Ghostbusters: Afterlife – First Trailer Review
“I’m picturing a medieval-type film about a group of “rebels” who band together with a wizard (perhaps?) to take down the evil tyrant Vigo.”
You can’t criticize it for sounding like fan-fic then go suggesting they pull it completely out of the present to go all Army of Darkness. I’m also getting tired of it being compared to the kid Ghostbusters episode. I’m fine with it being more Stranger Things than GB1 or GB2.
Couple of minor points. You theorize that “after they first went out of business, they moved [Ecto-1] to Egon’s barn”… but then what were Ray and Winston driving around to children’s birthday parties in 1989? They would have to have ‘barned it’ sometime after the opening credits of GB2.
Secondly, when Mr. Grooberson is showing the clips of the GBs arriving at Spook Central to the kids, I think that blurred photo at the right, below the one of Ray and Peter, is Ray Parker Jr. in his outfit from the music video.
Which makes me wonder… are they suggesting that, in-universe, RPJ wrote a song and shot a video about the ‘Manhattan Crossrip’? Shrug, I guess it explains how Ray and Winston knew of such a song to sing it at birthday parties.
AN
Zidders – I didn’t even realize that I, essentially, described Army of Darkness. I was just thinking of “sword and sorcery” films in general when I came up with that idea. My idea, which is separate from my analysis of the Afterlifer trailer – though I probably didn’t make that entirely clear, is along the lines of what Disney did with Solo: A Star Wars Story. It is a film that takes place in the past and is, more or less, a different genre (action adventure serial like Indiana Jones, not Jedi Space Opera) than the other Star Wars films.
Alex – I can’t believe I completely forgot about the dilapidated “Ecto-1” from the beginning of GB2. I guess I blocked it from my memory 🙂 I updated my review to include a new theory that takes this into account. As for the computer photos… The one on top, I’m sure, is Peter in the orange jacket at Lincoln Center. I didn’t mention it in my review because I didn’t immediately recognize which specific photo it is. I had no clue who was in the bottom photo, but I think you’re right about it being Ray Parker Jr. in his outfit from the music video. I like your theory that RPJ’s song and music video exist in-universe. I can definitely see Peter making that kind of publicity happen, as long as he gets to be in the music video 🙂 I never thought about how Ray and Winston knew the song for their birthday parties in 1989, but now I’ll be using your theory to accept that.
Also, if you look carefully at my full-size framegrabs, you’ll notice that the photos are purposely blurred. I suspect that they did this in the trailer either to keep them as a surprise, or because they couldn’t clear (or didn’t want to pay for) the likeness rights for the trailer.
— Paul
Looks very low key and uninspiring.
