While the original Ghostbusters is a funny and entertaining classic of its time, and "Ghostbusters: Afterlife" had its moments, this sequel is about as forgettable and bland as it gets, and clearly shows that there is unfortunately not too much more to do with this franchise. I only went to see this in theaters because I had a free ticket; otherwise, I would have waited to stream it. While the new cast that started with "Afterlife" (Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and Mckenna Grace) try their best with the material they are given, the movie just simply isn't interesting enough to have much bandwidth.
Despite being relatively short at around 110 minutes, the film's pacing is erratic and messy. The first half to two thirds of the movie are quite dull, with relatively little of significant consequence to the plot going on. Yet the film gets to the climactic action very abruptly--and, since it happens so late in the film, fleetingly too. It feels tedious before that climax comes and the film starts feeling rushed, which is a very unusual situation for a big-budget movie to have. The duller first two acts are diluted by some rather uninteresting sub-plots, including one about Mckenna Grace's character befriending a young female ghost. The supporting characters aren't too memorable either, including Kumail Nanjiani's character (which is unfortunate, because he is a talented actor.) The comic relief isn't particularly funny, the action isn't particularly thrilling, and the film just feels rather "been there, done that." Even the appearances of original Ghostbusters doesn't feel too special, since they already came back in "Afterlife." While sporadic moments of the film can be entertaining, there is little else to recommend here, and there's no real reason from a storytelling perspective that this movie exists other than "well, it's another Ghostbusters movie." 4/10.
Despite being relatively short at around 110 minutes, the film's pacing is erratic and messy. The first half to two thirds of the movie are quite dull, with relatively little of significant consequence to the plot going on. Yet the film gets to the climactic action very abruptly--and, since it happens so late in the film, fleetingly too. It feels tedious before that climax comes and the film starts feeling rushed, which is a very unusual situation for a big-budget movie to have. The duller first two acts are diluted by some rather uninteresting sub-plots, including one about Mckenna Grace's character befriending a young female ghost. The supporting characters aren't too memorable either, including Kumail Nanjiani's character (which is unfortunate, because he is a talented actor.) The comic relief isn't particularly funny, the action isn't particularly thrilling, and the film just feels rather "been there, done that." Even the appearances of original Ghostbusters doesn't feel too special, since they already came back in "Afterlife." While sporadic moments of the film can be entertaining, there is little else to recommend here, and there's no real reason from a storytelling perspective that this movie exists other than "well, it's another Ghostbusters movie." 4/10.