‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ is less than an animated IP

The scary thing about materialized nostalgia is that sometimes, it works. Having said that, it does have a bit of charm when, in a new movie, it’s completely unnecessary Ghostbusters: Afterlife (currently showing in theaters), director Jason Reitman trying to recreate some of his fathers Ivanoriginal special effects Ghostbusters. In the great climax, the vortex of Kingdom Come, phantasm beasties have the jerky quality of stop-motion or animatronics, and the spectral lights whirling around look fake – in a pretty nice way – as they did 37 years ago.

I will tell this to Kingdom Come: in a moment there, it creates a wistful sigh of remembrance, a reminder of the wonder of simpler times — or perhaps just younger people. However, that sentiment quickly disappeared. With a large amount, Kingdom Come It’s almost amazingly clear about its mercenary purpose. I’m sure Reitman really meant to honor his father’s work. But if not, Kingdom Come exists only to restart a franchise, so that a product carousel that has been dormant can work again.

Of course, there was an attempt to do this in 2016, with horrible mess reboot is now most (in)famous for the culture war dust cloud it kicked off. But that – eventually, or perhaps immediately – is considered unbranded Ghostbusters. So here Reitman the younger comes to continue in earnest real The legend of four sly Manhattanites, who battled ghosts and lazy, sex-crazed gods in a slightly sly world rescue.

The only thing is that the comments that are not serious and grimy do not give the developer a strong enough IP, so it is necessary to take another method to Kingdom Come. Now, suddenly, the world of Ghostbusters sunny and Spielbergian, filled with a large and cozy Americana. And feeling! Definitely yes, dead parents and some shunned kids (both grown up and not so much). There’s a dusting of past glories, a new call to caught adventure, and some goofy whimsy for the smallest in the audience’s lap. In essence, it’s not like the old one Ghostbusters. Kingdom Come instead, staged in what Sony must have imagined as our collective memory palace, everything contained therein is sweet and golden.

The point is, in fact, we can remember the specific texture of the old stuff. We remember that the first thing Ghostbusters is the faintest bit of nothingness in its ironic detachment, just as we remember, Chainsaw massacre in Texas not a cozy coming of age story set in suburban Austin. So all the new glitz and emotion the franchise has been wrapped up in is only meant to appeal to some people’s false memories (or an aggravation of their own cultural past). and completely lied to younger viewers about what all of this meant. It’s a pretty empty, sneaky way to structure and sell a movie, on a foundation of lies and illusions.

New York City, as you may have heard, is completely over, so Kingdom Come Packed Subaru and moved to Summerville, Oklahoma. Population: a few people. There is a ruin Mental the mansion of a house there, inherited by Carrie CoonThe callie of whom we came to find a father is Dr. Egon Spengler (played by the late Harold Ramis in the original films he co-wrote). Callie already has her two annoying kids in the tow: adorable horny teenage son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard of the Strange things, will probably forever be the little ship of Generation X nostalgia) and the socially isolated, mind-boggling Phoebe (Mckenna Grace). The family nags at each other as they begin to set up new lives, and then things start to go awry during the night (and day).

However, there’s not so much of it. Reitman spends very little time building up the kids’ realization that there are ghosts in Oklahoma, and that their grandfather isn’t an old man who abandoned his family but a stubborn Ghostbuster trying to protect the planet. In a nutshell, the kids accepted every premise put before them with utmost believability and started going to school about stupid adults (incl. Paul Rudd like a sweet seismologist on Callie) about what needs to be done. In the process, they make friends, naturally, called Podcasts ( Logan Kim).

Little mercy is that all this nonsense moves at a clip. The action stops only with hasty presentation or some meaningless nodding Ghostbusters Icon. (Why are there mischievous little Stay-Puft marshmallow men everywhere? Because there was an adult in the original movie, but now everyone likes Minions.) by yore, the movie is over. . That’s it! Kingdom Come Conclude intelligently before you have time to reach it really uncomfortable with it.