The remake-boot-quel Ghostbusters started out in 1991 as Ghostbusters III written by the usual suspects Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis, who played Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler in the original two films, respectively. The movie lost traction after Bill Murray lost interest due to the negative reception received for Ghostbusters II. After a few years on the shelf, Aykroyd and Ramis took their concept to a new direction and the script for Ghostbusters in Hell or Ghostbusters: The Next Generation was conceived. It would involve Stantz and Spengler (and possibly Ernie Hudson as Winston) return to teach the new generation of Ghostbusters. Aykroyd stated how the next generation would be played by the next generation of SNL stars, which in the mid-90's were guys like Chris Rock, David Spade, Adam Sandler and Chris Farley. Once that fell through due to lack of studio support, the project lost more traction and went back on the shelf. By the late-2000's as the cast was aging, Ghostbusters III was brought up again to worldwide ridicule. Many memes and videos were made saying that the cast, as they were then, were just too old to jump into the overalls and go Ghostbusting again. Unfortunately, the untimely death of franchise co-creator and Egon himself, Harold Ramis, in 2014 was the final nail in the coffin for any sort of a straight Ghostbusters sequel involving the original characters. The absolute CLOSEST thing we got was Ghostbusters: The Video Game in 2009. It starred the voices of the four Ghostbusters: Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis and Ernie Hudson, as well as Annie Potts reprising her role as Janine, the Ghostbusters' receptionist. It involved an original story written by Aykroyd and Ramis and Aykroyd has gone on record saying that the video game is "essentially the third movie".
By early-2015 a Ghostbusters reboot was announced boasting a new cast of characters and a new plot totally deviant from the originally-created universe. Fans were on board and anxious to see which stars were cast to play the new Ghostbusters. Turns out, they were women, but the whole situation didn't become wishy-washy until the first full trailer came out. Holy shit. It was like Rebecca Black released a new song. This YouTube trailer got so much hate that I guarantee for every one "like", there were at least seven "dislikes". So, the buildup was pretty hard-nosed to say the least. It drew a lot of heat, claiming that the backlash was due to the misogyny toward the cast being all women. Aykroyd himself even published an interview in April saying how much he loved it, but people still didn't buy it. However, the Angry Video Game Nerd published a video protesting how he would not watch the film for reasons he explains, for instance based on the title being simply "Ghostbusters", saying that it piggybacks on the success of the original film and robs the new generation of the so-called "mandatory need" to see the original. While I am ALL-FOR forcing the younger generations to watch the 1984 Ghostbusters, that doesn't mean they can't watch this one too.
Well the date finally came on July 15th when the world would find out. Reviews started coming out the few days in advance and they weren't really that harsh. At least not as harsh as everyone was expecting. IGN claimed that it was "okay" and Rotten Tomatoes even gave it a 73% critic review, higher than the 57% of Ghostbusters II even. Hell it even got a better reception than even the most anticipated film of 2016, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (which sucks something awful). But enough about that shit, let's get on to what I thought.
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| L-R: Leslie Jones, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon as the new generation of Ghostbusters |
I loved it. I'm not saying it's high-art or anything, but as far as being a Ghostbusters movie? It is well-deserving of praise. The cast, to me, was brilliant, and why it feels like it's mimicking the first film in its character portrayals, it really does follow a formula that has been proven to work. You had the dry humor in Kristen Wiig (Bill Murray), the comedic mumbo-jumbo spewing duo in Melissa McCarthy and Kate McKinnon (Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis) and the wise-cracking street-smart humor in Leslie Jones (Ernie Hudson). As far as the Ghostbusters themselves go, the casting was stellar. They did however go a different route with the receptionist. Whereas Annie Potts just said normal things, her comedy came from her over-the-top squeaky New York accent. Chris Hemsworth as Kevin on the other hand, went in a totally different route, going for the dumb-blonde type who just speaks in non-sequiturs to remain involved in the topic at hand.
The plot starts off as your typical Ghostbusters movie. Something spooky happens, cut to opening title with music, cut to introducing Ghostbusters, cut to Ghostbusters investigating first paranormal event, and cut to Ghostbusters become the Ghostbusters. The first third does follow your usual Ghostbusters film, but it does change gears and starts to become a thing of its own after they catch the first ghost.
The comedy was on point and there were many laughs and laughable moments. I can understand how dry humor may not cut it anymore, but this movie went back to the roots of the original and included a bunch of dry humor. Dead-pan expressions that caused ruckus laughter in the theater. Anytime Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon had a dialogue, or Melissa McCarthy and Leslie Jones had to react to something, it was always a treat. These women carried the film on their shoulders and each one of them delivered. I don't get the supposed hate that's being leveled here, so I suppose now is when all who were hating the film for including women back-off and say they were hating it for "being a rip-off of the first movie" or some dumb stuff like that. Do us all a favor, don't go riding that high-horse into town. Star Wars: The Force Awakens is the same thing as Star Wars start to finish. This did new things, went new places, tried new things, such as the Ghostbusters' new tools. A proton glove to punch ghosts? Sounded ludicrous when I first heard it, but I loved it.
The ghosts themselves were obviously a step-up visually from the 1984 version, that goes without saying. I'm not just talking aesthetically, of course, but they were scarier too. I feel like even in the 1984 classic, the ghosts were too cutesty or child-friendly or maybe just didn't intend on scaring anyone because it was a comedy, but I divert that film to the new one. This movie had jump-scares, and it was a comedy. You don't see that too often. There were some expressions or even some overall looks that made me cringe a little bit. I'll admit, I jumped.
...because obviously the movie did have faults. I didn't like Leslie Jones' ghost-grinder thing. Totally eliminated the point of the ghost-capture trap, which is the second-most iconic Ghostbuster tool rather than the proton pack. I did like the Ecto-1 being updated to be a hearse, but I felt like it could've been renamed something else. Seeing as how this film ignores the continuity of the first two films though, Ecto-1 is fitting enough. Also, the new Ghostbusters song sucks. Fall Out Boy hasn't been popular since being a goth-emo-attention-seeker-freak went the way of Napster and Zune, and they of all the other bands in the world get to record the new theme song for Ghostbusters? That's like spending $500,000 on a four-cylinder Nissan shitbox.
VERDICT:
I don't get why the movie was getting crapped on since the beginning. It came out really well. I enjoyed it. It's an excellent addition to the Ghostbusters franchise. The dialogue was entertaining, the actresses nailed each and every one of their parts splendidly, the background characters were enjoyable, the orchestral music did new things whilst paying homage to the old Elmer Bernstein score, and the inclusion of the old Ghostbusters in cameo roles is the cherry on top. It was really a fun adventure. I didn't at all feel like I was watching the first film all over again. I felt like I was watching what I was actually watching; a lovable update for a long-dormant, popular franchise that fans craved and people should enjoy. I'm telling you if you can't enjoy this film, you're either a misogynist (or logically), you're probably just someone who has trouble enjoying things that are fun and quirky.
Besides, you're gonna tell me Ghostbusters II wasn't the exact same plot as the first movie?
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