Ghostbusters Review
Directed by Paul Feig
Witten by Paul Feig and Katie Dippold (Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis)
Ghostbusters has been under harsh criticism since its announcement and it’s only gotten worse now that it’s in theaters. So naturally negative reviews for the new Ghostbusters are flooding in and I’m pretty sure half the people won’t have even watched the movie and just wanted to give it more shit! BUT I went to see Ghostbusters as a fan of the original and not as a hater of the fact the new one was even thought of. Remakes/reboots automatically get a lot of bad press, even the great remakes have as many doubters as they do fans. I don’t give a shit if Ghostbusters is a remake, a reboot or a retelling. The question is, is it a good one? I think there’s two golden rules to remaking or rebooting a movie.
Respect the original
Don’t make the same movie
And I think Ghostbusters follows these rules pretty well, a lot of people will disagree with that but I think it did. Of course following these rules isn’t enough to make a great movie so let’s talk about everything else.
Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is a respected science lecturer but when an old book she wrote with her college friend Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) comes back to haunt her, her reputation is ruined and she is fired from her prestigious job and after a ghostly reunion with Abby revitalises Erin’s interest in the paranormal, she, Abby and her quirky engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) decide to investigate the paranormal professionally. Eventually joined by an idiotic receptionist Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) and a feisty subway station worker Patty (Leslie Jones) who also had a run in with an apparition, the Ghostbusters are in full effect and are tasked with finding out what the deal with the sudden uprising of ghosts is and it becomes clear that a well clued and disturbed man has bigger, darker plans for Manhattan. The story is fine and it doesn’t start too dissimilar to the original but still stands on its own. My problem sits with the villain, Rowan (Neil Casey). I don’t feel like they spent much time working on their villain since he implies he was bullied and now wants to kill everyone because of course he does. Ghostbusters doesn’t waste time showing us Rowan’s backstory or spending more time with him, it’s almost like the writers knew their villain was shit and didn’t want to waste our time but to be honest I shouldn’t be annoyed running time wasn’t misused showing shit backstory for a shit character.
Our main character is Erin and although the character isn’t that compelling, Kristen Wiig is just kind of lovable and comes off like the nicest person. I was already a fan of Kristen and you should be too but Ghostbusters won’t make you love her that much more. Abby is likable enough but considering how popular Melissa McCarthy is right now I was disappointed by how unfunny she is in this Paul Feig comedy movie, she’s probably the least funny character in the movie. Jillian Holtzman is probably my favourite, she’s eccentric, funny and a good contrast to the normal characters. Kate McKinnon appears to be having a lot of fun and actually reminds me of Jim Carrey in Ace Ventura, if he was a little less intrusive and a lot more scientific. Leslie Jones as Patty is funny enough and likeable but you can’t help but feel like she’s just there to be the token black sassy girl. The biggest surprise actually comes from Chris Hemsworth, who for me actually kicked the comedy off. I didn’t find the first act of this movie funny at all but as soon as Kevin showed up, Ghostbusters picked up a lot. Chris Hemsworth steals the comedy spotlight and actually manages to produce the biggest laughs of the movie. Considering he’s not typically a comic actor and shows up the typically comic actors was a big shock and Ghostbusters would have really suffered without him. I’ll also note that this movie isn’t the nicest to male characters and it’s hard to tell if it was on purpose because there’s no “All men are pigs!” moments and Erin actually spends a lot of time swooning over Kevin, but there’s also no redeemable male characters in this movie. There are two main male characters, one is a complete idiot who caused more problems than he fixed, if he fixed any that is, and the other is an evil sociopath who tries to destroy the city.
Ghostbusters is well directed and pretty well balanced. It’s funny enough but the comedic highlights all come from Kevin and there are no parts that are really hilarious. It’s more of a nice chuckle rather than a full on comedy, BUT that’s a lot like the original Ghostbusters, which is about just as funny. The new Ghostbusters does try really hard to be funnier than it is and a lot of the jokes fall flat, in fact the comedy in the entire first act falls flat. Going back to the original though, the style of effects and crazy contraptions in Ghostbusters rings well with the original film and I think this movie fits in really well with the older ones. I also respect the fact that Ghostbusters attempts to be scary at times, it doesn’t work well on me but I’m someone who watches horror actively and knows all the tricks but to a kid or a younger audience at least, I think Ghostbusters would be a good, fun scare. In fact, I think Ghostbusters is really light and tries really hard to just be fun and it should sit really well with children as well as being exciting enough for adults. Not to say the movie’s an insane joy ride but the final act has a couple of great action moments that’ll put a smile on kids and adults faces.
The ghosts are great; they look from the same world as the original with obviously improved effects. Not that the effects are that great really, there are effects that look pretty off but the most important effects, the proton lasers and the big monsters at the end, all look pretty good and capture the scientific magic of Ghostbusters.
The movie has a good few different versions of the Ghostbusters theme throughout the movie including Fall Out Boy and more dance-like versions but I did find myself getting into each one and there’s something too catchy about that theme. The new Ghostbusters is filled with plenty of other references and Easter eggs and I like how non preachy it is about being unnecessary with cameos. Bill Murray is kind of a big one but the movie isn’t doing big dramatic shots of him, you might not even notice that Dan Aykroyd is in this movie and I’m happy the movie knows it’s a Ghostbusters movie but isn’t relying on other Ghostbusters movies.
When it comes down to it, Ghostbusters is a lot like last year’s Jurassic World. It has plenty of little problems and you know, it never will be the original but I’ll be dammed if it wasn’t a hell of a lot of fun. I really enjoyed myself with Ghostbusters, it’s easy to watch, so much fun and took me away.
Rating: ***½
Better than > Ghostbusters 2 Worse than > Ghostbusters
Main Pros:
-Style
-Direction
-Chris Hemsworth
-Kate McKinnon
-Easy to watch
-Independent
-Fun
-For all ages
Main Cons:
-Mostly flat comedy
-Awful villain
-Disappointing Melissa McCarthy
-Bad first Act
-Inconsistent effects
Assuming you’re not someone who’s now angry at me because I liked this movie and are actually interested in how good Ghostbusters is, I recommend you see it. You’ll see a better movie this year but you might not have as much fun watching it.
