Entertainment Ghostbusters (2016)

[VirusZero 176]

So 32 years ago Dan Akroyd and Harold Ramis (RIP) created Ghostbusters. The movie exploded in popularity resulting in a sequel movie, two cartoons, numerous comic books and a few videogames. 

 

But, as Hollywood seems to be prone to doing lately, time has come for a reboot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IDXpOX0Cp0

 

Oh, no wait.... wrong link. Sorry, here's the actual trailer they showed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ugHP-yZXw

 

Followed soon after by this one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Egs6RfGenvg

 

 

Thoughts so far now that we've actually had a (brief) look?

[Morrigan 1,826]

I'm hopeful!

 

Now first off, I'm not a huge fan of reboots for most movies as they are hardly ever as good as the original. I was actually hoping (when I first heard about it) that it wouldn't be a reboot but obviously my hopes were dashed.

 

That being said, I like the gender bend on it and I'm a fan of the two main females as they are hilarious so I'm hoping it will be amazing!

[VirusZero 176]

I want this to be good... But Hollywood's track record with reboots is not good. In most cases they've lost whatever made the original great. 

Spoiler

For example in Robocop (1987) the story was successful because the absurd levels of violence showcased just how screwed up things were. It highlighted a very dismal story where the hero (Murphy) had already lost the fight even before becoming Robocop. (What I mean is the corporate entity OCP had complete control over the police. Multiple murders were committed by them and nothing happened. The ED-209 unveiling was one such event. The fact it was even loaded with actual live ammo only showed how ballsy the executives were.)

 

I've heard that this movie has had lots of problems along the way. Apparently Melissa McCarthy was fighting with Paul Feig because she (as a fan of the original) wanted a great script and felt the one they got was less spectacular. Plus McCarthy and another main actress butted heads a lot so the writers had to ensure that both had equal number of lines, equal treatment and all that to prevent fighting.  

 

Now for the first trailer they released... It was pretty bad. It wasn't funny and instead it felt like they were just retreading bits from the original movie and second movie. (Librarian ghost, developing proton packs, slimer, possession, etc...) And then aping the exorcist in the process. Plus the use of CGI just looked kinda bad, almost cheap like. 

 

The second trailer was both better and worse. The bit where Patty (Leslie Jones) jumps and doesn't get caught and she immediately leaps to race/lady for the reason made me just groan. I was hoping that they could just make the movie with them as characters and not focus on the fact they're women or one's the (token) black character. (Remember the originals... Winston Zeddemore is a proper character and race never factors in. Being black didn't hold him back, they never alluded to it or poked at it. It was just accepted that he was black and that was end of story.)

Though showing off a bit more of (what I presume to be) the final set piece was kind of nice. 

Also, I kind of liked the little bit where they had the ringtone like theme inserted there. (Not fond of the soft piano version or dubstep version though...)

 

As an side, because I want to get this out of the way....

1- This movie, if it sucks, does not ruin you childhood. The original movie still exists. You can watch it whenever you'd like. If you say this you are being overly dramatic and whiny. 

 

2- The fact the cast is all women is not why this movie might suck or be good. The fact that it has people of <sex> in it is largely irrelevant. 

[Morrigan 1,826]

Totally agree with your final points. I watch Ghostbusters on a semi-regular basis (Once every few months) with my kids.

 

It's sad that the original cast had to be "forced" into it to. (watching the second video revealed that happened).

[VirusZero 176]

So the movie has come out, has anyone gone to see it yet? If so, what did you think of it?

 

As for reviews most of the ones I've seen/read have been mediocre to not good. So I'm likely going to pass on going to see this. 

 

[Morrigan 1,826]

So I had this whole post written up and I somehow fucking lost it. *kicks firefox* but I just watched this the other day @VirusZero and I didn't HATE it but I didn't love it either. There was too much in it that felt forced and non-cohesive. I felt like the plot was weak.

 

I loved new age Egon and her toys. She was literally the highlight of the whole move for me. She was the only one that made me not hate it so much.

[VirusZero 176]

I've seen it also and... I though it was a trainwreck for the most part. Loads of plot holes all over.

 

Spoiler

Why Erin would even join up with Abby given how she acted after publishing that book. (Which, if her name was on it too couldn't she have gone to amazon or wherever to get it pulled that way? I mean her name is on it... shouldn't she technically have that option? )

 

Why would Erin stick with them after Abby films and then uploads said film to youtube. (Which how did the university find that? I mean thousands of hours of video are uploaded each day and unless someone has a large channel it's unlikely to ever get noticed. Were they constantly google searching Erin?)

 

Why they weren't arrested for theft. I mean they stole how many hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars of equipment from the university and they never bothered to try tracking it down? Wouldn't be that hard... they had their names and likely addresses to boot. 

 

Then of course the whole Skeptic (Bill Murray) death scene should easily have netted the characters some kind of legal issue. I mean maybe not premeditated murder but negligence resulting in death? Sure. But nope, they walked scotfree for that one too.

 

And once they caught that dragon ghost... what was their plan to do with it? I mean the traps wouldn't be able to contain it forever. (In the Animated Series they lasted something like 12 hours or so.) And they'd need some better method to store/contain it... It's not even until the credits where they reveal they're even working on a containment unit.

 

I loved the bits where they created the equipment. That scene in the subway was pretty good and sadly enough contained the only line I found actually funny. (And of all characters... it was Patty's line "Well, he goin' to Queens. He gonna be the third scariest thing on that train.")

I also loved how the proton streams looked, I thought those were very well done. 

 

Though the later bit where they refine the proton pack... not so much. It felt very cartoony with Abby floating around, clinging desperately, to the particle thrower. I also wasn't overly fond of the design of the proton packs, I mean I know they change their looks to modernize them and use modern day synchrotrons instead of cyclotrons... but I still didn't care for how they looked. (Amusingly enough they brought back the handle on the throwers partway through the movie... After they did the concert bust they added rear mounted handles on the particle throwers. A nice nod to the originals. Plus I'd imagine it'd be easier to carry/aim that way.)

Also the design of the trap didn't make a lot of sense to me... why install an arm mounted remote to eject the foot pedal when you could just use the remote to open/close the trap?

 

In terms of the villain, I felt bad for him more than anything. I mean he's just this guy getting bullied to the point he's lashing out. And then along come 4 more people to crap all over him even more?  

Spoiler

That said his death scene kinda bothered me. I mean how did he know he was going to be able to even return. Let alone gain any amount of power?

 

Also the amount of dancing in this movie was stupid... Abby and Erin, Patty was getting it on when she was talking about Erin's boyfriend, Holtzmann got her own number, the one at the end (which got reused for the credits).

None of it ever felt meaningful to the plot. Especially that dance at the end... Which I have another complaint about:

 

Spoiler

Seriously, if the bigbad could control people... why would he ever let them get close enough to him to use their proton packs? I mean he tried to destroy them earlier in the film. So he knew what they could do. So why let them get close? I mean he could either freeze them from moving and end them himself or get the soldiers to do it for him. 

 

 

Truthfully the only thing this trainwreck does is make me sad. I wanted to see more good Ghostbusters stuff. (An animated series, movies, games etc... I'd really love another game like 2009's Ghostbusters the game by Terminal Reality. That game was awesome.) But now that Feig has successfully screwed it up, Sony (or the investors on Sony's behalf) will be too gunshy to put any money into it for another 10 or so years. So no more Ghostbusters stuff for a while. Hopefully some fans will produce some good content in the interim.

 

 

Edited October 17, 2016 by VirusZero

[Morrigan 1,826]

Yeah, there was a stupid lot of dancing. Yeah, there were a lot of cartoony bits. I think that's where the plot holes come in. Really I think they were trying to mimic a bit of the original with that. Didn't they take some stuff from the University?

[VirusZero 176]

In the original they didn't. They had just returned from the Library only to find the Dean taking things out already. That's when they got kicked out. (The Dean also had some workers take the stuff they had on them, like Ray's camera.) Then Ray had to take out a third mortgage on his parent's place to pay for the Firehall, Ecto-1 and equipment. 

 

Though the original wasn't very cartoony. Most of it's humour relied on situations, word play and playing off each other. (Like that situation after they capture slimer where they're presenting the bill to the hotel. Egon's hand motions to Peter...) Also the ghosts held up better visually. The ones in the remake vary from not terrible to pretty bad CGI. (The electric ghost and Lady Aldridge ghost look ok... but the lanky circus ghost, slimer and the bigbad's final form? Not so much.)