Eventually everyone will be able to understand that it’s perfectly okay that we have female driven casts. There have been plenty of all male driven casts for years and years, and in my honest opinion, I am all for this reboot and more female driven shows and media. I was and still am excited for this movie becasuse of that, and plus I adore Ghostbusters! That being said, the new Ghostbusters movie’s trailer just dropped and it makes me a little nervous.
Watch the trailer for yourself below:
1. For a comedy trailer, I didn’t really laugh that much
This is pretty important. I’m not the biggest fan of Melissa McCarthy, nor am I with the director Paul Feig (Bridesmaids), but I only really laughed at what Kate McKinnon brought to the table. Her character is what makes me excited for this film. Now this isn’t to say that this two and a half minute trailer won’t make the rest of these actresses hilarious, but I’m not quite sold on it yet. Women can definitely be funny, awkwardly stumbling over one another by saying the same thing at slightly different times and lines like “MAY THE POWER OF PAIN COMPEL YOU” didn’t really have me rolling on the floor laughing.
2. The trailer didn't really keep my attention
Good trailers really stick in your mind. Crossing mediums from movies to TV shows, the trailer for Daredevil Season 2 has stuck itself into my brain. Now, I am a big fan of Marvel comics in general, but that’s an exciting and memorable trailer. During this writing, I had to look back at the new Ghostbusters trailer to remind myself of certain details. There are cool elements like Holtzmann’s (Kate McKinnon) eccentric ghost trapping inventions and the look of the ghosts (but we’ll get to that later) but from what I’ve seen the movie is visually lackluster (however I am quite happy about the film’s primary colors being red and green). But in how trailers go, the action dragged as a whole. Bad trailers don’t always mean always mean a terrible movie, but this trailer doesn’t make me want to go see the movie any more than I already did. I’m a broke college student, and I’d rather wait for something else to come out in theaters before I spend my money.
3. Realistic, scary ghosts?
This is a matter of my own personal opinion, but I don’t really like the fact the ghosts look more…real. I prefer the cheesetastic look of the original monsters. While Slimer does make an appearance, the majority of ghosts you see are definitely scarier looking than the original. Classic Ghostbusters may have dated graphics compared to now, but I think that even then the ghosts they fought weren’t supposed to be that scary. I mean, come on, the giant Stay Puft monstrosity at the end of the original? How was anything in the original movie back then supposed to be scary? It’s an artistic choice I disagree with, but I love to drown in nostalgia. Maybe a scarier edge will make this film standout instead of a reboot. We’ll have to wait and see.
4. Three white scientists and a black woman with a Cadillac
While it is probably unfair to judge based on the few bits of footage we’ve seen, it is a bit concerning that a movie helping for diversity is caught up in tropes. Three educated white women and a sassy black character that is “street smart” and doesn’t know “science stuff” is definitely something we’ve seen before. There’s still more we haven’t seen yet so there is plenty of hope that there’s more to Leslie Jones’s character. One can only dream that the writers switched dynamics so that Leslie is more of an equal player in comparison to Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore.
5. The jokes are much closer to Spy than the original Ghostbusters
While being a “reboot” set 30 years since the events of the original movies, it’s definitely clear that Paul Feig isn’t changing his style of humor in the wake of adding on to this series. This is Feig and the team he usually picks with McCarthy and Wiig, and we shouldn’t be surprised. I’m not the biggest fan of McCarthy, and I hated “Bridesmaids” as a movie, so I’m a still on the fence about this reimagining of the ‘80s classic.
That being said, the film doesn’t look super awful as a whole and it does look enjoyable. I definitely want to see this movie because of Kate McKinnon, but I’m underwhelmed. It’s never fun to not like something, and there is still plenty to like about this upcoming film but it hasn’t sold me. I'm really glad that this film is happening because I believe diversity is important in our film industry. But unless something else happens or another trailer drops, I’m waiting until this film comes out on DVD or Netflix instead of going to theaters.
