A single mother with two teenage children, Trevor and Phoebe, settles on an old farm in Oklahoma, inherited from her father, who abandoned her as a child. The woman counted on at least some money, but received only debts from her father. However, an inquisitive Phoebe discovers strange devices created by her grandfather and his laboratory in the house, and Trevor finds the Ecto-1 car, which belonged to the popular Ghostbusters in the 1980s.
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The third part of “Ghostbusters” was expected due to the excellent box office receipts of the first two parts, as well as the incredible love of fans who expected the fearless heroes to return to the ranks as soon as possible. However, despite the fact that the rental and artistic prospects of the next film in the series were high, the appearance of “Ghostbusters 3” on the screens had to be expected for more than 30 years. In the time that has passed since the second film, fans of the franchise have managed to say goodbye to Harold Ramis, who left our world in 2014, to see a frankly mediocre remake from Paul Feig and, in general, to be disappointed with what Sony has done with the Ghostbusters brand, however, a ray of hope over the beloved story dawned at the moment when the producers nevertheless gave the green light to stage a full-fledged triquel, which is part of the good old franchise, and this circumstance could not but inspire. And even though, due to certain reasons, the premiere of the film had to be postponed for quite a long time, finally the canonical story got its continuation, which turned out to be pretty good, albeit far from exemplary.
Directly the plot of “Ghostbusters”, which received the subtitle “Afterlife”, or “Heirs”, takes place many years after the legendary team of comrades in arms broke up. The ghosts were no longer in a hurry to return to earth, and therefore the demand for the services of the Hunters disappeared on its own. Not being able to keep their business afloat, the heroes dispersed in all directions and almost everyone forgot about them. However, if there is even a minimal probability of the return of ghosts, it is still too early to relax … This time, at the head of the story is not the most fortunate family in the person of Kelly (Kerry Coon) and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace), who for serious financial problems, they have to change the city to a backwater, where they inherited an old house and a battered car, which, as it turned out, belonged to the Ghostbusters themselves, which few people remember now. Deciding to find out more about the legacy left by the mysterious grandfather, the ubiquitous Phoebe gradually reveals to herself the true wonders of the world around, but at the same time she understands that the Hunters’ car, as well as other things of her grandfather, went to her, mother and brother for a reason. Very soon, a real surge of paranormal activity may occur near a quiet town, and only the heirs of the forgotten heroes of the past will be able to stop the imminent End of the World…
The reverent attitude and respect of the authors of the third film to the cult dilogy of Ivan Reitman is felt throughout the viewing. It’s no surprise that Reitman’s son, Jason, was also directing The Descendants. Having in front of him an unsuccessful example of Paul Fig, who sullied the bright name of the franchise with this very remake, Reitman Jr. decided not to experiment once again, but to return the true spirit of the good old story, which is so loved by more than one generation of viewers. Trying to do his job competently and thoroughly, Reitman was extremely careful about introducing new heroes into the story and closely intertwined their fates with Egon Spangler, whose influence on history was profound even though Harold Ramis had long since left our world. Having given the beloved hero a fair amount of attention, Reitman showed how important the humble scientist Egon was in the past and at the same time made it clear why it is worth building an updated history around his legacy. By revealing the secrets of Spangler, we get to know new heroes, adapt to the more recent trends of modern life, but at the same time do not forget about the past, which continues to have a significant impact on the present and future.
Of course, Jason Reitman proved his respect for the true Ghostbusters and Egon Spangler in particular, but he still worked too academically and restrainedly on the creation of his film, which is why “Descendants” turned out to be incredibly sweet and nostalgic, but also and somewhat predictable and somewhat secondary. No, of course, the audience wanted to see a genuine return of the franchise on the screens, but in many aspects this story is a repetition of the material covered. Moreover, this concerns both the forces of well-known otherworldly evil, and the general type of heroes who have potential, but they do not fully reveal it. Young actors in the person of Wolfhard and Grace are talented and interesting in themselves, but they got rather stereotyped images, which were periodically supplemented with good dramatic revelations and jokes, but in general, Reitman Jr. deliberately limits their development. The same applies to the hero Paul Rudd, who promised to be almost the key character of the “Heirs”, but in fact played a typical comical role, which is not particularly memorable.
As for the old guard, which nevertheless returned to service and was supposed to remind the world of its glory, then in the context of the new story, one could do without it in principle, since the plot is structured in such a way that, despite all the references to the dilogy, its direct participants could have remained in the shadows, completely not sorting out the crumbs of attention that they were nevertheless allocated to themselves. Sometimes it even seemed that Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson were simply taken and copied from some third-party material, and then their images were inserted into the new film. Their heroes are completely unnecessary here, they failed to make the audience laugh with good jokes and, on the whole, it is rather sad to watch the return of characters whom we remember young and energetic, and now they are only capable of staying in one place and pointing weapons at side of an imaginary enemy and nothing more. However, if we consider the return of Murray and company in the context of acute nostalgia for the cult dilogy, then even such an appearance deserves attention.
In the end, I want to say that Ghostbusters: Descendants turned out to be a very interesting and respectful continuation of the excellent films of Ivan Reitman, but the new story frankly lacks a unique identity that could make it no less iconic than its predecessors. Of the uniquely positive aspects, it is worth highlighting a good cast, an ideally recreated “lamp” atmosphere and familiar paranormal motives, and yet not every viewer will be able to feel like this, because in these times, expensive studio projects should please not only fans of the original, but also attract their banners of “fresh blood”. And the latter can be a problem here.
Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (49.3 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French (Canada): Dolby Digital 5.1
Portuguese: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48 kHz, 16-bit)
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1
Thai: Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Korean, Mandarin (Simplified), Mandarin (Traditional), Thai.
