This isn’t a sequel to the 1984 film. It’s a sequel to spinoff merchandising objects and the coddled memories of kids who were too young to understand that the “Keymaster” and “Gatekeeper” bit was a sex joke. It strip-mines a nostalgia for something that never existed, as calculatedly phony as the ersatz Americana setting, shot in Alberta, Canada. “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” treats with pseudo-religious reverence the events of a movie in which a ghost blew Dan Aykroyd in a firehouse.
Fuckin Brutal. Ban all fandoms why do they keep trying to make sequels and shit to a two hour SNL sketch that has never worked outside of that one movie
The prequel trilogy had a lot of problems, but the underlying story wasn't one of them. Lucas had a certified winner second trilogy before he Disney-fied everything in post. Putting some distance between the hammy dialogue, and giving the fan community to bevel off the rough edges, really polished those turds into diamonds over time.
The sequel trilogy was comparatively better in all the ways that didn't hold up. Better acting, better cinematography, more restraint in CGI, better pacing. But the story was one part naked rehash and one part confused retcon bullshit. The mythology of the series was mangled as the entire Extended Universe was discarded for... what? The need to make Even Bigger Death Star overshadowed the character stories that people were really excited to see. Interesting new characters were left on the cutting room floor while classics were dragged out of retirement to just kinda dangle.
And that was all in the first movie. The second actually did try to course correct. But it was playing tug-of-war with a toxic online community, delivering half a good movie and then setting up a disaster of a closer.
Well said. The sequels were "bad" but at least they were memorable. In 10 years I don't know if anyone will care about the sequels