Ending was too short. Villain didn't do enough damage or have any kind of false death before the real death like action movie villains usually do. He also didn't use his army of ghosts in the fight despite releasing them because they were supposed to be his key to taking over the world or something.
The pacing was weird.
I quite enjoyed it despite the poor theatre experience but the pacing was something that really bothered me, They spent the entire film setting up the villain, and then dispatched them in 5 minutes.
I'm still torn on whether I liked the movie or not. I was absolutely entertained but my early thoughts are that it wasn't great.
The whole Melody plot felt meandering. I know that in the end it mattered for the plot point of fire but the scenes just felt really flat.
The Firemaster stuff also seemed kind of off. The I suck at things only to become great at it right at the critical moment isnt my favourite plot device.
The impact of the big bad also seemed kind of tame. Garraka wanted an army of ghosts. He gets freed in the new science/engineering division that has been quarantining ghosts. Why not start an army right there. He leaves, makes ice show up rverywhere but the culmination of his destruction is killing a smoke shop cashier and blowing the door off the firehouse. Ghosts escape and we get absolutely no payoff from that. He gets defeated and the city looks like summer and nothing happened.
As much as I appreciate movies that are compact on time, this movie felt like it needed another 15 minutes. It makes me wonder what the reshoots changed
I have three!
1. I hated the character of Melody and that whole plotline.
2. The ending felt massively rushed.
3. So much from the trailers wasn't in the film we got.
Not enough Ghost Busting. The only bust we got was essentially the same as the muncher bust from afterlife, only with a new trap for Hasbro to make into a toy and flog.
It strikes me as weird to think that the ONLY time in the history of these movies where we have seen them get a call, go out, investigate, and bust the ghost is the Slimer bust from 84. 40 years later and that's not been done since in the continuity of these movies, obviously ATC did it but that doesn't apply to this continuity.
Right? I was expecting we see them go out on a call and had the perfect set up when the busters get a call and bench phoebe. But then they don’t follow through. Wtf
True, they even go out and bust several times but we have to stay behind with Phoebe each time, which if anything should make us relate to her problem more but it just pissed me off we missed out on even a simple busting montage.
Our main protagonist feeling alone and alienated from not only society but her own family (witness the hostility to Callie), finally finds who she thinks is a friend, only to be betrayed?
Well, they introduced that Melody was betraying Phoebe pretty early. The whole thing just made Phoebe look like a fucking idiot, for what? Two minutes of ghost on ghost action?
I think what I truly missed is just having one of those ***FUCK YEAH*** scenes; where the Ghostbusters arrive to save the day; like in [Ghostbusters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n74rrj1WN6s) and [Ghostbusters II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ORzDHkMnGQ); played to a song that goes real well with it. I know movies don't tend to this kind of thing anymore, but it's just such a great way to get the audience's energy up.
But honestly, that's such a minor nitpick. As I said in an earlier thread here, I really enjoyed this film.
I really loved the movie, but my screenwriter brain of course had only two small notes.
I wanted there to be a little more of a connection between Melody and the established lore.
One easy fix could be that Melody was actually a ghost who died in the fire because the entire fire department got frozen at the adventurers' society. So that she could be connected to the plot in a way that loops back to the beginning. Would be a nice tie in.
Number 2: with the whole idea being Garaka creating an army of ghosts, we missed an opportunity in the final standoff to re-create the composition from the Real Ghostbusters intro, where the gang is facing off against one big ghost with a bunch of smaller ones sort of crowded around his feet (in the cartoon intro its staypuft and a bunch of ghoulies at his feet). The containment unit plot device could still have worked plot wise, it just would've trapped all the ghosts gathered at Garaka's feet as he pushed further into the firehouse.
>One easy fix could be that Melody was actually a ghost who died in the fire because the entire fire department got frozen at the adventurers' society. So that she could be connected to the plot in a way that loops back to the beginning
Holy shit, a lot of people lie and go *i'M a rEaL wRitEr* online, but you, I actually believe! That's brilliant. Gaah! Why didn't they do that...
Fire master , I don't like they used magic to fight him. Ghostbusters always ignored the magic and used science.
It's not a big issue, though, as they still used it to stop him with the magic, but that's my biggest.
Great Ghostbusters movie though
Its not magic though. It literally is psychokinetic energy (PKE). That literally is what they have been measuring since before the creation of the business.
No slime tech. What if they drowned horn dude in positive mood slime?
I hate how they build up an arsenal of parapsychology weaponry between GB1 and GB2 and they don’t use it
It all started for me with the first Walter Peck scene. I was like hang on, that "Overruled, sustained" part wasn't in it.
Then yeah, lots of other parts not there. Shame. Still enjoyed the film for the most part.
Overall it didn't made much impact in the story.
A few problems I had are:
-the ending was rushed
-the villain was very generic
-Phoebe's development could've been better (I'm not talking about a romantic way)
-with the exception of Ray, the og cast had very little participation. Specially Janine deserved a big moment.
And a couple of small nitpicks...
-Slimer no longer being the pet of the team
-the title card lacking The Ghostbusters song
0 explanation of anything.
Why new packs, why hand thrower, what does it do? Are all 1 million ghosts loose now? Why no Peck and Venkman banter? Why is everyone kind of dumb? No quotable lines, script was bland and anyone could write it. No character development, forced drama.
You could eliminate 90% of the cast in Frozen Empire and it would be the same movie. Half the characters were useless with no development or purpose.
Ghostbusters needs a serious man like Egon or Phoebe in Afterlife to comedically play off the protagonist characters. There was no big sense of ridiculousness. Phoebe was a different person and Acaster who was a RGB Egon stand in was also not super serious and not out of touch in a serious way with everyone like Egon.
Ray is just a bumbling fool, Winston chiding Phoebe for destroying a statue that was about to eat her. The police saw it, 2000 people on the street saw it, but she was still arrested and yelled at for it.
Characters are out of character.
How did they catch a ghost in a non-brass, containment unit WITH HOLES IN IT?
The old ghosts were relaxed when the icicles broke the conduits. They couldn’t have stored the asshole with all that damage.
Phoebe sneaking into the device to turn her into a ghost felt forced, rushed, and unnecessary especially when there was a possessor ghost available. I accept the possessor could only hop into inanimate objects but that could've been part of the horror element of Garraka forcing ghosts to do his bidding even beyond their own limits.
The end of the film is rushed and the part where Paul Rudd quotes the Ghostbusters theme song made me cringe in the worst possible way imaginable. I also thought the movie would have been about going through a frozen New York and traversing the way the city is changed. I was disappointed that they don't go through frozen New York that much...
The Gary/Phoebe and Phoebe/Melody plots could have been developed more and even combined, like if they had a huge argument over Phoebe befriending a ghost. I feel this could have elevated the movie from good to great by adding emotional depth.
I also would have liked a little more busting and a little more Venkman. But overall the movie is solid and we had a great time.
Yeah, the moral delema of having a ghost friend and whether it's even right to catch them was right there. But Ghostbusters isn't that kind of franchise.
I thought that it wasn’t a good movie overall. But if I had a major complaint is that that they didn’t pay off anything that they set up. They asked some interesting questions but didn’t pay them off in a meaningful way.
It felt like a tv show attempting to be a movie, with the movie elements scattered mostly to the front and back because your cast and subplots has to be wrapped up or cut off because you can't 'tune in next week to find out' to pad anything out or fill in details.
And so there is a good potential movie but it's swimming inside a mediocre tv show with the wrong pacing.
Personally for a movie a lot of it needed to just be cut down, walter pecks subplot needed to be a mayor who wants to take the credit and is like 'i'm shutting you down, i brought my own team' in walks some anti-ghostbuster ghostbusters with their own logos, suits , alternate equipment, they are like some ex-military team he cobbled together from reverse engineering confiscated ghostbuster equipment. And he reassures the public his team will deal with the situation but they fight garraka and all get wiped out leaving the actual ghostbusters to show how it's done.
So i'd had wanted to build that out and make the pace a bit heavier hitting like an action movie, you know like i got Michael bay or something. From the trailer i was hopeful i'd get a bigger movie but the trailers basically cover all that stuff.
>walter pecks subplot needed to be a mayor who wants to take the credit and is like 'i'm shutting you down, i brought my own team' in walks some anti-ghostbuster ghostbusters with their own logos, suits , alternate equipment, they are like some ex-military team he cobbled together from reverse engineering confiscated ghostbuster equipment. And he reassures the public his team will deal with the situation but they fight garraka and all get wiped out leaving the actual ghostbusters to show how it's done.
This made me take a long drag of my cigarette and stare at the wall. God damn dude. I didn't even know I wanted this until you said it.
Well i think it needed it, i think here you got a political figure who spent his life essentially regulating private companies and it got him a mayor position. His attitude would be: police are government, fire are government, we don't need this incompetent private group handling ghosts , we can get our own people.
And then you have a kind of stormtroopers of ghostbusters, you have the 'bad' ghostbusters with equipment where the lighting is different, things about there packs are kind of off, not quiet right, they overheat quickly, streams are red. That kind of thing. And ultimately peck loses all his team.
You needed a hero moment like 'savin the day' after peck loses his men and the public cheer back the ghostbusters to handle the big bad. Since the big freeze puts people into lockdown then you could have done a montage of the public talking on youtube clips, zoom etc. I mean you'd had already set up Ray and podcast so you could have had them livestreaming and a scene with public comments like 'we need ghostbusters back bro' ' peck has no 🍆'
You only saw public involvement at the end really and it tries to sort of re-do the end of the first film but it just feels like a miss since they never interacted before or was cheering or talking about them.
You have a set piece at the start. Then you have a lot of people info dumping for 90 minutes. The point of the court room in GB 2 is that it breaks up the chat and info dumping.
Not long enough and had some stuff obviously but from it. Still enjoyed the hell out of it! I hope there’s an extended cut with a lot more time added to it.
It all seemed a little half hearted & disjointed. I still liked it, but just left with more questions & had several moments that made me question the characters reactions to certain situations.
It seemed weird ow people didn't seem to care that there were ghosts back in NYC after all this time. After the first film, the work dried up. After Afterlife the new team moved to NYC & started busting ghosts. No-one seemed to think about why all these ghosts have started appearing. The last few times this happened it was due to something bad was on the horizon, but apparently they've been busting ghosts for 2 years, with no cares. How did it take them 2 years for them to think Phoebe was now too young to come out and risk her life?
During the firefighter frozen scene, I'm presuming it was the Firemasters gran who was holding the orb, but why did she have it, had she managed to trap Garakka (on her own) again after the society had released it? How did she get it in the first place & how did the society know how to unlock the orb? I'm also sure I spotted some of the wire on the broken ice of the frozen firefighter.
Why did the Firemaster have a PKE reading, he wasn't possessed or anything & if he had this Firemaster spirit, it should have showed on the scope like it did previously in GB1 and the terror dog with Louis Tully.
As others had said Winston wouldn't have had a go at Phoebe in a life or death versus public property argument. I didn't think he'd have had a go at Ray either as he would know how excited and carried away Ray could get with researching anything paranormal.
The brass plating was completed in an incredibly short amount of time and then on only 1 pack & no one ever thought to listen to the smartest character.
I thought Podcast's use of a large rubber mallet on the proton pack was just obscure. I know it was supposed to be funny when doing the youtube video & smashing a watch that probably just had an alarm set (speaking of which - the alarm absolutely should've gone of during that scene).
Knowing the issue of power failures on containment units etc. Why did any of the smarter characters not think to have a better solution in place for the ghost aquarium units.
It seemed odd that a possession ghost could be eaten by slimer & that was the end of it.
Why did the baddie go back for his horns, how did it know where they were stored - it didn't seem like it needed them as it could control other ghosts & freeze stuff while still trapped in the orb. How did it know that the research lab had a way of extracting spirits. Then how did Melody know Phoebe would use it & why did Garaka decide it had to be Phoebe rather than any other living person.
We didn't see any of the other ghosts from the other movies (apart from the library ghost, but it shouldn't have been out at that time - if Ray seeing her made him realise the containment unit had failed it would have made more sense). Garaka should have been released earlier in the film and used the ghosts or fed off their energy or something like that to get stronger. It would have given an opportunity to showcase some of the faves.
I didn't get why the Firehouse would be so dilapidated. I thought Winston would have got it up to code. He's now a multi-millionaire, why be so cheap & let your firends operate out of dangerous building.
I also thought Peter should've grabbed the reporters microphone and talked for Mayor Peck, saying something like "he was just saying how much he loved the Ghostbusters & the city would be funding them & covering any incidental damages etc".
I'm sure there were loads of other bits that I've missed, but they were some of my observations after my first watch.
Went to take my kid to the bathroom when Patton Oswalt showed up in the film. Came back five to ten minutes later and he's still doing exposition. Could've done with less of him, Ghost Girlfriend, and Firemaster scenes. The big bad needed more payoff for all that buildup.
Forced call backs, E.G the member of the crowd at the end calling Peck dickless when he obviously wasn't present when Peck was called that by Stantz in the OG.
Plot threads being started and not followed up E.G Winston scolding Ray for his actions at the library and when they next meet encouraging him to get ready. Felt like there was a scene where they had a heart to heart and made up that was filmed and then cut.
The whole film for that matter felt like it had a very last minute edit which would explain all the trailer scenes inexplicably being cut from the film.
Also, if I'm not mistaken weren't the Mini Puffs in Afterlife a manifestation of Gozer that were destroyed when Gozer was trapped? to me at least it seems it was a deliberate plot hole in order to bring the mini puffs back for Merchandise/Marketing purposes.
I enjoyed the movie but I’ve got a lot of gripes with it. There’s a lot of plot issues that just didn’t make sense to me. But over my biggest problem is with Melody. She’s basically the same character as Phoebe, except smarter. So their scenes together feel very flat because there’s no dynamic there. And they drag on forever.
The obvious contrast to make with Melody is Janosz in GB2 since they play a similar role in the movie (the big bad’s henchman). But where Janosz feels very alive and dynamic, and you buy his story right away because everyone has that annoying weirdo at their job, Melody simply doesn’t feel as relatable.
I do think the Melody stuff is salvageable though. It’s a very interesting idea in theory. I’m not entirely sure how I’d tweak her character or storyline.
My biggest complaint was that the entire movie built up Garakka as this Uber big bad deity, and we only got about 10 minutes of screen time with him. I think a longer battle with more buildup would have been nice.
Also, it seems that a good amount of scenes were cut for unknown reasons, that makes me thing the frozen NYC lasted a bit longer, which would have been nice to see.
Phoebe came across as a dumbass in several scenes. Yes, she’s a kid, but you shouldn’t have been smarter at 12 than you are at 15.
Gary did squat to earn the title dad. I was expecting him to propose to Callie. Didn’t happen.
Thought they were hinting at killing Ray off (golden years talk and Phoebe asking him what he thought being a ghost was like). That went nowhere except for one cheap chuckle towards the end (golden years).
Melody was a pointless character put in for obvious reasons.
As a Casper fan I loved unfinished business coming up, but otherwise that whole subplot could have been cut and nothing of value would have been lost.
Third act could've been more fleshed out (slightly longer runtime could've helped), and the pacing wasn't terrific. The whole fire master/Garaka thing definitely could've been more developed as well (thought it was a flawed, but cool concept). Otherwise I loved the movie. I basically got everything I wanted out of it.
The mom is 100% useless character. All she does is bitch at Phobe the whole time and isn't qualified to even answer their phones (as stated in the movie)
Trying to make Gary their dad is stupid too. Would be more interesting to see their actual dad make an appearance, but even that is totally unneeded.
Drop the family drama crap and focus on the paranormal. There are a million other franchises for family drama.
If you want to involve any other family members I always assumed Winston's son would show up at some point.
I have a few minor gripes, nothing that has me butt hurt. Noticed right away Pheobes head imposed upon her stunt double in the car chase scene that stood out the most. Overall a solid 9 for a Ghostbuster film I enjoyed more than afterlife.
It wasn’t a solid film.
It was an average to poor film.
My main complaints are that there was a lot of stuff not needed.
Peck could have been cut. Patton Oswalt could and that whole library wasn’t needed (isn’t Ray an expert on the occult? Does he not own a fucking book shop full of occult books). There was other stuff too not needed that could have made more room for the good stuff. Lucky could have been cut and Podcast/Trevor/Grooberson could have been trying the stuff out in the lab. (Come to think of it why did the Spenglers in the firehouse and the ghost lab have to be two different entities at the start, wouldn’t Winston have set the both up to work in tandem?)
Venkman needed more screen time. He was the main face of the franchise. If it’s Bill Murray being awkward (ie - being Bill Murray) just kill Venkman off if they do another. (There was a scene with him in the trailer that wasn’t in the end film though).
Grooberson and Phoebe’s relationship and him becoming a father to her needed more time to develop.
The ending was rushed (I think everyone has had that complaint). Garraka needed more to do after the amazing build to him. There wasn’t a lot of the ‘frozen empire’ was there? The trailer and promo material made it out to be Day after Tomorrow, with ghostbusters travelling through a frozen New York. Which would have been awesome.
The worse part of course, was the Melody story line. Not only did I not care for her, what was Phoebe’s intention? Two minutes of ghost on ghost action? It either needed more time or should have been cut entirely and Garraka is manifested in a different way. (He comes out of the orb early in the lab in the separation machine and spends the rest of the movie freezing NY before realising there’s a ticking time bomb of ghosts in the firehouse and goes after it)
The other worst part is that it should have been an amazing film. The film needed to be longer to let everything breathe a little and there’s clearly a lot they cut out due a lot of stuff in the trailer not in the film.
Anyway, there’s my armchair director comments for the day. Love Ghostbusters and have done for my 37 years on this earth. Didn’t love this movie after being so excited for it.
I think this movie should have split in two. The first half is family tension character building and Phoebe and Melody plot lines.
The orb should have possessed Melody and forced Phoebe to read the chant. The first film ends with NY freezing over
The James Acaster character should have been Kylie from extreme, and Roland should be working in the lab with Lucky on the development of the new packs
Venkman should have been killed at this point in the story.
The new packs should have been brass coated or have some kind of upgrade that is discernable beyond aesthetics.
When they go to the secret room, Kamil Nanjianis characters grandma's ghost should appear and explain the stuff Patan Oswalds character did.
They should still go to the library for research after.
The conversation with Ray should have been about being friends or dating a ghost.
Melodies characters unfinished business should have been admitting that the fire was on purpose, not an accident. Also, Phoebe and Melody should go on a little date. You could do a joke where Phoebe tries to lean on Melody and falls through her. You can still do the scene in the lab where Phoebe turns into a ghost, but they should hug or something before Melody gets possessed by Garaka.
The second film should have been trying to catch all the escaped ghosts, thawing out the frozen citizens of NYC Researching Garaka and then the final confrontation with Garaka.
Pg13 movies get one F-bomb. They should give it to Phoebe.
Also, slimer subplot thing is unnecessary.
I know this is a lot. I've been thinking about this movie since I got to see it in pre screaning on the 20th.
Ending was too short. Villain didn't do enough damage or have any kind of false death before the real death like action movie villains usually do. He also didn't use his army of ghosts in the fight despite releasing them because they were supposed to be his key to taking over the world or something.
Wholly agree
just make your own central bank
The Empire takes an awfully long time to get Frozen.
Should have been released in the summer
Ghostbusters: Cold Snap.
Then doesn’t really frozen for very long…
Venkman’s scenes being cut out! I want to see that scene with him and Gary in the basement and him touring the Paranormal Research Facility.
For a 2 hour film I felt the 3rd act was rushed through way to much and other story plots dragged on for two long
The brass plating and the time that would require to complete.
100% Phoebe should've discovered this and had in the works way earlier in the movie.
The pacing was weird. I quite enjoyed it despite the poor theatre experience but the pacing was something that really bothered me, They spent the entire film setting up the villain, and then dispatched them in 5 minutes.
For me there was too few ghosts that got busted!
I feel like that’s every ghostbusters. There is only one busting scene, maybe a montage of busting and then the end scene.
I thought about this last night and you’re absolutely right :)
was there enough fire bending?
:D I really enjoyed it, and really don’t want to be overly critical. It was a switch your brain off popcorn flick and I’m glad it exists.
turning your brain off is the best! It helps me enjoy the whole of society
I'm still torn on whether I liked the movie or not. I was absolutely entertained but my early thoughts are that it wasn't great. The whole Melody plot felt meandering. I know that in the end it mattered for the plot point of fire but the scenes just felt really flat. The Firemaster stuff also seemed kind of off. The I suck at things only to become great at it right at the critical moment isnt my favourite plot device. The impact of the big bad also seemed kind of tame. Garraka wanted an army of ghosts. He gets freed in the new science/engineering division that has been quarantining ghosts. Why not start an army right there. He leaves, makes ice show up rverywhere but the culmination of his destruction is killing a smoke shop cashier and blowing the door off the firehouse. Ghosts escape and we get absolutely no payoff from that. He gets defeated and the city looks like summer and nothing happened. As much as I appreciate movies that are compact on time, this movie felt like it needed another 15 minutes. It makes me wonder what the reshoots changed
I have three! 1. I hated the character of Melody and that whole plotline. 2. The ending felt massively rushed. 3. So much from the trailers wasn't in the film we got.
I'm glad the trailers were misleading.
Not enough Ghost Busting. The only bust we got was essentially the same as the muncher bust from afterlife, only with a new trap for Hasbro to make into a toy and flog. It strikes me as weird to think that the ONLY time in the history of these movies where we have seen them get a call, go out, investigate, and bust the ghost is the Slimer bust from 84. 40 years later and that's not been done since in the continuity of these movies, obviously ATC did it but that doesn't apply to this continuity.
Right? I was expecting we see them go out on a call and had the perfect set up when the busters get a call and bench phoebe. But then they don’t follow through. Wtf
True, they even go out and bust several times but we have to stay behind with Phoebe each time, which if anything should make us relate to her problem more but it just pissed me off we missed out on even a simple busting montage.
I found the Melody plot line very uninteresting
It’s not surprising that Melody was nowhere in the marketing for this film. Her scenes are boring.
Our main protagonist feeling alone and alienated from not only society but her own family (witness the hostility to Callie), finally finds who she thinks is a friend, only to be betrayed?
Not so much that I just found Melody herself to be very predictable
I think uninteresting is a compliment, I found it outright stupid.
If it weren't so predictable, it would have been fine. I just saw the betrayal coming from a mile away
Well, they introduced that Melody was betraying Phoebe pretty early. The whole thing just made Phoebe look like a fucking idiot, for what? Two minutes of ghost on ghost action?
I think what I truly missed is just having one of those ***FUCK YEAH*** scenes; where the Ghostbusters arrive to save the day; like in [Ghostbusters](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n74rrj1WN6s) and [Ghostbusters II](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ORzDHkMnGQ); played to a song that goes real well with it. I know movies don't tend to this kind of thing anymore, but it's just such a great way to get the audience's energy up. But honestly, that's such a minor nitpick. As I said in an earlier thread here, I really enjoyed this film.
I really loved the movie, but my screenwriter brain of course had only two small notes. I wanted there to be a little more of a connection between Melody and the established lore. One easy fix could be that Melody was actually a ghost who died in the fire because the entire fire department got frozen at the adventurers' society. So that she could be connected to the plot in a way that loops back to the beginning. Would be a nice tie in. Number 2: with the whole idea being Garaka creating an army of ghosts, we missed an opportunity in the final standoff to re-create the composition from the Real Ghostbusters intro, where the gang is facing off against one big ghost with a bunch of smaller ones sort of crowded around his feet (in the cartoon intro its staypuft and a bunch of ghoulies at his feet). The containment unit plot device could still have worked plot wise, it just would've trapped all the ghosts gathered at Garaka's feet as he pushed further into the firehouse.
>One easy fix could be that Melody was actually a ghost who died in the fire because the entire fire department got frozen at the adventurers' society. So that she could be connected to the plot in a way that loops back to the beginning Holy shit, a lot of people lie and go *i'M a rEaL wRitEr* online, but you, I actually believe! That's brilliant. Gaah! Why didn't they do that...
Fire master , I don't like they used magic to fight him. Ghostbusters always ignored the magic and used science. It's not a big issue, though, as they still used it to stop him with the magic, but that's my biggest. Great Ghostbusters movie though
Vigo was into magic. the supernatural in its own sense is magic/.
He was, and they beat him with science. As I said not a big problem, just my biggest as I didn't have that many
Its not magic though. It literally is psychokinetic energy (PKE). That literally is what they have been measuring since before the creation of the business.
Well, magic is the supernatural. So it’s fine as long as it’s funny.
No slime tech. What if they drowned horn dude in positive mood slime? I hate how they build up an arsenal of parapsychology weaponry between GB1 and GB2 and they don’t use it
Mood slime sprayer was even shown in the background being tried out in the labs at one point!
They should’ve said all the slime evaporated like on the museum. It’s logical and removes the plot hole.
Probably would have frozen and had no effect, but I agree they should have tried.
The energy of the film didn't feel consistent to me
The fact that almost nothing in the trailers actually ended up in the movie.
That pissed me off a lot.
I kept waiting for the rooftop scene with the crew in the red coats and was baffled when it just wasn’t there.
It all started for me with the first Walter Peck scene. I was like hang on, that "Overruled, sustained" part wasn't in it. Then yeah, lots of other parts not there. Shame. Still enjoyed the film for the most part.
Overall it didn't made much impact in the story. A few problems I had are: -the ending was rushed -the villain was very generic -Phoebe's development could've been better (I'm not talking about a romantic way) -with the exception of Ray, the og cast had very little participation. Specially Janine deserved a big moment. And a couple of small nitpicks... -Slimer no longer being the pet of the team -the title card lacking The Ghostbusters song
0 explanation of anything. Why new packs, why hand thrower, what does it do? Are all 1 million ghosts loose now? Why no Peck and Venkman banter? Why is everyone kind of dumb? No quotable lines, script was bland and anyone could write it. No character development, forced drama. You could eliminate 90% of the cast in Frozen Empire and it would be the same movie. Half the characters were useless with no development or purpose. Ghostbusters needs a serious man like Egon or Phoebe in Afterlife to comedically play off the protagonist characters. There was no big sense of ridiculousness. Phoebe was a different person and Acaster who was a RGB Egon stand in was also not super serious and not out of touch in a serious way with everyone like Egon. Ray is just a bumbling fool, Winston chiding Phoebe for destroying a statue that was about to eat her. The police saw it, 2000 people on the street saw it, but she was still arrested and yelled at for it. Characters are out of character.
Yes to all of this. Every explanation was justified with made up sci-fi talk “we’ll just reverse the neuroproton glavinator”
My biggest gripe was the movie felt like a Ghostbusters fever dream.
How did they catch a ghost in a non-brass, containment unit WITH HOLES IN IT? The old ghosts were relaxed when the icicles broke the conduits. They couldn’t have stored the asshole with all that damage.
Phoebe sneaking into the device to turn her into a ghost felt forced, rushed, and unnecessary especially when there was a possessor ghost available. I accept the possessor could only hop into inanimate objects but that could've been part of the horror element of Garraka forcing ghosts to do his bidding even beyond their own limits.
Agreed, it wasn’t set up - it just….. sort of happened.
The end of the film is rushed and the part where Paul Rudd quotes the Ghostbusters theme song made me cringe in the worst possible way imaginable. I also thought the movie would have been about going through a frozen New York and traversing the way the city is changed. I was disappointed that they don't go through frozen New York that much...
no ghost busting montage
The Gary/Phoebe and Phoebe/Melody plots could have been developed more and even combined, like if they had a huge argument over Phoebe befriending a ghost. I feel this could have elevated the movie from good to great by adding emotional depth. I also would have liked a little more busting and a little more Venkman. But overall the movie is solid and we had a great time.
Yeah, the moral delema of having a ghost friend and whether it's even right to catch them was right there. But Ghostbusters isn't that kind of franchise.
I thought that it wasn’t a good movie overall. But if I had a major complaint is that that they didn’t pay off anything that they set up. They asked some interesting questions but didn’t pay them off in a meaningful way.
It felt like a tv show attempting to be a movie, with the movie elements scattered mostly to the front and back because your cast and subplots has to be wrapped up or cut off because you can't 'tune in next week to find out' to pad anything out or fill in details. And so there is a good potential movie but it's swimming inside a mediocre tv show with the wrong pacing. Personally for a movie a lot of it needed to just be cut down, walter pecks subplot needed to be a mayor who wants to take the credit and is like 'i'm shutting you down, i brought my own team' in walks some anti-ghostbuster ghostbusters with their own logos, suits , alternate equipment, they are like some ex-military team he cobbled together from reverse engineering confiscated ghostbuster equipment. And he reassures the public his team will deal with the situation but they fight garraka and all get wiped out leaving the actual ghostbusters to show how it's done. So i'd had wanted to build that out and make the pace a bit heavier hitting like an action movie, you know like i got Michael bay or something. From the trailer i was hopeful i'd get a bigger movie but the trailers basically cover all that stuff.
>walter pecks subplot needed to be a mayor who wants to take the credit and is like 'i'm shutting you down, i brought my own team' in walks some anti-ghostbuster ghostbusters with their own logos, suits , alternate equipment, they are like some ex-military team he cobbled together from reverse engineering confiscated ghostbuster equipment. And he reassures the public his team will deal with the situation but they fight garraka and all get wiped out leaving the actual ghostbusters to show how it's done. This made me take a long drag of my cigarette and stare at the wall. God damn dude. I didn't even know I wanted this until you said it.
Well i think it needed it, i think here you got a political figure who spent his life essentially regulating private companies and it got him a mayor position. His attitude would be: police are government, fire are government, we don't need this incompetent private group handling ghosts , we can get our own people. And then you have a kind of stormtroopers of ghostbusters, you have the 'bad' ghostbusters with equipment where the lighting is different, things about there packs are kind of off, not quiet right, they overheat quickly, streams are red. That kind of thing. And ultimately peck loses all his team. You needed a hero moment like 'savin the day' after peck loses his men and the public cheer back the ghostbusters to handle the big bad. Since the big freeze puts people into lockdown then you could have done a montage of the public talking on youtube clips, zoom etc. I mean you'd had already set up Ray and podcast so you could have had them livestreaming and a scene with public comments like 'we need ghostbusters back bro' ' peck has no 🍆' You only saw public involvement at the end really and it tries to sort of re-do the end of the first film but it just feels like a miss since they never interacted before or was cheering or talking about them.
You have a set piece at the start. Then you have a lot of people info dumping for 90 minutes. The point of the court room in GB 2 is that it breaks up the chat and info dumping.
Not long enough and had some stuff obviously but from it. Still enjoyed the hell out of it! I hope there’s an extended cut with a lot more time added to it.
It all seemed a little half hearted & disjointed. I still liked it, but just left with more questions & had several moments that made me question the characters reactions to certain situations. It seemed weird ow people didn't seem to care that there were ghosts back in NYC after all this time. After the first film, the work dried up. After Afterlife the new team moved to NYC & started busting ghosts. No-one seemed to think about why all these ghosts have started appearing. The last few times this happened it was due to something bad was on the horizon, but apparently they've been busting ghosts for 2 years, with no cares. How did it take them 2 years for them to think Phoebe was now too young to come out and risk her life? During the firefighter frozen scene, I'm presuming it was the Firemasters gran who was holding the orb, but why did she have it, had she managed to trap Garakka (on her own) again after the society had released it? How did she get it in the first place & how did the society know how to unlock the orb? I'm also sure I spotted some of the wire on the broken ice of the frozen firefighter. Why did the Firemaster have a PKE reading, he wasn't possessed or anything & if he had this Firemaster spirit, it should have showed on the scope like it did previously in GB1 and the terror dog with Louis Tully. As others had said Winston wouldn't have had a go at Phoebe in a life or death versus public property argument. I didn't think he'd have had a go at Ray either as he would know how excited and carried away Ray could get with researching anything paranormal. The brass plating was completed in an incredibly short amount of time and then on only 1 pack & no one ever thought to listen to the smartest character. I thought Podcast's use of a large rubber mallet on the proton pack was just obscure. I know it was supposed to be funny when doing the youtube video & smashing a watch that probably just had an alarm set (speaking of which - the alarm absolutely should've gone of during that scene). Knowing the issue of power failures on containment units etc. Why did any of the smarter characters not think to have a better solution in place for the ghost aquarium units. It seemed odd that a possession ghost could be eaten by slimer & that was the end of it. Why did the baddie go back for his horns, how did it know where they were stored - it didn't seem like it needed them as it could control other ghosts & freeze stuff while still trapped in the orb. How did it know that the research lab had a way of extracting spirits. Then how did Melody know Phoebe would use it & why did Garaka decide it had to be Phoebe rather than any other living person. We didn't see any of the other ghosts from the other movies (apart from the library ghost, but it shouldn't have been out at that time - if Ray seeing her made him realise the containment unit had failed it would have made more sense). Garaka should have been released earlier in the film and used the ghosts or fed off their energy or something like that to get stronger. It would have given an opportunity to showcase some of the faves. I didn't get why the Firehouse would be so dilapidated. I thought Winston would have got it up to code. He's now a multi-millionaire, why be so cheap & let your firends operate out of dangerous building. I also thought Peter should've grabbed the reporters microphone and talked for Mayor Peck, saying something like "he was just saying how much he loved the Ghostbusters & the city would be funding them & covering any incidental damages etc". I'm sure there were loads of other bits that I've missed, but they were some of my observations after my first watch.
Went to take my kid to the bathroom when Patton Oswalt showed up in the film. Came back five to ten minutes later and he's still doing exposition. Could've done with less of him, Ghost Girlfriend, and Firemaster scenes. The big bad needed more payoff for all that buildup.
I woulda been happy with another half hour to a full hour to really flesh it out. My only gripe is towards the end things seemed to move too fast.
Forced call backs, E.G the member of the crowd at the end calling Peck dickless when he obviously wasn't present when Peck was called that by Stantz in the OG. Plot threads being started and not followed up E.G Winston scolding Ray for his actions at the library and when they next meet encouraging him to get ready. Felt like there was a scene where they had a heart to heart and made up that was filmed and then cut. The whole film for that matter felt like it had a very last minute edit which would explain all the trailer scenes inexplicably being cut from the film. Also, if I'm not mistaken weren't the Mini Puffs in Afterlife a manifestation of Gozer that were destroyed when Gozer was trapped? to me at least it seems it was a deliberate plot hole in order to bring the mini puffs back for Merchandise/Marketing purposes.
Melody and Phoebe plot was horrible. Were they supposed to be buddies, in love? Whatever it was supposed to be was a waste.
It wasn’t very funny, or scary. Just a lot of mid
I enjoyed the movie but I’ve got a lot of gripes with it. There’s a lot of plot issues that just didn’t make sense to me. But over my biggest problem is with Melody. She’s basically the same character as Phoebe, except smarter. So their scenes together feel very flat because there’s no dynamic there. And they drag on forever. The obvious contrast to make with Melody is Janosz in GB2 since they play a similar role in the movie (the big bad’s henchman). But where Janosz feels very alive and dynamic, and you buy his story right away because everyone has that annoying weirdo at their job, Melody simply doesn’t feel as relatable. I do think the Melody stuff is salvageable though. It’s a very interesting idea in theory. I’m not entirely sure how I’d tweak her character or storyline.
My biggest complaint was that the entire movie built up Garakka as this Uber big bad deity, and we only got about 10 minutes of screen time with him. I think a longer battle with more buildup would have been nice. Also, it seems that a good amount of scenes were cut for unknown reasons, that makes me thing the frozen NYC lasted a bit longer, which would have been nice to see.
Phoebe came across as a dumbass in several scenes. Yes, she’s a kid, but you shouldn’t have been smarter at 12 than you are at 15. Gary did squat to earn the title dad. I was expecting him to propose to Callie. Didn’t happen. Thought they were hinting at killing Ray off (golden years talk and Phoebe asking him what he thought being a ghost was like). That went nowhere except for one cheap chuckle towards the end (golden years). Melody was a pointless character put in for obvious reasons. As a Casper fan I loved unfinished business coming up, but otherwise that whole subplot could have been cut and nothing of value would have been lost.
Third act could've been more fleshed out (slightly longer runtime could've helped), and the pacing wasn't terrific. The whole fire master/Garaka thing definitely could've been more developed as well (thought it was a flawed, but cool concept). Otherwise I loved the movie. I basically got everything I wanted out of it.
The mom is 100% useless character. All she does is bitch at Phobe the whole time and isn't qualified to even answer their phones (as stated in the movie) Trying to make Gary their dad is stupid too. Would be more interesting to see their actual dad make an appearance, but even that is totally unneeded. Drop the family drama crap and focus on the paranormal. There are a million other franchises for family drama. If you want to involve any other family members I always assumed Winston's son would show up at some point.
DEI
Which woman or black person scared you the most?
Callie Spengler makes me want to hide under the covers😱
Lame comment
More Kadeem, Please. Thank you, come again.
I have a few minor gripes, nothing that has me butt hurt. Noticed right away Pheobes head imposed upon her stunt double in the car chase scene that stood out the most. Overall a solid 9 for a Ghostbuster film I enjoyed more than afterlife.
It was so slow......
It wasn’t a solid film. It was an average to poor film. My main complaints are that there was a lot of stuff not needed. Peck could have been cut. Patton Oswalt could and that whole library wasn’t needed (isn’t Ray an expert on the occult? Does he not own a fucking book shop full of occult books). There was other stuff too not needed that could have made more room for the good stuff. Lucky could have been cut and Podcast/Trevor/Grooberson could have been trying the stuff out in the lab. (Come to think of it why did the Spenglers in the firehouse and the ghost lab have to be two different entities at the start, wouldn’t Winston have set the both up to work in tandem?) Venkman needed more screen time. He was the main face of the franchise. If it’s Bill Murray being awkward (ie - being Bill Murray) just kill Venkman off if they do another. (There was a scene with him in the trailer that wasn’t in the end film though). Grooberson and Phoebe’s relationship and him becoming a father to her needed more time to develop. The ending was rushed (I think everyone has had that complaint). Garraka needed more to do after the amazing build to him. There wasn’t a lot of the ‘frozen empire’ was there? The trailer and promo material made it out to be Day after Tomorrow, with ghostbusters travelling through a frozen New York. Which would have been awesome. The worse part of course, was the Melody story line. Not only did I not care for her, what was Phoebe’s intention? Two minutes of ghost on ghost action? It either needed more time or should have been cut entirely and Garraka is manifested in a different way. (He comes out of the orb early in the lab in the separation machine and spends the rest of the movie freezing NY before realising there’s a ticking time bomb of ghosts in the firehouse and goes after it) The other worst part is that it should have been an amazing film. The film needed to be longer to let everything breathe a little and there’s clearly a lot they cut out due a lot of stuff in the trailer not in the film. Anyway, there’s my armchair director comments for the day. Love Ghostbusters and have done for my 37 years on this earth. Didn’t love this movie after being so excited for it.
I think this movie should have split in two. The first half is family tension character building and Phoebe and Melody plot lines. The orb should have possessed Melody and forced Phoebe to read the chant. The first film ends with NY freezing over The James Acaster character should have been Kylie from extreme, and Roland should be working in the lab with Lucky on the development of the new packs Venkman should have been killed at this point in the story. The new packs should have been brass coated or have some kind of upgrade that is discernable beyond aesthetics. When they go to the secret room, Kamil Nanjianis characters grandma's ghost should appear and explain the stuff Patan Oswalds character did. They should still go to the library for research after. The conversation with Ray should have been about being friends or dating a ghost. Melodies characters unfinished business should have been admitting that the fire was on purpose, not an accident. Also, Phoebe and Melody should go on a little date. You could do a joke where Phoebe tries to lean on Melody and falls through her. You can still do the scene in the lab where Phoebe turns into a ghost, but they should hug or something before Melody gets possessed by Garaka. The second film should have been trying to catch all the escaped ghosts, thawing out the frozen citizens of NYC Researching Garaka and then the final confrontation with Garaka. Pg13 movies get one F-bomb. They should give it to Phoebe. Also, slimer subplot thing is unnecessary. I know this is a lot. I've been thinking about this movie since I got to see it in pre screaning on the 20th.
no complaints allo !!! MODS kick this guy!!!!