Spoilers Ghostbusters: Afterlife grade and discussion thread

That is actually the way Aykroyd envisioned it. The premise of the ghosts was never meant to be the source of the jokes and humor -- he was pretty serious about his portrayal of the existence of ghosts -- the fun came from the story.

 

Haven't seen many articles like this one, io9 basically takes a shit on Afterlife:
https://gizmodo.com/ghostbusters-afterlife-the-spoiler-faq-1848344731

 

That's certainly that person's opinion. What a waste of time, though, because everything they had a problem with had simple explanations. I like how in a movie about apocalyptic demi-gods returning from the beyond, the writer had issues with human behavior they didn't consider thoroughly.

To each their own, though. I loved the film, and believe it was very competently made.

 

And yet one of my friends, a regular filmgoer, shared this article as proof as to why relying on franchise nostalgia is bad.

 

Yeah, that's less a critical article and more of a bad faith rant, positively overflowing with strawmen and unrelated axe grinding.

 

You have take the website into consideration when discussing what you find on there. Because of the misogynistic, toxic trolls who attacked Ghostbusters: Answer the Call long before that movie even came out, it was guaranteed that the Gizmodo family would have nothing but positive reviews for it. Doesn't matter if they think it's good or bad, they're "taking a side" and virtue signaling the hell out of it. And they believe negative reviews of Afterlife are another way to defend Answer the Call. For most of the bloggers on the Gizmodo sites (especially Deadspin), whatever the topic is, what they're really writing about is themselves.

A film critic who is like this is Christy Lemire. She felt the movie Brian Banks, the true story of a black man falsely accused of rape and was sentenced prison, was "icky" because it didn't fit into the Me Too narrative and criticized it for its timing a tone. As if his innocence somehow invalidates everything.

 

There’s quite a few critics reviews like that. The Guardian review even brings up Answer The Call, and at the same time brings up things in Afterlife whilst getting things wrong. For a start they seem to think it stars Finn.

Edit:
Read the linked article now… another one that either didn’t pay attention or would rather lie about events in the film for the faux outrage. Another that completely ignored the fact the de facto lead protagonist is a young, autistic, girl, and none of those characteristics are there for ‘token’ reasons, and actually drive the plot. Sigh. Some people are just dicks.

 

Watched it for the second time, this time on a bigger screen. I really do suspect a lot of critics and commenters out there really did watch a different film.
(I remembered some chatter about how Venkmans gone in for cocoa, and isn’t there for Egon’s goodbye. Except… he’s right there.)
It’s fairly tightly written. I even picked up a couple of subtle GBII riffs I didn’t really pick up on first time.
There’s only really 2 or 3 things I could even comment on negatively, and in the scheme of things they’re really nothing.

 

Relying yes, using it in a transition movie no.

The Disney Star Wars trilogy relied on nostalgia to cover its flaws and it failed. Afterlife used it as a tool sort of to connect it to the original while establishing something new. If they continue with this it remains to be seen if they fall into the same trap or if they will leave the original crew and do their own thing.

 

Finally got to watch this, and greatly enjoyed it. If I'm being perfectly honest, the plot and most of the characters could have done with a little more substance, and it did overuse that one original film music cue a bit, and a little more humour would not have gone amiss, but...

It looked, it sounded and it felt like Ghostbusters, it had the spirit, it was much more restrained than most PG-13/12A movies - just one super-quick violent moment and not an f-bomb in sight - it played out the nostalgia beautifully, and the ending was emotional indeed. Easily the second-best movie I've seen so far this year, and likely to stay highly ranked.

As to that Gizmodo article, it's purely out to provoke, and doing a poor job of it. The facetious question-and-answer style got tired a long time ago, and if the writer paid so little attention to what they're criticising they think a run-down dustball farmstead is a mansion, their assertions aren't going to be worth much of anything.

 

Saw it yesterday, i liked it...
It has a Goonies vibe to it, thanks to the kids...

 

Fun little detail just came to light in Adam Savage's latest Tested.com video from the GBA set: looks like the set decorators snuck in a few pieces of the Ecto 1-A into the barn. So the debate as to whether or not they're separate cars or not rages on I guess!

And I suppose in a weird way it adds more fuel to the "is the video game canon?" debate too, since that also featured parts of 1A lying around, implying that it had already been stripped for parts.

 

I know I've said this before but I really love Adam's in-depth behind-the-scenes videos on this production. They really heighten my enjoyment of the film, which was already quite high.

I think this is the first one I've watched since seeing the film and I'm still in awe of the film's production design.

Not a surprise this one wasn't released until now considering all of the third act visual spoilers in it.

 

One of these days I need to watch Goonies.

 

Saw it a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. It's basically a big-screen Stranger Things.

 

Pretty sure there's still more to come as one of the fluff promo videos released on the official YT channel has a still image with Adam in the background clearly shooting material regarding the giant trap array.

 

Spoilers. Screaming, yelling and much running to and fro.

 

Fantastic! More the merrier!

 

My steelbook has been dispatched. Should be with me soon

 

Speaking of Candy and big German accents, here's his turn as Karl Bildenhausen:

That's why SCTV/Second City training is good and amazing.

Exactly why the movie won over a lot of people and grossed a lot of money.

Please don't mention Stripes and Ghostbusters in the same sentence; Stripes is about a fuckup (Bill Murray as Winger) who joins the U.S. Army but can't really do shit (and is a 'sad sack' of shit [plus he's as fucked up as the comic strip/book character who was named after the phrase in question]); there's no way he could've completed his basic training as shown in the movie during the graduation ceremony.

Spoiler

As well, the 'mission' with the MacGuffin vehicle Winger and company were supposed to guard, should've had him and the rest of the 'platoon' either jailed, then dishonorably discharged, not rewarded with the honors shown at the end of it.

At least in Ghostbusters, Murray as Venkman was in his element somewhat, since the basic concept of the movie (ghost exterminators) although old, was still new to 1984 audiences.