I’m not really sure where to start here. First, if you are not a fan of The Ghostbusters, please don’t watch this movie and then give it a bad review if you don’t understand what is going on or are upset because it’s not enough like the original one in 1984. You can tell that the last two Ghostbusters films were made with love and with the fans in mind. Second, how many movie franchises are out there where people show up to the theater in full attire? That’s a special fanbase right there. Outside of Star Wars and Harry Potter, I can’t think of a more dedicated group of fans and it makes the movie-going experience that much better. With that out of the way, here’s your warning about spoilers. This will be packed full of them, so if you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to do so first. But don’t let that scare you away, read my Ghostbuster rankings from last week right here, and stick around to find out where this one makes it on the list.
So, right out of the gate we time jump forward about three years from Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It doesn’t actually say that anywhere, but Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) mentions that he is 18 years old and we know that he was 15 in the last movie. We also don’t know exactly when, but the Spenglers, Callie (Carrie Coon), Trevor, and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) along with Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) have moved to New York and are now chasing and trapping ghosts while both living and working out of the firehouse. After a few incidents while chasing their most current victim, we get our first vintage callback as William Atherton returns to the franchise as Walter Peck, only this time he is the Mayor and threatens to shut them down and doesn’t allow Phoebe to be “active” anymore.
Unlike in Afterlife, both Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) have bigger roles in this sequel, they don’t take the lead, but do a great job in their expanded roles this time around. You can tell that they enjoy playing a Ghostbuster, especially Aykroyd since this has been his baby from the start. Bill Murray and Annie Potts also return as Peter Venkman and Janine Melnitz, although they have slightly smaller roles. Personally, I can see both of them being written out of any future films in the franchise based on their screen time here. After all, this was a big cast and they may have to scale back at some point to save money… who knows?
Ray, with the help of Podcast (Logan Kim), seems to be a lot busier at Ray’s Occult Books than ever before. He allows people to come in to have potentially haunted objects tested and he buys them if they are. This is where Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) comes in. Kumail was absolutely delightful in this role and brought a lot of comedy, but he is also being set up to be something bigger. The object he brings in appears to be some sort of ancient ghost trap, so they bring it to Winston and the secret lab he created for testing and researching ghosts and ghostbusting equipment. They even have a way to extract the ghost out of an object (more on that later). At the lab, is where we get to see Lucky (again played by Celeste O’Connor) as she is assisting Lars (James Acaster) in testing out equipment. This is where we see the orb that Nadeem brought in is something more than a normal possessed object.
While this is going on, Ray, Phoebe, and Podcast visit the library to find out more information about what the orb is. Here we get to meet Hubert (Patton Oswalt), a “librarian” of lots of ancient books and lore. He helps them determine what the orb could be, but he is more worried about what could be inside of it. We get more great callbacks to the original movie here as we not only get to see John Rothman who played the Library Administrator in the 1984 film come out and try to stop Ray from coming in again, but we also get a glimpse of the original library ghost, and again as one of the lions in front of the New York City Library gets possessed and attacks Ray.
As Gary and the Spenglers are off catching ghosts, Phoebe is left alone and sad and angry. But, then she meets Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) who is seemingly a friendly ghost and they strike up a friendship. However, we quickly learn that Melody is working for Garraka (the ghost that is trapped in the orb). She tricks her into using the machine that extracts ghosts (the one I mentioned before) and when Phoebe uses it on herself so they can be in the same plane of existence together, Garraka can control her and open the orb.
This is where things start to speed up. Since Garraka is now free and has managed to get his horns (which makes him even more powerful), he will be heading to the firehouse to unleash all of the ghosts from the containment unit. This is when everyone converges at the firehouse to make a stand. When I say everyone, I do mean it. Ray, Winston, Peter, and Janine are all there and suited up to represent the old-school Ghostbusters while Gary, Callie, Trevor, Phoebe, Lucky, and Podcast are there to represent the new-school Ghostbusters, along with our new friend Nadeem. The final battle here isn’t quite as dramatic as I would have liked, but it’s still a fun fight as it looks as if they are going to get beat. But Melody shows up and creates fire which she passes to our new friend Nadeem who suddenly is able to control it. He along with Phoebe (with backup by Gary and her family) and her newly upgraded pack (brass… who knew?) are able to hold him back long enough for Ray, Winston, Peter, and Janine to make it to the basement and turn the containment unit into a giant trap.
So, this was a great movie in many ways and as a huge Ghostbusters fan, I love all of the callbacks and Easter Eggs that were spread throughout. I did find it odd that we never really got a clear picture of what Gary and Callie’s relationship was. Are they in love? We know Gary is being a father figure to the kids, but that’s as far as it goes. I also thought they would do a little more with Lucky and her relationship with Trevor after hinting at it in Afterlife. None of this takes away from the overall plot or story line of the film, but just for character development, that would have been nice. I also have to mention that we got a return from Slimer! A small role, but a fun and essential one in my opinion.
Overall, I would slot this ahead of Ghostbusters 2 in my rankings and right behind Afterlife. But that may change with several more watches. I know a lot of people are going to give this movie bad reviews and that is unfortunate. If you are a Ghostbuster fan, you will love it (like me). If you are not a fan or only want to see the original, then you probably won’t like it and there isn’t much anyone can do to change that. After my initial first watch and 2 days to process, I’m still going to give this an 8.5 or 9 out of 10!
What are your thoughts on the new movie? Am I out of my mind on my rating? Let me know your thoughts in the comments and see you next week!
I loved watching this movie in theaters.
I agree, this was a great theater-going experience.