Spoilers Ghostbusters: Afterlife grade and discussion thread

I do too. That said: I really hope there's either an Afterlife novelization or a "Last Days of the Ghostbusters" comic miniseries coming, because this movie left WAY too much unexplained re: Egon and his family; I don't want to have to wait for another movie to may-or-may-not provide those answers.

 

I was pleased to see Egon's collection of spores, molds, and fungi. So much to enjoy in this one.

 

Vanity Fair published a wonderful article about the day Bill, Dan, and Ernie were on set. Lots of wonderful anecdotes, jokes, and how they felt about doing the film now...and without Harold Ramis.

The article also touches on Olivia Wilde's and Bob Gunton's involvement, too.

 

The article is really wonderful, warm and heartfelt.

 

What I´m not entirely clear on...

Spoiler

Did Egon know he was going to die and become a ghost? Hiding the trap and the pke meter seemed so planned and deliberate.

 

Well...he IS supposed to be a genius...so he might just had plans b to z ready...

 

An absolutely wonderful conversation between Adam Savage and Jason Reitman about Jason's process in writing, directing, and producing the film and his reasons for doing it. And at the end, Jason turned the tables and talked about how important it was to have Adam involved in the production of the film and at such an early stage.



Also: I love Adam's t-shirt!

 

That was awesome. I had seen a couple of Jason’s movies before this and was a fan. Very impressed with how he is handling all this. I have listened to numerous interviews with him this past week. Normally during press for a movie you hear the same stock answers to the same questions they are asked a thousand times. There are certain ideas that he repeats but there is something new in each one. You can tell he loved making this and open to doing more.

It’s a thrill just to see the Ghost Corps office. I remember when that was first announced and all the various sequels and spinoffs in development. For so long it felt so nebulous and just talk. Obviously now the movie is out and fantastic and successful - we are really just off to the start of many things.

 

One thing I loved hearing from Jason was that he wisely stepped back and let Bill and Dan write/perform their own dialogue for their respective scenes. Those who say Ray was wildly out of character during his phone call - hey, that was all Dan, and he knows Ray better than anyone! And for every line Bill said, there was at least one alternate that could have just as easily been used instead. Apparently he and Sigourney cooked up the 'revenge psychic test' scene between them!

 

Exactly! Also Dan Aykroyd is a producer on this movie. There is nothing in the movie he has a problem with. Same applies to Harold Ramis’ family. They were consulted from the script writing stage and all through.

That has been confirmed by his daughter Violet. But I just knew that had to be true without hearing it. To be very blunt - anyone who had any doubts of family approval on what the movie does... is clueless about how movies work. If the family objected in anyway the would have blocked it legally.

Same applies to Bill Murray. Anyone who follows his career knows he is extremely difficult. He only does what he wants to.

 

Indeed. It matters to me that not only did Violet approve the use of her father's image for the film, she enjoyed the film as well.

 

A

From beginning to end I loved this movie. Great cast, fun story and a wonderful ending. I definitely had to fight back some tears during the last part. Bravo!

 

He was the main reason why Ghostbusters 3 was never made.

 

I had the same thought after I saw it. Has anybody picked up the comics license, since IDW apparently doesn't have it any more? I didn't realize they lost it, but before I went to see this I looked for the digital versions of their comics, and they've all disappeared, which usually only happens when the company loses it's license.

I had completely forgotten that they set up Ghost Corps for the franchise until I saw the logo at the beginning of the movie. Hopefully this has been successful enough that this won't be the last time we see it.

 

We live in a universe where we traded Ghostbusters 3 for Groundhogs Day, we will never know if that was a good trade.

 

Awwww, that's awful! They'd done such an incredible job with the license over the years - tying all the various versions of the GBs into a multiverse, crossovers with TMNT and Transformers as well as said other teams, even going some way toward redeeming the Answer The Call group. Their last effort, 'Year One,' was clearly setting up Afterlife at the end as the movie was supposed to debut right after it in May 2020, but then... well, we all know what then. They couldn't put out any more stories following up from a movie that hadn't happened yet, so I guess there was no choice. *@$^(&!@#% COVID...

EDIT: I've since learned that IDW's losing ALL its licenses: Transformers, TMNT, G.I. Joe, Star Wars Adventures (Dark Horse getting that one back). Presumably Star Trek next, and then they're out of business.

 

Watched it a second time and honestly I think I liked it even more on a second viewing!
I also happened to notice that one of the supposed plotholes isn't a plothole at all: Ray says Egon took his pack AND all the traps, not ALL the packs and traps. So the other three packs at least were left behind, and presumably Ray still had them plus the flightsuits. That also tracks with the fact that there was only one pack in the house: Egon's, which Phoebe wears, plus the one that was integrated into the Ectomobile. The ones rigged to auto at the mine seem to be new builds of a different, much more heavy duty design, which is presumably what Egon did with the isotope material he took off with.

Also on reflection, the mini-puffs make a little more sense when you remember that this is Vinz, not Zuul, and as we saw in the the original, Vinz is the chatty one obsessed with all of Gozer's old destructor forms. One might even assume that had Louis not thrown that coat on his head and pissed him off, that party might have been overrun by lots of miniature giant sloars!
Also, Zuul decided to randomly cook some eggs and announce her presence weeks ahead of time, so secondary spiritual activity around a terror dog possession at least has some precedent.