Ghostbusters

Okay so Ghostbusters is the hotly anticipated remake of the 1984 classic this time directed by Paul Fieg and starring Melissa McCarthy, Kirsten Wiig, Leslie Jones and Kate Mcinnon as the title team and Chris Hemsworth as their receptionist Kevin. Now this has got a lot of hate from A LOT of people. It holds the record for the most disliked trailer ever on YouTube and I sincerely hope that was because people were afraid of this movie damaging their nostalgic view of the original and not that as many people have suggested it stems from the female lead cast. I on the other hand have really been open about it from the beginning. I thought the trailer was okay, not great, but I was not a fan of the Fall Out Boy single accompanying this film. So I was glad when that wasn't really featured.

I'm just going to get this out of the way and it's one of the few complaints in the comments section of YouTube that actually did come true. There is no logical point from a narrative perspective for this movie to exist. Not one. This is one of my few ways to mark and grade a reboot is whether or not having this movie adds anything to brand and continuity. And this Ghostbusters movie does none of that. The original is completely retconed out of existance. None of the events of the first two movies have happened (which is perhaps a good thing when it comes to Ghostbusters 2) and no one have heard of the likes of Peter Venkmen or the rest of the gang. This is nothing more than a vicious, Sony-made, money making cash cow. This looses it some brownie points straight off the bat. But is the movie actually any good?

The short answer is, not as bad as the trailer made it look but not as good as I would've hoped for from a Ghostbusters movie.

Let's start off with the leads and the ghost busting foursome. They're good. Nothing more though. The Wiig and McCarthy double act is strong and solid for what it is. But I always think when I'm watching these two ladies is that they're playing Kirsten Wiig and Melissa McCarthy as they do in every movie. Especially when they are working with the director Paul Feig. I could see no difference in character really from McCarthy in last years Spy and in Ghostbusters. I'm not necessarily thinking this is an out and out negative point. The formula these two women have seemingly concocted does work and I do enjoy there movies but it wouldn't hurt for them to switch it up now and again. 

The idea of Leslie Jones' character development confused me though. In a movie that claims to want to be progressive and have an all female cast (which is fine) they also choose to make the token black character a sassy, street-wise subway worker. What the hell? I can almost imagine how that went in the producers office.... "Oh yes of course we want to be progressive and have an all female ghostbusters." "Oh great! And all of them are smart scientists?" "Yeah no... Just the white girls." It just seems ridiculous to me that she needed to bend to a stereotype in a movie which involved breaking and moulding the views of people to females and feminism. It honestly makes no sense whatsoever why they would do this. The mind boggles. 

And finally Kate McKinnon. Wow. She is a revalation for me. Unlike the rest of the cast I had very little prior experience with this actress and I loved her as this crazy, loco engineer Holtzmann. And another favourite cast wise was Chris Hemsworth as the idiot receptionist Kevin. I've read a lot of articles and apparently most of his lines were just off the cuff and it's great for the actor. After a majority of his fame has stemmed from playing beefcake action hero Thor then for him to come into this movie and prove he's actually a really funny guy will be undoubtably good for his career. Kevin is definitely one of the standouts of this film and if a sequel comes their way I'm really looking forward to more Kevin.

And the story? For the most part is good. The first 2/3's is a solid origin story and it works really well. The pace is constant and there are even some slaying against the infamous Ghostbusters YouTube comments trolls. The final act is a little sloppy though. I think I caught three maybe four moments where I though, "oh cool, it's over. Oh... Wait... No it's not." So the final act really damages the story. Mainly because I wasn't invested at all in Rowan, the main villain, and his plan to end the world. The original had Gozer, and all powerful demon. This had a sweaty nerd. Hmm. 

There are chuckles pretty consistently throughout but never any belly laughs. I'm in two minds about this at the time and whilst writing this. The originals humour was very dry, sarcastic and a bit absurdist at times. So this one is very in line with that but then I'm used to a very different type of humour from the director. After last years 'Spy' I was expecting belly laughs, and perhaps I was unfair in expecting that in this movie.

Oh, but one thing was awful. Every single cameo from the surviving original cast members, maybe apart from good old Winston. They're just awful. Watch out people. Borderline offensive.

Okay so in conclusion this is a fun, entertaining blockbuster with some standout performances. The humour might be lacking a bit but all the nostalgia buttons get hit perfectly throughout. It's harmless fun which is better than Ghostbusters 2 but obviously doesn't come close to the original. But please everyone go out and support this movie. It definitely isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but it doesn't deserve to be this years Fant4stic. 

Overall I would give Ghostbusters a C.