Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2020)

[The Joker]

Anyone notice that "SHANDOR MINING COMPANY." sign in the trailer?

As in, IVO SHANDOR! The guy Egon referenced in the original GB. The guy who led the Cult of Gozer, architect of the building of 550 Central Park West (spook central), and was the villain in the best GB video game.

Given that we see what is heavily alluded to as a terror dog in the trailer (either Zuul, The Gatekeeper or Vinz Clortho, The Keymaster, both minions of Gozer), and it appears as if we're getting something of a Ghostbusters/Stranger Things/Ghosbusters The Video Game plot hybrid of sorts.

I'm fine with that. I like Vigo and all, but I really dug the overall story line in the video game, and always cosidered Gozer to be THE big baddie in the GB universe. Shame the character never really was used in the 80's cartoon, nor in those 80's NOW comics, but seeing the surviving original Ghostbusters return, along with the original antagonists (Gozer, Zuul, Vinz) with perhaps Ivo and the cult of Gozer added for good measure, and it just feels like good comfort food. Especially so in getting the bad taste out of our mouths following the '16 debacle.

[Edd Grayson]

I'm excited for this! 

[The Dark Knight]

Ahead of Ghostbusters: Afterlife hopefully coming out later in the year without delay due to coronavirus, I watched the original film. I'd seen it before but not for a LONG time. It's a stone cold classic, and a champion for the merits of original concepts that if good enough, become iconic in their own right. The casting was spot on, along with the different personalities each team member had. Also, I was very impressed with the original visually. Some of those shots wouldn't be out of place being in a Batman film.

Straight off the bat I was impressed with how good the flow was. We get straight into the action, and overall, the style is show don't tell. I'm aware Dan Ackroyd may not be the nicest man (I haven't explored those claims in much depth), but after watching The Blues Brothers repeatedly as a kid, I do have a nostalgic connection with his likeness and his sense of humor.

I noticed similarities between those two properties: The Blues Mobile and the Ghostbusters vehicle, religious influences, a need for more money in their lives, being harassed by law enforcement, and everyday people becoming famous - in the Blues Brothers case, infamous. I'd be interested in exploring any more similarities, especially when I give Ghostbusters 2 another look in the new few days.

[Silver Nemesis]

Unpopular opinion here, but Ghostbusters 2 is underrated. Sure, it's not as good as the original. But it contains some legitimately funny and creepy scenes and is a hell of a lot better than the 2016 movie. I can understand people finding it disappointing, but I can't understand people flat out dismissing it as terrible. It's really not a bad film.

Ever since I was a child, and I first read The Mezzotint by M. R. James, I've loved the idea of haunted pictures. So I found Vigo – for the most part – to be a worthy successor to Gozer. It's a bit sappy the way he's instantaneously weakened by the good will of the New Yorkers, but it's consistent with the concept of the psycho-reactive slime gaining/losing charge according to the mood of the city. And there's something supremely sinister about a super-powerful villain who spends most of the film patiently watching from inside an inanimate painting, all the while growing stronger as he feeds on the city's psychic energy. The hellish landscape in the painting itself looks like something Polish artist Zdzisław Beksiński might have dreamt up, which makes it all the more unsettling.

The film's got some strong comedy set pieces, like Venkman's interview with the kooks on his TV show or the trial scene where Louis is trying unsuccessfully to defend them. There are some equally memorable horror set pieces in the film, like the sequence where Ray, Winston and Egon are exploring the abandoned railway tunnel, or the scene were Janosz adopts the form of a phantom nanny to steal Oscar away from Dana. I've always said that Ghostbusters is as much a low-key horror franchise as it is a comedy, and GB2 strikes a good balance between the humour and the scares.

GB2 may not hit the highs of the original film, but nor does it sink anywhere near the lows of the 2016 misfire. For those of us who saw it as kids, and who were fans of The Real Ghostbusters cartoon show, it delivered more of what we wanted: laughs, chills, spooky imagery and great chemistry between the heroes. Admittedly this could be nostalgia talking, but it's a solid sequel in my book.

[thecolorsblend]

GB2 is definitely underrated. I think it has benefited from the release of the 2016 film, tbh. If not for that, I don't think it would have the retroactive appreciation that it has now.

OG Ghostbusters was a fairly conventional comedy filmed as though it was a horror movie. The intentional clashing of those two genres is precisely why the first movie works, imo. GB2 doesn't get the balance quite right. Some scenes almost seem like a take on 80's action films. The courtroom rescue, for example. The kidnapping of Oscar is more conventional horror stuff. Very effective horror, at that. It's creepy af.

Anyway. GB2 is worth watching and it's definitely light years beyond 2016.

[The Dark Knight]

Unpopular opinion here, but Ghostbusters 2 is underrated. Sure, it's not as good as the original. But it contains some legitimately funny and creepy scenes and is a hell of a lot better than the 2016 movie. I can understand people finding it disappointing, but I can't understand people flat out dismissing it as terrible. It's really not a bad film.

I don't really get why GB2 is considered such a disappointment. GB2 really does feel like a sequel and that's what I like about it. The villain is solid and the team dynamic was still enjoyable. The plotline of being sued is absolutely logical, and it's a concept I feel could've/should've been introduced in the original. The joke that they catch a ghost, but destroy the building in the process. Meaning their earnings are minimal, they're breaking even or making a loss.

GB2 seems like it fits in to the universe to me. The Statue of Liberty coming alive doesn't seem out of place when you consider the finale of the original, and so on. In terms of Blues Brothers influences, the moment the team enter the restaurant and cause a disturbance stuck out to me. Ray asking for a Chicago pizza made me smile. I'm more of a Blues Brothers fan – absolutely check out the extended edition if you haven't, but I feel like a fandom has been awakened here with Ghostbusters. It has stirred something inside me that I haven't felt in a long while. That sense of fun and creativity which brings various genres together, soaked in a warm blanket of nostalgia.

I'll be buying the remastered game on PS4 as soon as possible. I had no idea the game had been remastered, and thought it was consigned to the PS3. Having the likeness and voice of original cast members and scripting input of Aykroyd and Ramis absolutely make it the true GB3. Afterlife will treat the original crew in legacy terms – and says ghosts haven't been sighted in 30 years. The game doesn't contradict that, and can be viewed as their true last hurrah before things quietened down.

I haven't seen the 2016 reboot and will never be doing so.

[The Joker]

GB2 is one of those movies that I like, and have a lot of nostalgia for, but at the same time, I don't find myself re-watching as much like I do with the original GB. Not even close. Similar thing with JAWS and JAWS 2. Sure, some sequels can surpass, or atleast equal the original, but GB2 and JAWS 2 just don't quite reach those heights.

I also found Bill Murray's recent comments about his feelings on GB2 more insightful than just the tired explanation of his lack of interest for sequels that we've been getting for years.

"We did a sequel, and it was sort of rather unsatisfying for me, because the first one to me was the goods," Murray said. "It was the real thing. And the sequel, you know, was ... it was a few years later. There was an idea pitched. And it was like, well, they got us all together in a room. We just laughed for a couple of hours. And then they said, 'What if we did another one? Here's an idea.'" "So they had this idea, but it didn't turn out to be the idea when I arrived on the set. They'd written a whole different movie than the one . And the special-effects guys got it and got their hands on it. And it was just not the same movie. There were a few great scenes in it, but it wasn't the same movie. So there's never been an interest in a third Ghostbusters because the second one was kind of disappointing ... for me, anyway."

What's not absolutely clear, is if Murray is referring to "The Seed" GB2 draft, or a later one where Dana, and even Slimer and the River of Slime are absent (along with the New Years Eve backdrop), and instead Venkman has a new love interest in a single mother. Like the GB2 we got, Vigo wants to possess her baby son (I don't believe the name "Oscar" was even used in this draft), but there is no Vigo painting in this script. Also, the Statue of Liberty is used for evil on Vigo's behalf. I also recall something about the baby being actually possessed by Vigo at one point, with the baby moving like an adult with an adult's gaze. This could have been quite the scene in terms of returning to that creepy horror vibe the original GB did so well.

[Silver Nemesis]

I wonder if the success of Three Men and a Baby (1987) influenced the evolution of GB2. A group of bachelors living in New York have to protect a baby belonging to a single mother one of them had previously dated. Both films mix comedy and drama – or horror, in the case of GB2 – and make prominent use of recognisable locations in the Big Apple during their musical montage sequences. The male protagonists in both movies have to contend with the police, kidnappers and their own unpreparedness to keep the baby from harm.

3MAAB came out towards the end of 1987 and was the highest grossing movie in the US that year. Aykroyd and Ramis would have been working on the GB2 script at that time (supposedly they worked on it for about a year) before filming took place in late 1988. That might explain some of the changes made to the plot, like the shift from Oscar being possessed to instead needing to be protected by the guys.

[The Joker]

Good call!

I believe even Dan Aykroyd himself stated that his original idea for GB2, The Seed draft, was pretty "out there" and inaccessible. With basically the only underlining element that carried on to the subsequent drafts being the idea that there's undiscovered activity underground. Given the success of 3MAAB just prior to pre-production of GB2, it's not difficult to imagine that there may have been some influence there.

[The Joker]