Review of Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) by Ihatealiases — 19 Nov 2021

Goonies meets Ghostbusters. Tonally, it was more of a drama, which felt like a strong contrast to the previous films. Sentimental, overly nostalgic—I don’t think we needed that many references to the previous films—and very derivative of numerous film and tv tropes.

Although the character interactions were good, the characters themselves felt stereotypical—we’ve seen all of these characters many times before in other movies. All of this might not matter so much if it was still a sarcastic, dry comedy where some silliness is expected.

But when the tone shifts to something more sentimental, more realism is expected, and this movie does not feel real. Characters know too much information without earning it, people like and dislike each other for no reason, people make decisions for no reason other than to continue the plot.

All in all, it wasn’t a bad movie, but not really a good movie either. The setups were good, but it felt like missed potential.