New York City back in 1984.

I talked about the new characters in the movie, but what about the returning characters? Where do they fit into this movie? Ever since