Ghostbusters: Afterlife - A Pretty Satisfying Direct Sequel to the Original Movies

Yesterday my wife and I went to the cinema to see this Wednesday-released movie that we were intrigued. It was not that hard finding a location, especially since now we could officially went inside freely using the apps designed for Covid-19 tracing. The hard part was to find a location that also showed another movie that I wanted to see after this. After considering various factors, we finally decided to see it in my favorite large theater with a good sound system as I wanted to experience the sound effects. All right then, let's head to the movie.

Brief Story Line

When her father passed away, Callie (Carrie Coon - The Leftovers TV series, The Nest etc) together with her teenage son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard - The Addams Family, The Turning etc) and daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace - Annabelle Comes Home, Spirit Untamed etc) went to the small town of Summerville to take care of her small inheritance. Phoebe went to summer school where she befriended with a boy called Podcast (Logan Kim) and the teacher Mr. Grooberson (Paul Rudd - Ant-man and the Wasp, Knocked Up etc). Meanwhile Trevor was immediately attracted to local girl named Lucky (Celeste O'Connor - Freaky etc).

While exploring her grandfather's house, Phoebe found out that he was actually part of the Ghostbusters and as she investigate further, she realized there was a reason why he moved to Summerville. With extreme danger closing in, Phoebe and the others have to try and save the world.

So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this exciting adventure movie.

End of Brief Story Line

Ghostbusters movie (especially the first one) was one of our favorite films as it managed to combine the supernatural event with some comedy. I remembered that after the film there was also a cartoon series based on that which I frequently watched as well. The second movie was also fun, though not as memorable as its predecessor. So when I saw this movie, I immediately sense the strong nostalgic feeling with the original movie, especially since they linked directly with them.

The movie's early part was pretty good with some intense scenes, but as soon as the story focused on Callie and her family, the pace slowed down a bit. However, surprisingly for me, despite the slower pace, it somehow did not bore me. I think it's because the main characters of Phoebe, Trevor and Podcast were very engaging and we were feeling attached with them. I thought the director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air etc) was pretty amazing in directing the cast. Btw, he was also the writer for this movie as he continued the legacy of his father Ivan Reitman (director of the original films and also famous for directing Meatballs, Twins, Kindergarten Cop etc). 

The adventures that Phoebe, Trevor and Podcast were having was really fun to watch. My wife and I quite liked Logan Kim who portrayed Podcast as he gave some light moments. Paul Rudd's aura of of being actor famous for his comedic role also further enhanced the light sense. However having lots of the investigation and characters development did have its downside for me, as it reduced the ghost catching activities which to me and my wife should be the main part of Ghostbusters films. And despite some suspenseful scenes which began in the middle till finished, it would probably be even better if we have more of those ghost capturing scenes. Luckily the movie has a duration of a little over 2 hours, so it had sufficient time to cover all and there was no rush to finish it.

What my wife and I liked the most was certainly during the final third. The climax fight with the biggest enemy was amazing, in particular when all hopes seem to have lost. Although there was one brief part that my wife really hated, but because there was one very emotional and lovely moment towards the end that we both loved a lot, I think she was able to forgive that scene. This film has one mid end credit scene and one post end credit scene that I thought better not be missed. Oh, I was actually a bit surprised that the movie was categorized for all ages in Indonesia. But after seeing it, I could understand as the main stars were actually the kids and the ghosts were not that scary (some of them even looked cute). However, to my opinion, there were still few moments that could probably scare the kids, although the child who saw the movie together with his parents and sit few seats beside us did not seem to care. 

Overall my wife and I did enjoy this movie. It certainly brought lots of nostalgic feeling with the appearance of stars from the original films, those classic proton packs and traps, plus few of the familiar ghosts (though we were expecting to see more of them). There was even the theme from the original 1984 movie sung by Ray Parker Jr. to lift our mood. Seeing it in theater with good sound system also helped in giving me the satisfaction. So if you like the original Ghostbusters movies, then likely you would love this one as it can be considered as direct sequel and I think is a lovely tribute to Harold Ramis who passed away in 2014.

Mike's movie moments rating: 4 out of 5 stars