Ghostbusters: Afterlife — Review

One can only imagine the weight of the pressure placed on Jason Reitman’s shoulders as he sought to continue his father’s legacy with GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, which perhaps explains why his sequel so frequently turns to nostalgia and recognisable iconography. Playing both as a Spielbergian tribute to family-friendly adventure cinema and as a greatest hits montage of the fan-favourite franchise, AFTERLIFE struggles to find its footing on its own accord. Mckenna Grace further underscores her status as a rising star with a markedly impressive body of work already underneath her, but her young co-stars unfortunately see their respective characters given developmental short shrift.

Reitman helms AFTERLIFE with sentimental care and aplomb, but the film loses traction in the final act when it falls victim to the visual effects extravaganza curse. It would be an impossible task to recapture the distinct personality of Ivan Reitman’s original GHOSTBUSTERS, but the climactic explosion of colours, smoke and visual pyrotechnics takes the film just a sky beam away from feeling excessively generic. Reitman is able to tug at the heartstrings with effective fan service in the final act and returning characters add flavour, but that positive note is undercut by the unshakable sensation that AFTERLIFE lacks substance, and that long-term mileage will vary depending on how entrenched in this franchise one finds themself.