PHANTOMS MENACE (GHOSTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE)

What is it about 'Ghostbusters' sequels and spin-offs that really rattles people's cages?

Ivan Reitman's original in 1984 is one of the most deeply loved films of that decade.

However its inferior 1989 sequel 'Ghostbusters 2' is not loved as much, despite taking in a tonne of money at the box office.

Bill Murray was so disillusioned making Ivan Reitman's sequel, an expected third outing for the original Ghostbusters line-up didn't happen.

When they did get around to making another 'Ghostbusters' film in 2016 after popular animated TV and video game spin-offs, the decision to go for an all female squad divided fans.

Paul Feig's film was a good idea.

It's just a shame it didn't have the script to match.

Five years on, we have another reboot but one that very much links the new version to the original.

Its director is Jason Reitman of 'Juno,' 'Up In The Air' and 'Tully' fame whose father Ivan directed the original films.

The screenplay by Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan is also built around the family of Harold Ramis' Egon Spengler the most eccentric Ghostbuster of them all.

Taking on a sequel or reboot of any film, but especially one as deeply loved as the first 'Ghostbusters,' is always a risky venture.

There's always going to have to be nods to the original - something Jason Reitman recognises.

But bombard your audience with one liners, trademark gadgets and iconic ghosts and it can badly backfire.

That seems to have happened with some critics who have had vitriolic reactions to Reitman's film which serves as both a sequel and a reboot.

Those critics have slammed 'Ghostbusters Afterlife' for being derivative and lazy.

However those critics have also encountered a backlash from fans who have enjoyed Reitman's attempt to breathe new life into the franchise.

So how bad is the film?

Well, it's nowhere near as terrible as its harshest critics have claimed.

However it's also not as great as it could have been.

Reitman and Kenan's big innovation in 'Ghostbusters Afterlife' is to take the action out of New York and transfer the ghostly goings-on to rural Oklahoma.

In a preamble, we see Egon Spengler, mostly shrouded in shadow, living the life of a recluse on an old dirt farm.

Known to the locals as the dirt farmer, he hasn't given up fighting ghosts and when he tries to lure one back into his farm, he dies of an apparent heart attack.

Meanwhile his estranged daughter, Carrie Coon's Callie Spengler is struggling to pay the rent and heads out to Oklahoma with her 15 year old son, Finn Wolfhard's Trevor and McKenna Grace's 12 year old science buff, Phoebe to see what Egon has left them in the will.

Phoebe is basically Egon as a 12 year old girl and is fascinated by the shack of a farmhouse her grandfather used to live in.

Trevor is less than enthusiastic about their relocation to Summerville, Oklahoma but he quickly pitches for a job in a local drive-in fast food joint when he catches sight of Celeste O'Connor's Lucky Domingo working there.

Callie is still nursing the wounds of her father leaving her family when she was young and is disdainful of him and anything associated with science.

While Trevor discovers the Ghostbusters car in the barn and starts tinkering with it, Phoebe finds her grandfather's ghost detection device and starts to play chess with an invisible force.

Dispatched by Callie to a summer school supervised by Paul Rudd's science buff Gary Grooberson, Phoebe discovers he has an interest in seismology.

Grooberson's idea of summer school is to dig out old VHS copies of 'Cujo' and 'Child's Play' and play them to his class while he carries out his research next door.

When Phoebe wanders in, he is pleasantly surprised by her scientific curiousity and intelligence and he explains he is looking into the ferocity of recent tremors in Oklahoma and particularly in the Summerville area.

Befriending Logan Kim's Podcast in the school who has his own podcast, Phoebe explores her grandfather's house and discovers his old Ghostbusters outfit, his traps and his proton pack.

When Phoebe brings the trap into the school, Mr Gooberson is stunned to learn it is real and explains to Podcast and her that her grandfather was a Ghostbuster.

Testing the trap in the school car park, they accidentally release a ghost while strange paranormal activity starts occurring in a mountain mine near Summerville.

Mr Gooberson starts dating Callie, while Phoebe, Podcast and Trevor discover more of Egon's equipment and get the Ghostbusters Cadillac working.

Before long, they find themselves fighting ghosts and realising Egon was protecting the town.

But they leave a trail of destruction chasing a gluttonous ghost.

Will they convince a sceptical town that their lives might be in danger?

And will they be able to avoid being labelled mad and eccentric like Egon was?

As you'd expect, Reitman and Kenan pay their dues to his father's original films and for the most part, that's ok.

Although the odd time you wince, as in a scene where Bokeem Woodbine's Sheriff Domingo allows Phoebe the right to use the phone in jail and asks: "Who ya gonna call?"

However the big problem 'Ghostbusters Afterlife' has is pacing.

At a running time of just over two hours, the film could do with about 20 to 30 minutes shaved off and it is quite leaden footed for two thirds of the plot.

Reitman, who over the years has demonstrated a real flair for comedy drama, handles the special effects sequences really well - so well, that you are a little disappointed that he doesn't handle the comedy drama as well.

Oddly for a Jason Reitman movie, you find yourself wishing there was a little less conversation, a little more action please.

The initial pursuit of the gluttonous ghost through Summerville and the appearance of the Keymaster, the Gatekeeper and Zuul from the original along with an army of mini versions of the Stay Puft marshmallow man in a supermarket are very well handled.

Reitman, though, spends a lot of time not just paying homage to his dad's films but to Steven Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind,' 'ET,' 'Raiders of the Lost Ark' and 'Jurassic Park,' as well as Joe Dante's 'Gremlins' and Richard Donner's 'The Goonies'.

Wolfhard's presence and the dominance of the kids in the action sequences also means comparisons to the Duffer Brothers' nostalgic supernatural Netflix show 'Stranger Things' and to the 'Harry Potter' films are inevitable.

And while he and Kim's characters can be occasionally irritating, Grace makes for a much more interesting 12 year old version of Egon Spengler.

Coon dutifully trots out the role of her disillusioned, sceptical mum.

Rudd, however, is a warm presence - bringing a goofy Jeff Bridges like affability to the role of Gooberson.

He is such a welcome presence you wish he had more to do.

O'Connor and Woodbine are fine when they turn up but what much of the film really lacks is the sardonic wit of Bill Murray.

That point is rammed home when Murray inevitably turns up alongside Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson towards its climax to reprise their roles as Dr Peter Venkman, Dr Ray Stantz and Dr Winston Zeddermore.

Ultimately, though, Reitman can't help but turn his film into a bit of a tribute to the late Harold Ramis who passed away in 2014.

And while JK Simmons, Tracy Letts and Olivia Wilde pop up, as well as Annie Potts and Sigourney Weaver briefly reprising their roles from the original, it is nice to see Ramis' character Egon Spengler's contribution to the original getting recognised.

Of all the sequels and reboots of the 'Ghostbusters' franchise, 'Ghostbusters Afterlife' is probably the best.

However it still lags a considerable distance behind the 1984 original which got its blend of comedy and supernatural thrills just right.

Racing to a box office take of $150 million in its first three weeks of release around the world, Jason Reitman's film has shown there is still an appetite and a great affection for the franchise.

The question is: if this reboot does spawn a follow-up, can they raise the bar and come anywhere near the first Ivan Reitman film?

The final sequences hold out the possibility of a fifth 'Ghostbusters' movie.

If the producers can bottle the spirit of the original without feeling the need to constantly riff on its iconic moments, it might have a chance.

But it also needs a comic actor who can carry the movie like Bill Murray.

Best of luck with that.

('Ghostbusters Afterlife' opened in UK and Irish cinemas on November 18, 2021)

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