Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Sigourney weaver, Bob Gunton, J.K. Simmons, Shawn Seward, Billy Bryk, Sydney Mae Diaz, Hannah Duke.

Nostalgia isn’t just reminiscing for what is missed, in some cases it is a wistfulness that shouldn’t be touched, it is the catalyst of return, and whether the moment of the resumption of a tale or a friendship meets our expectations, it cannot be denied that it fuels the longing and the melancholy for what was the original first meeting.

After a truly dispiriting third film in the franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife returns to its trusted formula, and even with the original stars of the first two films not being featured until the crucial ending, the longing of a continuation of the story is to be greeted with a broad smile, a consideration for the effects on offer, and a small embrace of welcome for the fun that is on offer.

Nostalgia and perhaps public unhappiness over the 2016 Ghostbusters release drove Afterlife into existence, and whilst it was no fault of the cast of the previous offering, the lack of connection aside from out of character cameos was not the way to join the universes together; the tangled weave of doing the same thing again but with a different face only works if the relationship between them is more than just a title and some special effects.

Afterlife works because it re-joins the dots, yes, the foe is more than familiar, the touches and nods to the original are there perhaps as window dressing, of adding slightly less than context, but it still works, and aside from keeping it together with the return of Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Winston Zeddemore, the characters, led by the ever engaging Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and McKenna Grace, are fully rounded enough to see the film add to the nostalgic feel for a period in cinema when the off-beat was praised, and lauded enough to be part of the zeitgeist, to be part of everyday culture.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife returns to the viewers’ cinematic expectations, a continuance that has been dominated by Marvel and D.C. films; and whilst the fever pitch of cultural references is not as it was back in the mid-80s, the nostalgia of the film’s past will see it return again, this time with a proper connection associated to it.

Fun, enjoyable, ghostbusting fulfilment without the need to descend into flippancy, Ghostbusters: Afterlife proves the franchiseis alive and well.

Ian D. Hall