2021 gave audiences a lot of nostalgia at the movie theater, with Tobey Maguire returning as Spider-Man and even a newScreammovie. But one that hit the biggest nostalgia button was Jason Reitman’sGhostbusters: Afterlife. Beyond just the title, the movie is rife with nostalgia and callbacks with the returning cast, one of cinema’s most popular cars, the Ecto-1 getting a tune-up. Not to mention the director, Jason Reitman, is the son of the original film’s director, Ivan Reitman.
Although the film is anabsolute love letter to the originaltwo installments, for the most part, the film was met with a mediocre reaction. Many said either it was too much nostalgia, or just the right amount for returning audiences. But it was what the franchise needed to get started back up. However, ifGhostbustersis going to continue into more sequels, it will have to go even further thanAfterlifedid. To get started, here are a few things that the sequels could do to push the franchise in a great new direction.
RELATED:Best Moments In Ghostbusters: Afterlife
Keep Up The Childhood Fun
Lots of franchises have kids at the forefront of their adventures, and it has become somewhat cliché. But forGhostbusters: Afterlife, this model worked extremely well. The first two films focused on four grown men after leaving academia and finding themselves becoming Ghostbusters, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It worked perfectly for what the film was going for.
Sticking with the kids as they grow up while immersing themselves in the world of ghosts is picturesque for a new take on theGhostbustersfranchise and definitely the new way it should continue to go. In other words, let the kids be kids and embrace the chaos.
Focus On The New Characters
To piggyback off of the last topic, focusing on those kids and the new adult characters should be one of the biggest priorities going forward. For most ofAfterlife’sruntime, the focus was on the newer characters, but still, a lot of the story focuses on the history and lives of the original characters. This made the film feel stuck in the past, not allowing the new characters fully be embraced. Even Gozer was the same villain that fans seen before, and it offered nothing more.
But withAfterlife, many highlights of the film were the new characters interacting with the world that fans already know and love. For the new set of movies, a new point of view much more attuned to modern sensibilities can play a big role if a franchise film istrying to reach a new audience.
Continue Using Locations Other Than New York
New York is easily one of, if not the most overused locations in film history. For some reason or another, it seems like most filmmakers believe it is the only place that major events happen. It makes sense to a point, but the setting is no longer exciting and fun. The firstGhostbustersmovies used New York, and it was the perfect setting for them.
But a saving grace for the most recent installment is that it took place setting that audiences hadn’t seen yet, creating an opportunity for new conflicts, action sequences, world growth, and even more characters to be introduced. Going forward seeing evenmore new locationswould be great especially for exploring theGhostbustersworld.
Explore More Of The Lore
Speaking of exploring more of theGhostbustersworld, therehas to be moreto the story world than just Gozer.Ghostbusters 2showed that there were more paranormal threats out there, but using Gozer for a second time was extremely disappointing, especially with teases of all the different kinds of ghosts presented through the franchise’s history.
There is so much potential there that reusing the same villain feels lazy and is ultimately boring. It would be a lot of fun to see moreGhostbustersparanormal world-building, and it would just seem weird if, in another installment, audiences only got more repetition of what has already been seen in theGhostbustersmythos.
Take A Step Away From The Nostalgia
The number of hands needed tocount all the callback momentsinGhostbusters: Afterlifeis a bit much. It is fun while wearing some nostalgia shades while being blinded by everything else, but when it comes to making a good movie that stands out from the rest, overuse of nostalgia just holds it back from becoming what it could and should be.
All the points listed before can be summarized simply: should the franchise continue,Ghostbustersshuld prioritize going forward with the new and original. It should focus less on the callback moments to jolt those nostalgic feelings audiences have with the originalGhostbusters, and just trying to make its own nostalgia for new and old audiences.
