So here is a dark confession that I have to make
regarding my nerd status: I don’t think that the original 1984 Ghostbusters is an untouchable
classic. This might seem odd when you
consider what I am into and the stuff that my blog tends to cover but for me
it’s just a decent genre film that was part of a decade that just happened to
be full of better genre films. It lacks
the over the top violence and blunt satire of Robocop, the fun factor of Back
to the Future, the low budget grit of The
Terminator, the sheer industry redefining power of Star Wars and the directorial masterwork of Steven Spielberg in the
Indiana Jones films. Don’t get me wrong. I feel that the film is a genuinely good
one. It’s just that when it comes to so
called classics of the 80s the original Ghostbusters
never registered that high on my meter.
Despite
this, even I thought that a remake of the film was a bad idea. This is primarily because I think that
remakes are, in general, a bad idea and waste of everyone’s time and
money. This is especially true when
genuinely talented people are involved who could be spending their time and
energy doing literally anything else. The
film also didn’t do itself any favors by casting the new Ghostbusters as all
women. There was a good amount of outcry
over this but the full force of it wouldn’t be seen until the debut of the
first trailer and by God, the negative reaction to it was uncanny. The various misogynistic jackasses who hated
the fact that the film was a female led one, coupled with general remake
fatigue and the fact that the trailer itself didn’t look very good effectively
created the biggest wave of anti-hype in film history. The initial trailer was, at the time, the
most disliked YouTube video in history and the follow-up trailers didn’t fare
much better. The jokes weren’t
particularly funny, the ghosts not very well designed and the characters came
off as annoying. The odds of this film
being successful or even good were so stacked against it that I almost skipped
it all together. But, in spite of all of
this, the film is actually pretty good.
The
plot revolves around physicist Erin Gilbert, (Kristen Wiig), as she is reunited
with her estranged best friend, Abby Yates. (Melissa McCarthy), when she is
contacted by a man who is aware of her past as a paranormal researcher to
investigate a local tourist attraction that he is convinced is haunted. Upon investigating the site, they very
quickly discover that not only are ghosts real but that someone is intentionally
using paranormal technology to bring them into our world. The two are joined by nuclear engineer,
Jillian Holtzmann, (Kate McKinnon), and subway worker/New York City historian
Patty Tolan, (Leslie Jones), as hunt for ghosts, create new ghost catching
devices as well as fight off the idea that they are frauds who are just looking
for attention.
The
film’s biggest strength is the cast. All
four of the main characters are hilarious, well written, have perfect comedic
personas and all have great chemistry with one another. Wiig, for example, really pulls off the role
of a person whose motives are a bit split.
On one hand she wants to be taken seriously by the scientific community
but at the same time can’t resist the call of the supernatural when proof of it
is, quite literally, floating in her face.
She also proves at several points that she is, when all is said and
done, human and that when she is pushed too far she can and will snap. McKinnon is a ton of fun as the engineer of
the group, who brings just the right mixture of mad scientist energy, blunt
“this could blow up in your face” humor with a dry, sarcastic demeanor. The biggest surprise, however, was Jones as
Patty. In spite of all the horrible
things that were on display in the trailers, the thing that I was most dreading
to see on screen was this character.
Every single advertisement for this character indicated that she was
some kind of annoying Tyler Perry-style caricature or would be this film’s equivalent
to Chris Tucker’s role in The Fifth
Element; i.e. the one African American character in a film who is brought
in as comedic relief but ultimately comes off as annoying and possibly
racist. But thankfully, this is not the
case. Patty is, like Winston in the
original film, the straight one of the group.
She’s funny and freaks out when the situation calls for it but she
quickly proves that she is just as smart and capable as the other members of
the team whose knowledge of the city and its history proves invaluable as they
chase ghosts. The only one who gets a
little shortchanged is McCarthy. She’s hilarious
and perfectly delivers all of her jokes with the right tone and facial
expressions but there just isn’t that much to her character beyond being the
other Ghostbusters leader and Wiig’s best friend. Ultimately though, they are all likeable,
funny and you’ll find yourself wanting to spend more time with these
characters.
Another
great strength of the film is how it goes about subverting certain genre
clichés and film clichés in general.
Remember how in the first film the NYC government immediately dubbed the
Ghostbusters as crazy until they needed them for the final act? You know how something like this happens in
every genre film? Well, within this
film, this isn’t the case. About midway
through the film it is actually revealed that the government is fully aware of
the existence of ghosts and asks that the protagonists to keep it quite so as
not to panic the public. It’s actually
something that makes perfect sense and was a welcome change of pace. Sure the government officials can be jerks
but they never go anywhere near Walter Peck levels of jerks and it made for a
refreshing spin on the whole thing.
Then
we have Kevin, played my Chris Hemsworth who is just hilarious. The whole joke of his character is that he is
effectively the male version of the hot but useless secretary that everyone in
the office is trying to bang and he pulls it off perfectly. It’s hilarious just to watch this guy bumble
around while trying to figure out how to do basic tasks around the office. But what’s even funnier is just how creepy
Wiig’s character is around him. Every
chance she gets she flirts with him and makes no secret whatsoever that she
wants to sleep with him and feels like she is just one wrong step away from a
sexual harassment suite. It’s the one
time that the gender flip thing actually effects the characters in the movie
and everyone involved pulled it off perfectly.
The
final good thing to note is the technology used in the film. One of key problems of the original film is
that we really don’t see the beta versions of the Proton Packs or how exactly
this technology was developed. They just
kind of appear in between scenes and it was something that always made me
scratch my head. This time around we
actually get to see an early version of the Proton Packs and the process by
which they decided to make certain adjustments to them. We also get a nice variety of ghost catching
weapons that was lacking in the original film and promised interesting ways for
the characters to battle ghosts. The
testing periods of the film made for some great physical comedy and the actual
functions of the weapons were creative and inventive and is the one area that
the film where it undoubtedly improves upon its predecessor.
Unfortunately,
the film suffers from three very big problems.
Two are the main antagonist and the plot. The main bad guy is just boring. His ultimate plan is to bring fourth an army
of ghosts to overrun the world with him at its head is the kind of plan that
we’ve seen a million times by now and it’s just old. It’s not at all helped by the fact that the
character lacks any charisma and his whole motivation is that...you know I
don’t think his motivation is ever made clear.
He’s just some random, creepy dude who just decides to start the end of
the world because he thinks he will become lord of the ghosts. That’s about it. The plot itself doesn’t really amount to much
more than the characters running around the city while trying to prevent this
guy’s plan from manifesting itself. The
whole thing just feels like it was an afterthought and lacks the subtle satire
of the occult and overly elaborate plots that films featuring them tend to
contain that the original movie had.
The
final problem is the third act of the film.
The whole thing starts throwing WAY too much fan service at the
audience, from the inclusion of Slimer to the Stay Puff Marshmallow Man and
even the bad guy taking the form of a something that one of the protagonists
thinks up. While these were nice shout
outs, they came far too late in the film and couldn’t helped but feel crammed
in, almost as if the producers had a checklist of things that they needed to
include in the film lest fans riot. It’s
not at all helped by the fact that the whole third act devolves into a special
effects driven action fest that the filmmakers just can’t pull off. CGI tends to get a lot of crap these days for
its overuse but in the case of this film it’s fully deserved. All of the ghosts look generic and
undersigned and you won’t believe that any of them were ever in front of the
camera. The action at the end also feels
very by the numbers and obviously staged.
I understand that Paul Feig isn’t exactly an action director and to be
fair this isn’t an action film but if you’re going to stage a big, action heavy
finale you need to put a little more effort into it. The whole thing is comprised of “pointing and
shooting the camera” while the actors fight off the ghosts and lacks any real
tension and fails to thrill. It’s not at
all helped by the fact that while there is supposedly an army of ghosts
surrounding them and they only come after the characters a few at a time. It’s a strange move that breaks not only the
tension of the situation but also my suspension of disbelief and is the kind of
action movie flaws that filmmakers found ways around over a decade ago and it
baffles me that they couldn’t find a better way to stage this whole end fight.
In
the end the new Ghostbusters film is
an overall entertaining film. Is it as
good as or better than the original?
Honestly, I don’t know and that’s an argument that I will leave more
hardcore fans of the franchise to fight out.
But the film that we have on display here is smart, funny, full of
entertaining characters, clever subversions of genre clichés and is a lot of
fun. It’s not a modern classic but I at
least recommend that you give it a shot.
So
until next time please follow the site, like the Facebook page and follow me on Twitter. Until then let’s just hope that
the backlash against the trailers doesn’t affect the performance of an otherwise
good film.
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