By: “The Watchman”
I don’t think I have ever seen “Ghostbusters II”. I had heard that it wasn’t as good as the original, and was never inclined to watch it for that reason. Watching it back-to-back with the original movie, I must say that it was, however, a very good sequel, and one that I thoroughly enjoyed.
No, it is not as good as the original, but is that a fair comparison? How many movies are? It continued with the characters and concepts of 1984’s original “Ghostbusters” in a fun and believable direction that always left me wondering what would happen next. It was funny, too. It made me genuinely laugh out loud, which is very hard to do, proving the cleverness and quality of writing that Aykroyd and Ramis employed while trying to reach the bar of their original movie.
Is this Vigo character and his strange foreign henchman as intimidating as the hell hounds and glowing temple of Gozer the Gozerian from Ghostbusters I? No, not quite, but the… instrument… that the Ghostbusters used to help them reach Vigo in the final act made me genuinely smile with delight.
Seeing the interactions between Bill Murray’s character (Peter Venkman) and Sigourney Weaver’s character (Dana Barrett) once again, I was surprised by how much the addition of a baby added to the novelty of their strange “Will they? Won’t they?” romance. I also liked the addition of Rick Moranis’ character as a compliment to the Ghostbusters’ business, albeit still in the comic relief role we saw him fill from the first movie. I wouldn’t have been surprised if he put a giant “Dark Helmet” on his head, and started rambling about someone named “Lone Starr”. (Go watch “Spaceballs” if you don’t get that one. Another classic.)
As I said before, it’s true that “Ghostbusters II” is not as good as the original 1984 entry, but I’ve come to believe that focusing on that point is a red herring argument. “Ghostbusters II” is a very good movie that is worth watching. There are no qualifications that need to be added to the end of that sentence. Any franchise would be lucky to have a sequel of this quality, especially considering the kind of awkward place that Ghostbusters I ended, storywise, creating a difficult starting point for this sequel to work from.
All the main characters from the original movie are in this one, and are acting in character for themselves, although I guess you could also say that none of them really grew as a result of the first movie in a way that changed their characters all that much, if you really want to find something negative to say about this movie. That, and it is also a little hard to believe that all of New York simply forgot about ghosts after the events of the first movie and ruled the Ghostbusters off as charlatans, but the movie still manages to make it more or less believable.
Beyond all that, I really have nothing bad to say about this movie. It’s a solid 8.5/10.
Final Score: 8.5/10
“A solid sequel that brings us back to the world of the original ‘Ghostbusters’ in a way that feels exciting and interesting. All the characters you loved are back and ready to make you laugh out loud again, albeit one or two less times.”
What’s next? “Who you gonna call?”