Ghostbusters: Afterlife | November 19 2021 | Sony | Delayed again

[titanic2187]

I unintentionally went to one of the early access show in my country for GB. (The early access release strategy is getting out of hand here, almost every major films got early release arrangement week before the formal release)

 

As a non-fan who know nothing much about GB and have little connection to 1980s version, l am surprised that this is quite an enjoyable experience. The movie felt like a combination of Jumanji 2017 + IT. Some genuine heart-warming and touching moment even to a casual audience like me. Overall the movie is a feel good adventure although some fan services seem excessive and can be seen as "useless" scene if one has never seen the original GB.

 

Wonder how RT critics conclude that this is a meh movie considering they gave GvK above 75%. I honestly think this is rivaling Jumanji level of crowd-pleasing.          

[Merkel]

2 hours ago, CenterMeOnSam said:

 

I mean, but that's how nostalgia works. Something that isn't "iconic" originally becomes "iconic" after shared experiences and memories grow over time. 

 

And, technically, these things DID happen in Shakespeare (sorry, I teach Shakespeare daily )

 

For instance, the Histories do this quite frequently. Characters reintroduced, callbacks from previous events, even callbacks that happen in verse with similar language. An egregious example is Falstaff (made a crowd favorite in Henry IV) is reintroduced in Merry Wives of Windsor. So, he's not Hamlet, but he definitely pops out in the same way you mention and the audience went crazy. It was like an Elizabethan version of Leo pointing at the television screen. And while the dagger isn't the came in Caesar and Antony... Antony HIMSELF pops out in both plays. 

 

Another instance is the use of Verona as a shared location, both referenced and actual. 

 

There's a lot there, but I won't bore you with more, but my point remains the same: this is nothing new and its weird that there has been a recent critical attack on films that use nostalgia as a foundation. 

 

 

You make some very good points and I could never debate you in Shakespeare related subjects, as you are far more knowledgeable, but my beef with this sort of project it's not so much the rehash of story elements of tropes, but rather the easter egg scattering and on-the-nose references to elicit an instant sympathetic, albeit meanigless response from the audience.

 

It feels almost as this movie and its characters (and others with similar "appropriation" of the success and iconography of previous movies) live in a world where Ghostbusters was a very popular movie instead of a world where those events actually happened. Can't really put it in any other way

[von Kenni]

2 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

I unintentionally went to one of the early access show in my country for GB. (The early access release strategy is getting out of hand here, almost every major films got early release arrangement week before the formal release)

 

As a non-fan who know nothing much about GB and have little connection to 1980s version, l am surprised that this is quite an enjoyable experience. The movie felt like a combination of Jumanji 2017 + IT. Some genuine heart-warming and touching moment even to a casual audience like me. Overall the movie is a feel good adventure although some fan services seem excessive and can be seen as "useless" scene if one has never seen the original GB.

 

Wonder how RT critics conclude that this is a meh movie considering they gave GvK above 75%. I honestly think this is rivaling Jumanji level of crowd-pleasing.          

 

Maybe critic and cynic go hand in hand today, and they don't appreciate a heartwarming feel good story like the casual movie goer does.

[Maggie]

Interesting discussion. If critics are this harsh with Ghostbusters Afterlife, imagine how they'll tear Top Gun 2 to shreds. In the trailer alone, there are so many scenes from the first movie just reworked. I mean, playing shirtless sports again, singing in the bar...etc.

[Mojoguy]

Where were all these critics complaining about nostalgia when The Force Awakens was released?

[AJG]

12 minutes ago, Menor said:

 

You can do the same thing by just picking random movies on streaming. 

 

What do you know about sitting through Kate and Leopold at 11:45PM on Christmas Eve because there was nothing else?

 

What do you know about being caught off guard by ITV's 1AM school night presentation Yu-Gi-Oh The Movie? 

 

Streaming, even at random, is not random enough. Streaming also provides you with 1000's of alternative options when you don't like what you're seeing, it's too easy to switch to something else, TV used to only give you 4 other channels and that's it. If you weren't enjoying Channel Five's Easter Sunday broadcast of Showgirls, then tough. There was barely anything else.

[von Kenni]

3 minutes ago, Maggie said:

Interesting discussion. If critics are this harsh with Ghostbusters Afterlife, imagine how they'll tear Top Gun 2 to shreds. In the trailer alone, there are so many scenes from the first movie just reworked. I mean, playing shirtless sports again, singing in the bar...etc.

That's true. Maybe GA has some G2016 residue but still. I enjoyed the original Top Gun as much as the other guy, but even for me Top Gun 2 seems pointless (why do we need it? Okay, with a good story it can work...) and the trailer gave me that impression of ill-used nostalgia that we discuss here. Like over the top. I don't know why... maybe because at least GA looked as a new story with new characters instead replicating old stuff.

 

The same as in SW TFA. It's okay to have the ships and world look the same and have same characters involved with new ones, but Ben - Solo (inverse Luke - Vader) and a Death Star, just bigger...I mean, really!?

 

Looks like GA has used nostalgia in the right way without making it the main thing like in SW TFA.

 

Let's see how's it with TG2...

[titanic2187]

One more, I realised the trailers highlight the director name Jason Reitman. This is a bit unusual to sell director name isn't? Rarely a tentpoles comedy film like Ghostbuster would need a relatively small art-house director brand to sell to audience, not to mention reitman isn't even a big name to cinephile. 

[clockwork]

My take on nostalgia usage in modern movies/franchises is thats it's okay in moderation but not as a crutch to hold an otherwise flimsy story up.

 

I could name a few ongoing franchises that would benefit from cutting back on the nostalgia and returning to a more self-sufficient style of storytelling; crafting a story/experience that can be enjoyed by anybody whether they be a long term fan or somebody who just wants to have a good time watching something.

Edited November 18, 2021 by clockwork

[von Kenni]

7 minutes ago, AJG said:

 

What do you know about sitting through Kate and Leopold at 11:45PM on Christmas Eve because there was nothing else?

 

What do you know about being caught off guard by ITV's 1AM school night presentation Yu-Gi-Oh The Movie? 

 

Streaming, even at random, is not random enough. Streaming also provides you with 1000's of alternative options when you don't like what you're seeing, it's too easy to switch to something else, TV used to only give you 4 other channels and that's it. If you weren't enjoying Channel Five's Easter Sunday broadcast of Showgirls, then tough. There was barely anything else.

That's a very good point that we don't realize, or I at least had forgotten. Now I remember the time that we had two TV channels and someone was always telling someone what had happened in the movie so far, and we were, positively IMHO, forced to watch different kind of movies or series that we otherwise wouldn't have.

 

TV channels partly educated us with variety and prevented escaping into singular genres or bubbles of content.

[Deep Wang]

20 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

One more, I realised the trailers highlight the director name Jason Reitman. This is a bit unusual to sell director name isn't? Rarely a tentpoles comedy film like Ghostbuster would need a relatively small art-house director brand to sell to audience, not to mention reitman isn't even a big name to cinephile. 

 

It's because he's the son of the Ivan Reitman, the director of Ghostbusters, that's all.  Sony thinks that will help sell it as a legitimate legacy or some such nonsense. 

[Barnack]

23 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

One more, I realised the trailers highlight the director name Jason Reitman. This is a bit unusual to sell director name isn't? Rarely a tentpoles comedy film like Ghostbuster would need a relatively small art-house director brand to sell to audience, not to mention reitman isn't even a big name to cinephile. 

2010-2015 he was certainly a name, Juno printed so much money and Up in the air did extremely well.

 

But yes I imagine the Star Wars family tree type connection played a role because is name is more prominent in the trailer than it was for Tully or just the benefit of being the son of the producer

[von Kenni]

4 minutes ago, Barnack said:

2010-2015 he was certainly a name, Juno printed so much money and Up in the air did extremely well.

 

But yes I imagine the Star Wars family tree type connection played a role because is name is more prominent in the trailer than it was for Tully or just the benefit of being the son of the producer

 

As a fun fact, my film director friend named his first born Juno for the love of that movie.

[titanic2187]

11 minutes ago, Barnack said:

2010-2015 he was certainly a name, Juno printed so much money and Up in the air did extremely well.

 

But yes I imagine the Star Wars family tree type connection played a role because is name is more prominent in the trailer than it was for Tully or just the benefit of being the son of the producer

That is the reason I find the whole nostalgic-driven element is a bit too excessive in the  movie itself. Now I realised they even use director's son name to stoke the feeling. 

[Ronin46]

7 minutes ago, titanic2187 said:

That is the reason I find the whole nostalgic-driven element is a bit too excessive in the  movie itself. Now I realised they even use director's son name to stoke the feeling. 

 

Nostalgia sells. Got to give people a reason to go to the cinema otherwise they just stay at home and Netflix etc. Special effect driven movies, animated, horror or some sort of IP nostalgia/remake/sequel etc or its almost impossible to do decent box office. Hopefully Gucci breaks that trend.

[WittyUsername]

1 hour ago, Mojoguy said:

Where were all these critics complaining about nostalgia when The Force Awakens was released?

Nostalgic pandering wasn’t as common six years ago as it is today. People seem to have become more wary of it in the years since TFA. 

[Menor the Destroyer]

1 hour ago, AJG said:

 

What do you know about sitting through Kate and Leopold at 11:45PM on Christmas Eve because there was nothing else?

 

What do you know about being caught off guard by ITV's 1AM school night presentation Yu-Gi-Oh The Movie? 

 

Streaming, even at random, is not random enough. Streaming also provides you with 1000's of alternative options when you don't like what you're seeing, it's too easy to switch to something else, TV used to only give you 4 other channels and that's it. If you weren't enjoying Channel Five's Easter Sunday broadcast of Showgirls, then tough. There was barely anything else.

That's a good thing. I like to have more control. If I want random stuff then I can make that conscious decision. The glorification of scarcity is so strange. 

[Barnack]

13 minutes ago, WittyUsername said:

Nostalgic pandering wasn’t as common six years ago as it is today. People seem to have become more wary of it in the years since TFA. 

Star wars Force Awaken and Jurassic World were the 2 biggest movie 6 year's ago, Cinderella, MadMax, Bond, Strait outta Compton, etc... it is hard to quantify but it has been really common since I am aware.

 

Critics of the pandering craze around that time Force Awaken was extremely common, it was the Member berries run on Southpark

[WittyUsername]

15 minutes ago, Barnack said:

Star wars Force Awaken and Jurassic World were the 2 biggest movie 6 year's ago, Cinderella, MadMax, Bond, Strait outta Compton, etc... it is hard to quantify but it has been really common since I am aware.

 

Critics of the pandering craze around that time Force Awaken was extremely common, it was the Member berries run on Southpark

The criticisms against TFA for pandering to nostalgia started to become a semi-prevailing narrative in 2016, after the hype for the movie wore off. Nostalgic pandering was of course a thing in 2015, but we’ve gotten an onslaught of franchise revivals and nostalgia-driven reboots in the years since TFA.

[efialtes76]

Top Critics hate the movie!🤔