We weigh in on the reboot to the Ghostbusters franchise, a movie that isn’t near as bad as the entitled fanboys wanted you to think.
It is official, ladies and gentlemen. We have officially entered the era when we will have to specify whether we’re talking about Ghostbusters (1984) or Ghostbusters (2016) by adding the year after the name. It’s a reality that Batman fans have been dealing with for years thanks to the varying editions of those films.
A lot of shade has been thrown at the 2016 film leading up to its release. Some people didn’t like the idea of an all-female cast. Others just didn’t like the idea of it being remade at all. I have to admit that I was unsure at first because I fell in the category of those who felt it maybe shouldn’t be remade. The biggest mark against the reboot was the 1989 sequel to the original film, which is terrible. Why does the logo in the sequel have two fingers up? Do the Ghostbusters know they’re in a sequel? And why are half the songs on the soundtrack for Ghostbusters 2 about the plot of Ghostbusters 2? It’s weird watching them do stuff while someone sings and/or raps about them doing stuff. It’s not like Eminem will be rapping about Matt Damon while he fights evil spies.
My apologies for the digression. I have a lot of pent up rage towards that film. Just go watch the Honest Trailer. It will make you feel better.
In any case, if the same cast can’t catch lightning in a bottle again, what chance could anyone else possibly have?
But as new trailers came out, I got increasingly intrigued by the potential that this reboot had. Some people responded with huge negativity to a few minutes of out-of-context footage and decided that they wouldn’t set foot in the theatre. While you can certainly chalk some of that up to the rampant misogyny following through geek culture like a river of pink slime under New York City, others just simply didn’t want to support what they believed to be a betrayal of their childhoods.
The 2016 movie is good. Period. I’m not going to say it’s perfect and that there isn’t room for improvement in sequels, which there will be, but this is still a solid watch.
This time around, Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones team up to face a very different batch of ghosts. Bounced from respected academia, the Wiig, McCarthy, and McKinnon set up shop chasing ghosts above a restaurant in Chinatown. Leslie Jones’ character actively tracks them down and joins their team after a paranormal experience of her own.
There are a lot of common points between the movies. Both teams have trouble finding respect due to their beliefs and work. Both fight impossible odds to save New York. Both have similar-ish endings. But the current iteration differs from its predecessor in a few ways, a big one being the relationships of the characters.
Wiig and McCarthy’s characters are childhood friends who started this path together until Wiig bailed to find a career in the world of respectable, academic science. McCarthy continued down that path until she met McKinnon, an engineer with a mind for developing ghost busting gear. The rebuilding of the relationship between Wiig and McCarthy is a driving force at the core of the film. It works but it also leads to a ridiculous moment in the final fight against the big bad where Wiig uses a never-ending tow cable to yank McCarthy out of a magic hole. It’s a moment that is overshadowed by the bigger events surrounding it, and only exists to put a completely unnecessary final point on one subplot.
Beyond that, the story is solid. The villain of the 2016 film is more tangible than the one in 1984. This time, the bad guy is very real and has a devious, nefarious plan the team has to unravel. In the 1984 film, the villain is a long dead architect whose plans are finally coming to fruition.
The core cast all deliver solid performances. As someone who hasn’t been the biggest fan of either Wiig or McCarthy in the past, I can honestly say I greatly enjoyed both actresses in this film. They were funny and engaging. But Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones both killed it. These two current SNL heavy hitters delivered in a big way alongside two women who have become on screen veterans. And then there’s Chris Hemsworth who plays their idiotic receptionist. I have to give credit to the man for taking a role that made him look ridiculous and nailing it.
But for all of this great on screen chemistry, the Bridesmaids effect did rear its ugly head.
Bridesmaids was the last film directed by Paul Feig and starring both Wiig and McCarthy that I watched. I didn’t particularly enjoy it, and a big part of that was the under-utilization of two brilliant comedians, Ellie Kemper and Wendy McLendon-Covey. Important to the film, they kind of just disappear. Something similar happens in this movie. While McKinnon and Jones don’t disappear from the story, the focus is definitely on Wiig and McCarthy’s arc. The Wiig/McCarthy subplot is okay but McKinnon and Jones do not get used to their full potential because of it.
While this is a funny movie, I wouldn’t describe it as laugh out loud funny. While there are some great moments, solid gags, and good chuckles, the comedy is actually a little reserved. The 1984 movie was in many ways a little edgier in its comedy. The 2016 edition could have used a little more of that at times, especially considering the talent in this film. Many of the biggest laughs came from the cameos.
Annie Potts. Sigourney Weaver. Ernie Hudson. Dan Aykroyd. They all made cameos in this movie, and good ones at that. Bill Murray in particular had an excellent cameo that suits his sensibilities perfectly. The filmmakers even found a great way to honor the late, great Harold Ramis. The only person missing is Rick Moranis, and in more ways than one.
This movie lacked a performer like Moranis or a character like Louis Tully. Rick Moranis is a unique comedic genius who left Hollywood to care for his family. He added so much to the original film with subtle things he’s constantly doing in almost every scene he’s in. The new movie lacks an ‘everyday character dragged into an incomprehensible situation’ found in Louis Tully. There are heroes, a love interest, and judgmental authority figures but no random character dragged into the story by the luck of the draw. That perspective helps ground the story.
But these issues are not insurmountable. This is still an easy film to enjoy and a lot of people are. While it isn’t a blockbuster it’s also not a bomb. A $144 million budget has so far translated into a $65 million worldwide gross. There are a few key markets it has yet to open in, and it will in the coming weeks. It also has to overcome the unwarranted negative hype leading up to its release. As word gets around that this movie isn’t a dud, more people will head out to see it.
Hopefully.
The next few weekends will see the release of Star Trek Beyond, Jason Bourne, and Suicide Squad. If you are one of those people that decided against seeing it out of fears your childhood memories might self-destruct or that the studios somehow personally betrayed you, get over it. Don’t cheat yourself out of watching a movie you might enjoy. A total of three generations of my family went to this film and we’re all huge fans of the original. We all also enjoyed this movie.
And you might, too.