Look guys, I'm just going to cut right to the chase here instead of getting off on tangents. The new Ghostbusters sequel looks vehemently and aggressively awful. Almost on the level of Jack and Jill or Son of the Mask awful. Now it's almost been a contest of who can throw the most jaded comments about the film on the internet, but I'm going to tell you why the average viewer should not see this movie. I will try and write this as unbiased as possible (while I am currently listening to the Ghostbusters soundtrack) and try to stray away from the "all female cast" card because I feel it's cliche. But what the heck the whole movie looks cliche so let's tackle the issues with this movie starting with...
1. The All Female Cast
Look I'm fine with movies having an all female cast. I've seen Bridesmaids, and thought it was funny and reached its target audience. And let's be honest, Bridesmaids target audience was not men. Although I'm sure many men were dragged into watching it. The movie that just came out Mother's Day was not targeted at father's that's for sure. The dads and probably even the moms were too busy watching Civil War, and you know,actually celebrating Mother's Day instead of being cooped up in a theater paying for overpriced popcorn. Anyway, Ghostbusters reaches a lot of people and has a large audience. However, it most definitely a buddy comedy movie in my humble opinion. And the fans probably weren't going to be happy with the cast whoever it was. Not the original cast so who cares? But the movie could've been the new Ghostbusters learning under the original Ghostbusters and having them learn under them and get the torch passed onto them. Kind of like what Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull tried to do. Instead, the original cast has cameos and have been replaced entirely by girls demeaning the costume with stripes. It wouldn't be too much a problem if these girls were actually funny and not living, breathing, screaming stereotypes. Looking at you, Leslie Jones. Melissa McCarthy's game is old in my opinion. Once you've seen one of her Shakespearean films, you've seen them all. Why not Poehler and Fey? Were they not available?
2. Sony Pictures
Good ole Sony Pictures has had a large and illustrious history of trying to milk every unoriginal idea out of a project as humanly possible and make as many sequels and reboots as possible. A perfect example lies in the Spiderman movies. They are also running out of ideas. Take into consideration the movie centered around Angry Birds. Some of their great projects include: Charlie's Angels 2, After Earth, Bounty Hunter, Ratchet and Clank and some Resident Evil sequel. This doesn't bode well.
3. The Humor
I will have to say, the first time I saw this trailer debuting in a theater I was surprised how silent the theater was. There was a chuckle here and there, but the type of chuckle you would do around your boss to get a raise. I sat with a frown upon my first viewing and now it's just annoyance. The jokes just fell flatter than Coke left out in the sun too long and Leslie Jones just screams. That seems to be a reoccurring theme in comedy. Gone is the appreciation for subtle humor like Arrested Development and now everything needs to be loud and in your face. It's like they're yelling "Maybe if we yell louder, than maybe they'll get the joke." No don't worry we got it, it just wasn't funny. When Leslie Jones's character begins to yell and smack McCarthy's character I just got the sense the whole movie would be like this. They say first impressions are everything, and all the trailer told me about the new Ghostbusters movie is that the "Scott's Tots" episode of the Office would be less cringy than this. Look it up.
4. Is It A Reboot, Sequel, Or What
This is important. Is this in an alternate universe or what? The news anchor in the second trailer call them the Ghostbusters and the original Ghostbusters are never mentioned in the actual trailer by anyone. But their symbol is all throughout New York almost like they're calling them to come back. Not only that, but the movie is named Ghostbusters for crying out loud. Now everyone who has not seen a Ghostbusters movie will regrettably grow up with this being the only Ghostbusters relevant to them. And it's even more shameless when you factor in how much money it will make just calling itself Ghostbusters. Not only that, but for now on, for the rest of my life, I will have to differentiate which movie is which. "What did you watch last night, Christian?" "Ghostbusters." "Which one?" "The one that matters." Sigh.
5. It's An Agenda
Now here's where I may start to look like a conspiracy theorist but come on. When Leslie Jones's character dives into a crowd and isn't picked up she yells "I don't know if that was a race thing, or a sex thing, but I'm pissed." Why does it have to be a race thing? Why does it have to be a sex thing? It's almost like Sony is saying "Don't like our film? Than you're a sexist." No, Sony, it's called nobody asked for this brainless cash grab. If you wanted to make a movie to empower women, then at the very least make your own original idea. Don't bring Ghostbusters into it. But at least make the characters like-able or actually independent and not yelling about stuff being sexist. Make a Furiosa type character like in Mad Max. Not this. Never do this.
People like to complain and I will admit to partaking in the practice. But I'm a man who can admit his mistakes when wrong. Although I'd rather than do anything else, I will see Ghostbusters just to give it a chance. Even though it's first impressions have pretty much buried it and even though it has the most dislikes in YouTube history, Sony still feels it necessary to delete critical comments on the movie. So it has already created animosity between the studio and the fans by making the movie, but now they're isolating them anymore. It's mass hysteria. And is it overblown? Maybe. So was the critical dislike to Ghostbusters Two. Nothing will touch the original, but at least put up an effort and a movie that seems like they actually tried to please people. Other than pushing an agenda and making money, I don't see the purpose for this film. In the mean time I WON'T be calling these Ghostbusters but I WILL be calling Janine and telling her to set me up an appointment with the real Ghostbusters for a nice DVD viewing. If you didn't get that reference, this article probably was meaningless to you. In the meantime...
Who you gonna call?
