I love Afterlife. That said, I personally am skeptical of this film.
However...
My issue with many of the negative reviews of this film - is that they don't offer criticism of the film itself so much as criticism of its mere existence. That's not helpful to me as a viewer. I am on the fence in regards to this film - and so many reviews that I see that are negative, offer little help to me on making my decision because they come across as trying to spite the film because they feel the franchise should've ended at X-point. Even their (what would be) legitimate 'critiques' come off as in bad-faith and it turns me off from taking their opinion that seriously.
This is not an unusual thing for a lot of critical reviews these days, and it gives me flashbacks to the reviews for Afterlife and the initial reviews for the final Indiana Jones film. And I loved both. Though, neither were critically panned at 46% like this one (Afterlife at 64% and Indy at 70%), I'm still not sure what to really gleam from these negative reviews.
Telling me a film shouldn't exist or is too nostalgic, or too silly isn't as substantive as a lot of modern critics think it is. Ghostbusters is meant to be silly. Its audience doesn't mind nostalgia. That was the intent.
Tell me how well a film did in its goals.
I miss when I felt like critics evaluated films more on their own terms. I was usually in agreement or at least could understand critical assessments in the 2000s-2014ish.
Since then, it feels like a urinating-match, at times. Something changed in the sphere of film criticism in both online discourse (thanks to online critics on YouTube making film nothing more than a nit-pick fest and whining about 'pOLiTiCAl aGeNDas') and with critics (being so far up their rears that they feel like they need to show the reader how smart and above-it-all they are).
So yeah. I don't mind this film getting negative reviews. I just wish those reviews offered me something of substance on why I should avoid the film because me - an undecided viewer - should be their prime candidate they can help.