First Take: Ghostbusters Afterlife - science is cool

SYNOPSIS: When a single mom and her two kids arrive in a small town, they begin to discover their connection to the original Ghostbusters and the secret legacy their grandfather left behind.

It’s finally here. Strap on your proton packs, fire up Ecto-1, and try not to cross the streams - Ghostbusters Afterlife, a film which has been delayed as much as Bond, has launched. And all those years later, with a Reitman once again at the helm… it feels like a proper Ghostbusters film, with the 1980s charm to go alongside it.

The Reitman in question is Ivan’s son Jason, best known as the director of Juno, and he continues his father’s legacy by delivering a 2 hour 4 minute film that has enough uses of the nostalgic elements from the 1984 and 1989 stories, but also a really good amount of new storylines that could fill a new franchise if Sony wanted to do it - what he and Gil Kenan have done with the script is effectively embrace what the original films did, and taken it into the modern day without any problematic reboots to worry about. It is shot very well by Eric Steelberg, and Rob Simonsen actually takes unused cues from the Bernstein scores for 1 and 2, and reinterprets them for the new film… oh, and the answer is very much yes when it comes to whether the iconic stuff is there.

Leading the cast is Paul Rudd, who has won over the hearts of many cinemagoers (and cinema staff - not naming names), who is able to work with the kids, specifically Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim and Celeste O’Connor, to create a new style for this film, one which feels at home with current filmmaking trends, yet providing the same comedic moments of the original two films - supporting them is Carrie Coon, Bokeem Woodbine, and maybe one or two more surprises which I really can’t spoil. This is a film which gets fan service nailed down to perfection, and watching it with some die hard fans of the original yesterday, it was easy to see where it excelled.

THE VERDICT

Ghostbusters Afterlife is the perfect mix of nostalgia and storyline progression that will make fans of the original films very happy, create new fans within this generation, and effectively redeem the franchise after that 2016 version. It goes without saying though… stay right until the very end. You do not want to miss the credits scenes.

RATING: 4/5