No other
film has faced the kind of angry lashback that the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters has. First, the very idea
of rebooting such a classic film stoked the ire of the Internet. Then, the
announcement that the cast would be all female, which got the misogynist neckbeard crowd
in an uproar. Finally, the marketing campaign was incredibly weak, with lackluster
trailers showcasing what appeared to be more generic action (as if 2016 needs
any more of that) and unfunny comedy bits. But now the film’s out, and we can
finally answer the question: Is this any good? Let’s find out.
The film
follows our four heroes, Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Abby Yates (Melissa
McCarthy), Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), and Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) as
they try to discover what (or who) is causing increased paranormal activity in
New York City and, of course, taking care of some ghosts. It’s a fairly simple
premise, and not one that is dissimilar to the original classic. As someone who
loves the original (and didn’t want to see it remade), I’m happy to say that
this is a fun film, but one that has enough flaws to keep it from being
great.
Let’s
start with the positives, though. The best thing about this film is actually
the same thing that was strongest in the original: the Ghostbusters themselves.
Each of these actresses gives a good performance, really endearing us to their
characters and nailing their comedic moments. My personal favorite
was Patty, who comes to the team as an outsider but quickly leaves her mark
with a very loud and cutting sense of humor as well as knowledge of the city
that helps the team track down the ghosts. Wiig and McCarthy are both great, if
a little subdued, and provide a nice emotional bond that allows us to connect
to these characters. It’s McKinnon’s performance that might draw the ire of
some people. She plays an insane genius that makes a lot of outlandish
expressions in every scene and seems to try too hard. I actually liked McKinnon
in the role and thought she balanced her intelligence and insanity well, but I
can see how she could get annoying to some folks.
The four
leads wouldn’t be as charming without the humor, which I think the film
delivers, at least for the first two acts. Each character has their own type of
jokes (Erin is sarcastic and reserved, while Patty is loud and in-your-face,
and so on), and the actresses all deliver these jokes incredibly well. Even
some jokes that didn’t work in the trailers work in the film when you see the
context for them. Some of the supporting characters have moments to shine as
well, like April's delivery man who continually gets her order wrong (a great running gag in the film), the comedically corrupt mayor of
New York (Andy Garcia) and his passive-aggressive assistant (Cecily Strong), among others. They all
get their moments of humor and commit to the joke, earning laughs from delivery alone at points. The best supporting character, in my opinion, is the Ghostbusters’ receptionist Kevin (Chris Hemsworth), an exceptionally stupid yet ungodly attractive man who should quite frankly have died by now but still remains around for some unknown reason.
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| Sure he's dumb, but just look at him! |
I have to
commend Paul Feig (the director of Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy) for being able to handle both the action scenes and some
surprisingly spooky moments as well. The ghosts themselves look really cool and
Feig provides some cool scenes for them to strut their stuff, especially
a very creepy sequence involving a haunted house near the beginning of the
film. The actual ghost busting scenes are also fun to watch, and every time the
team fired up their proton packs I got pretty excited. Modern technology has enabled Feig to deliver some really interesting looking action sequences, and
our heroes look incredibly badass when they do their thing. Unfortunately, this
leads me to my problems with the movie.
I thought
the film was going along great, with a few issues here and there, but things
didn’t start really falling apart for me until the third act, where it becomes
just another generic action “let’s throw our budget at the screen” sequence.
All the cleverness vanishes, the action never rises above the level of “meh,”
and it has an incredibly underwhelming final fight with the main villain (Neil
Casey). There are some cool moments, but all in all it’s just another disappointing third act in a year filled with them (looking at you, Batman v Superman and Civil War).
Another
problem with the film is the villain, who you might have noticed I have not
named or even discussed until now. That’s because I pretty much forgot he was
in this movie, as Feig gives him so little screentime and no memorable moments.
The ghosts themselves don’t exude any personality, so they can’t fill his role
as interesting villains. They are pretty much just obstacles for the
Ghostbusters to, well, bust, and are dispatched fairly easily. This, like every
action movie seems to want to do these days, removes the tension and makes the
viewer feel like our heroes are never in any real danger. It sucks, because
with heroes as compelling and exciting as these new Ghostbusters are, we want to
see them face a real challenge, something that the film just doesn’t provide.
Despite
this, there was only one thing that truly bothered me the entire film and would
cause me to knock off any real points for this film: the fan service. The worst
part of any reboot is when the film feels the need to shove in references to
the original in inappropriate places, which this film does multiple times.
There are annoying and unnecessary scenes dedicated to explaining where the
logo comes from, how they got their suits, and so on and so forth. Reboots, by
nature, are trying to replace the original continuity. There is no reason to
continually say “Hey, remember this!” to the audience and break the world that
was so well-crafted before.
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| "Boss, the Internet isn't digging this female Ghostbusters thing." "Throw Slimer in there. They''ll recognize him." "But sir, why can't we come up with new gho-" My last day at the Ghostbusters office. |
The most egregious example of this are the cameos from
the original cast, which are all useless and border on being offensively bad to
the point where I was angry watching them. Dan Akroyd gets the best of the
them playing an obnoxious dean of an incredibly low-rent university, but both
Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson are wasted. If they wanted to bring these actors
back, then they should have just continued the original series and brought them
back to pass the torch to the new team. I mean, you can’t tell me that seeing
the original Ghostbusters squad (minus Harold Ramis, who passed away a few
years ago) back in action wouldn’t be awesome! Anyways, that’s not what we got.
We just got these lame cameos, and I don’t want to spoil who appears, but they
might as well have not even been there with how much they actually add (either
comedically or plot-wise) to the film.
Ghostbusters is not even close to being
as good as the original (though it's miles beyond Ghostbusters 2), but it is still an incredibly enjoyable film. This new
cast does an incredible job stepping into the shoes worn by some of the giants
of comedy thirty years ago, and I honestly want to see them back for a sequel. Despite my criticisms, I still recommend this film to anyone looking to
go and enjoy themselves at the theaters, since I honestly don’t think most
folks are going to have the same issues that I do. Give it a chance, folks. You won't regret it.
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