- November 19th, 2021, 2:57 am#4960463First impressions / thoughts:
The positive:
McKenna Grace's performance was perfect
Cinematography was top notch
Muncher and the chase sequence in general was a solid action set piece
The Mini Pufts
The opening sequences with Egon
Phoebe's confrontation with Gozer
Logan Kim & Celeste O'Connor also nailed the humour and tone
What little Paul Rudd there is in the movie was, well... Paul Rudd!
SFX were great
J Reitman's direction as bankable as ever with great shots and sequences.
When it all came together it did feel like a modern Amblin flick. A lot of the quips landed. McKenna Grace was exceptional and carries the movie. Unfortunately the extent to which she carries the movie I'll talk about in a moment. Logan Kim is one to watch but the name Podcast was not justified by a punchline or explanation, other than being a Goonies reference once-removed. Celeste O'Connor wasn't given much to do, and I thought her performance hinted at a lot of comic potential. Rudd was phoning it in a little, but that's fine given his role.
The main positive is the concept behind the movie was solid, the location move felt fresh and the character of Phoebe is perfect with a ton of potential in the future, same for "Podcast" (I don't wanna call him that - was waiting for a scene near the end where he drops the name and introduces his real name)
Now on to the negative (oh boy!):
The script. This is important.
The OG Ghostbusters
Carrie Coon & Finn Wolfhard
The overlaboured call backs (Who you gonna call? Twinkie / Crunch)
The score is intrusive during the early part of the movie. Partially due to too much dead air in the script.
The final twenty minutes
So... after the excellent Egon tease, the opening introduction to the Spenglers fumbles out of the gate. Carrie Coon is a tremendous actress and her monologue at the end of The Leftovers made me well-up and was the pinnacle of the entire series. Here, at least in this cut, she is given nothing to work with and her character is so joyless it drains the life from every scene and from Paul Rudd who is inexplicably smitten with this boring alcoholic. The early exchange between Callie and her landlord is this unnatural expository dump (#1) and for the first fifteen minutes the dialogue is discordant and did not land.
The script settles itself and raises a handful of laughs mainly thanks to Phoebe, and makes reference to it's own lack of comedy, but it needed another pass or several, and it needed a comedy writer to give it a once over. Like how Phoebe Waller-Bridger was brought in to spice up the No Time To Die script. Similarly, Finn Wolfhard was hilarious in IT, but doesn't deliver here and it's a shame, he's either miscast or having an off-day or just can't make his lines funny.
So the movie is this Amblin-esque spooky adventure with an uneven script, and had it followed through, I could forgive it's shortcomings would rate it warmly as a 3/5 and great springboard for sequels.
Unfortunately, the movie derails itself, starting with that phone call to Dan Aykroyd for exposition dump #2. Firstly, hearing Ray say "Egon Spengler can go to hell" tonally, hurt the movie in the same way Callie's character brought the movie down. It did not sit well with me and it was too much of a downer. It was not given enough explanation to work. These exposition dumps reminded me of Raimi's Spider-man 3, where the intention or ideas were solid, but the execution was rushed rather than fleshed out. It also makes ZERO sense that Ray's character would doubt and resent Egon. None. That isn't respecting the characters. I understand the motivation for this thematically with the idea of generational rift, bitterness and forgiveness, the parallels with Murray & Ramis... but these topics are such huge downers that you can't shortcut your way through them in what is otherwise a light film aimed at a younger audience, but even moreso when the characters needed to tell that story arc, the OG Ghostbusters, simply aren't available for your movie... it's amazing to me this wasn't picked up at test screenings and Aykroyd's dialogue re-written and shot.
The final twenty minutes lose all integrity or semblance of an Amblin flick and it becomes some sort of meta fan-service, the OG's inclusion being no different from their cameos in the previous movie. This does a disservice to the performances of McKenna Grace and Logan Kim. I would rather the film haven no cameos and focus on Phoebe with hints of Egon's ghost, or feature Winston or Ray alone, but as a member of the central cast, than the extended cameos we get here.
Gozer was also a mistake, with little worthwhile material derived from the re-hash. The fan rumour of the containment equipment failing, and Egon having stored it out on in the middle of nowhere, would've served a much better smaller scale MacGuffin for Phoebe to overcome and connect with Egon's ghost. Everything to do with OG Ghostbusters was handled badly outside of Winston re-opening the firehouse in the post-credits.
Unanswered questions:
Was the firehouse a Starbucks or not?
Where do they store the ghosts?
How do they get back out of Egon's lab once they've slid down the pole?
How did Trevor fail 3 driving tests at 15?
What was the pay-off for Grooberson's seismology expedition to Summerville?
Why was Ivo Shandor even there?
What is Podcast's real name?
Where did the Mini Pufts come from?
What was Trevor's story arc?
Did Callie overcome her alcoholism?
There is a glimmer of hope an extended cut can smooth over some of the scripts rougher moments, but I don't see how it can redeem the finale.
Final Summary
I came out of this feeling similar to '16, but oddly having enjoyed it slightly less. It's just as non-canon to me. It's especially frustrating because they got so many elements right, eg. the Phoebe obtuse joke is SOLID GOLD, but then they fluffed the ending. A sequel retaining Phoebe and Podcast, Winston and Janine - which moves the action to New York... that could work, but NO MORE CALLBACKS PLEASE.
So... this is a 2/5 from me, hoping there is an extended cut which boosts it to a 3/5.
Last edited by Chicken, He Clucked on November 19th, 2021, 3:50 am, edited 2 times in total.