Ghostbusters: Afterlife

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Official Trailer:

"There hasn't been a ghost sighting in 30 years." Sounds like Sony and the Reitmans are making a point of pretending the 2016 movie doesn't exist.

Thoughts? Will it be good? Will it be bad?

I'm kind of meh about it and happy to just watch the original 2 films when I am in a nostalgic mood, but I'm not going to lie, felt a little excited hearing that classic siren noise. Looks like they are trying to go for the tone of the original films rather than updating it with ad-libbed slapstick and shitty Scooby Doo level CGI like the 2016 remake did. But we'll just have to wait and see. It could still suck. A lot of people seem to be saying it looks like they're going for a Stranger Things feel, but then to be fair, Stranger things itself probably owes a lot of inspiration to the original film. I just don't know if I see this one doing any better than the '16 film. I think despite the popularity of the original 2, that the audience for this sort of thing might not be the type of people to flock to the theaters, and also, good luck competing with all of the other spectacle blockbuster movies that are sure to be out around the same time. I think the proper way to do it would have been a direct-to-streaming film or series set in the same universe.


Also, why is that Strangers Things kid the go to actor now for kid roles in 80s revival movies? Kind of getting tired of seeing his face everywhere. Let's give some jobs to some other kid actors for a change.

 

[Totenkindly]

With all the failed series and remakes lately, I'm kinda meh on everything nowadays, honestly. (I mean, who knows? This sequel could be good. The trailer leaves the possibility open in both directions.)

I mean, when I heard recently there would be a Matrix 4, there might have been a time that would excite me, but with the declining quality of the second and third films followed by all the other crap over the years, I'm just like "Yeah, whatever. It will probably suck." I'm doing Star Wars in a week mainly to avoid spoilers and unless it's surprisingly much better than I expect it to be, that's probably the last I will think of it. I don't know what's happened with sequels in the last five years but jeez... Even Incredibles 2 wasn't that great.

I didn't think the 2016 film was as terrible as made out to be, but it also wasn't "good" -- not nearly what it should or could have been. Part of it was handling it as a reboot with women, most of whom were miscast, and utilizing some of the original Ghostbusters in other roles so it was effectively eradicating films that had a lot of goodwill. I can't understand why they thought that was going to work -- it was a stupid approach. Pretty much only Kate McKinnon was funny, and they got a lot of mileage out of the Chris Hemsworth joke, but man when you turn Kristen Wiig (who is honestly funny and talented) into a dud because of a total miscast role and otherwise needlessly piss off the actual audience, you're really on the wrong track.

Anyway, I can't tell what this movie is from the trailer. The original Ghostbusters were in NYC, so they felt "big". this film is in the middle of nowhere and feels small -- if it doesn't expand the stakes in the latter half of the movie, it's gonna end up feeling "less than."

Hey look, "Regular Size Man" is in this film! Woot!

I think the proper way to do it would have been a direct-to-streaming film or series set in the same universe.

Well, that would reduce risk -- the film wouldn't have to carry box office, it could just return some investment to the production company and be part of an ensemble offering on a streaming service.

I gotta say again I don't understand the success of Stranger Things. It's like the Lite / Junk Food version of 80's schtick/"horror" -- basically like "The Big Bang Theory," a show about geek behavior and concepts that seems to be slanted towards non-geeks rather than geeks. The Duffer are hack artists, IMO -- they just steal ideas from others and throw them out in messy form like just mentioning nostalgic 80's stuff is somehow praiseworthy. The first season was crap, it's been getting increasingly better (and I've seen all of it), but I have trouble taking it very seriously. Long story short, I'm okay with David Harbour and Milly Bobby Brown, I guess; Finn Wolfhard was okay in the IT films, but yeah, I don't need to keep seeing him, I think he'll just be like all those teen stars in the 80's who for some reason would end up in 3-5 films and then when the 90's hit along with their adulthood, they just vanished never to be seen again. I don't think he's versatile enough to endure past adolescence.

 

[The Cat]

The nostalgia pond has been over fished.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

[MENTION=7]Totenkindly[/MENTION] too difficult to split your post up in quotes because I’m typing on a phone at the moment. But I mostly agree.

-why set it in the middle of nowhere? Combined with the fact it appears to be a motley band led by the kid who leads the motley band of kids in the middle of nowhere on stranger things, it feels like they’re trying to capitalize on the success of stranger things.
-agree on the 2016 cast. Kristin Wiig was wasted in that role. I usually love her. Paul Rudd, who has a similar deadpan style of humor, doesn’t seem to be displaying that here. Perhaps he’s this movie’s Wiig? I think they tried to make Wiig the 2016 film’s Bill Murray, instead of writing a part fit to her style and strengths. I really hope they aren’t doing the same with Rudd here.
-I enjoy Stranger Things but generally agree it’s nothing without the constant 80s references and the retro atmosphere. Season 3 was an improvement over season 2. It is ironic to me that the show owes a lot to the styles of Carpenter and King, artists who were very original. Neither of them wore their own influences quite so blatantly on their sleeves. I think the proper way to pay homage to those who influence us isn’t to blatantly ape their style. Carpenter didn’t go out of his way to try to be like Howard Hawks when he remade The Thing, for instance. He took something he loved and turned it into something new and interesting
-Wolfhard is destined to become his generation’s Corey Feldman. A cute kid actor with limited range who will end up struggling in second rate B movie schlock

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Is this movie trying to be a drama? Are they making the originals out to be something they aren’t? I always just thought they were clever comedies paying homage to classic horror. Yet this trailer would have the uninitiated believe that the original films were a lot more serious. I dunno. Still beats the overt slapstick of the remake I guess.

 

[The Cat]

Is this movie trying to be a drama? Are they making the originals out to be something they aren’t? I always just thought they were clever comedies paying homage to classic horror. Yet this trailer would have the uninitiated believe that the original films were a lot more serious. I dunno. Still beats the overt slapstick of the remake I guess.

The original films were the original films. This is an attempt to wring a little more revenue out of nostalgia. It's why it looks like Ivan reitmans American pickers. It's why there's a new generation of potential Ghostbusters. It's why the ecto one suddenly does what the real Ghostbusters toy car did for the action figures.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

The original films were the original films. This is an attempt to wring a little more revenue out of nostalgia. It's why it looks like Ivan reitmans American pickers. It's why there's a new generation of potential Ghostbusters. It's why the ecto one suddenly does what the real Ghostbusters toy car did for the action figures.

Yeah I thought that part was odd in the trailer.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I think the ship has sailed long ago for a good ghostbusters 3. Like, some time between 1994 and 2010 would have been the time to revisit that universe.

Instead we got a remake nobody wanted that was rushed into production after Harold Ramis’ death, and now we’re getting something that looks like a hybrid of Stranger Things and one of the spin-off cartoon series. I sort of expect more out of the Reitmans, but maybe the trailer is just edited to appeal to the Stranger Things fans and the film will actually be different.

It’s not that I’m opposed to revisiting that universe and the lore, I just think it’s been handled poorly. Keeping my expectations low, maybe this one will be good, not holding my breath though.

 

[The Cat]

Just catch it for what it is. A movie with people doing stuff and there are things you'll go. Oh yeah, I remember that sort of... and you''l have more...not fun, but, you'll see a movie that might be good for what it is. Which is a movie. That they made...That you probably payed too much for.

 

[Totenkindly]

yeah I couldn't tell what the tone would be -- it does look more like a serious tinged movie with more subtle comedic elements, vs the originals which were just supposed to be funny in general.

Corey Feldman might actually be an apt analogy although I don't think Wolfhard is as mentally fubared as Feldman was -- poor guy has really had to struggle with a lot over the years.

Oh well. Off to watch "once Upon a Time in hollywood" which i hadn't seen yet. I'm hoping for something good here.

 

[The Cat]

The whole premise reminds me of stories I used to write as a kid where a seemingly ordinary kid discovers theyre part of a legacy. Inevitably there will one day be an Indiana Jones movie where where all the original characters are dead and some kid discovers a trunk they inherited from their great great grand uncle Henry. and in it is a whip, fedora, and the map to the Lost City of Atlantis Theyll Call it IUndiana Jones and the Legacy of Atlantis. Or Rey will discover she's Han Solo's long lost love child with that one girl from the Solo movie.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

Fuck you Mr. John$$$$on.

The whole premise reminds me of stories I used to write as a kid where a seemingly ordinary kid discovers theyre part of a legacy. Inevitably there will one day be an Indiana Jones movie where where all the original characters are dead and some kid discovers a trunk they inherited from their great great grand uncle Henry. and in it is a whip, fedora, and the map to the Lost City of Atlantis Theyll Call it IUndiana Jones and the Legacy of Atlantis. Or Rey will discover she's Han Solo's long lost love child with that one girl from the Solo movie.

Sigh. J.J probably did something like this. I heard something from Kathleen Kennedy about how this next movie was "for the fans". I'm sure that means "those fans", not necessarily me. It'll probably get praised as a return to form for doing something like that, too.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

"True" Star Wars fans in 2000: nooo can't stand midicholorians. Don't want to think the force is a subject of some special bloodline... the Force is supposed to be magical and anyone should be able to be a jedi.

"True" Star Wars fans in 2019: Noooo... she's "nobody"? What about the Skywalker bloodline? The Skywalker bloodline isn't important? The bloodline "doesn't matter"? noooooo.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

I thought tron legacy was a good example of how to make a solid sequel after a long hiatus. I know it got panned but let’s be fair, the original wasn’t citizen kane.

- - - Updated - - -

I also liked Wall Street Money Never Sleeps

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And A Night To Remember: Resurrection

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Taxi Driver 4: 2 Slow 2Serious

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

Gone With The Wind 8: Prissy Takes De Moines

 

[Totenkindly]

Eh. Tron legacy? Yeah, the original was pretty rough when rewatched nowadays but Kosinski killed the franchise. The film had a few good ideas and a few good moments but with about 80% dead space.

 

[Julius_Van_Der_Beak]

I thought tron legacy was a good example of how to make a solid sequel after a long hiatus. I know it got panned but let’s be fair, the original wasn’t citizen kane.

It was aesthetically boring which is the worst thing you can have in a Tron sequel. The original isn't a perfect movie, but it looks really great in a vaporwave kinda way. Also didn't really like the stuff about "fatherhood being the real magic." Not saying fatherhood isn't magical, but it's just a cliche, and what's worse, a superfluous cliche.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

It was aesthetically boring which is the worst thing you can have in a Tron sequel. The original isn't a perfect movie, but it looks really great in a vaporwave kinda way. Also didn't really like the stuff about "fatherhood being the real magic." Not saying fatherhood isn't magical, but it's just a cliche, and what's worse, a superfluous cliche.

I thought it was both visually and aurally stimulating. I didn't expect the plot to go any deeper than it did. To be fair, the original film kind of did the overused messiah thing, itself an overused cliché in films.

 

[The Cat]

Film as a medium has become an overused cliche. But it's effective for pushing merchandising.