Ghostsbusters Trailer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3ugHP-yZXw
When it came to the rebirth of the sci-fi/action/comedy movie Ghostbusters, there were mixed opinions on what people expected of it. Apparently, there was a huge outrage over the fact that this new Ghostbusters would star four women instead of four men, but I never found that to be entirely true. Sure, there can be people who are sexist and would rather have a man take the spotlight of a film, but I don't think that was the main cause for the anger about this movie being released.
I think it all has to do with feminism. Being a woman myself and knowing the struggles an average woman went through just to get respect throughout American history, I see why there NEEDS to be a feminism and feminist followers. Women are tired of being seen as weak or eye candy all of the time. Just because we were born with different anatomy doesn't make us lower than men. Besides, fun fact, I learned a few years ago that if it weren't for the Y sex chromosome, all babies would be female, therefore we could have had a race of only females and males wouldn't have even existed.
But I digress, feminists are people who strive to prove that women are just as important and equal to men, but sometimes SOME followers of feminism can take it a step too far.
They transform into the snake that they vowed to destroy, going from supporting equality for women to outright bragging that women are superior to men.
This is what many have feared from the new Ghostbusters. Having women be main characters is fine, but if they go down the route of constantly talking about how guys are terrible without any satire to it, it would turn out to be annoying to the audience to say the least.
So was the 2016's version of Ghostbusters a ploy to persuade people about how awful all men can be or did it play things subtle and present a movie that didn't stoop that low?
First off, I wouldn't exactly call this movie a sequel, despite what the official trailer may imply. This is more of a rendition of the original story. In this movie four people meet and team up to help get rid of ghosts that are mysteriously appearing around the city
The movie stars the four ghostbusters:
Erin (Kristen Wiig) the uptight hopeful who initially attempts to step away from believing in ghosts.
Abby (Melissa McCarthy) the nerd who has a passion for ghost research.
Jillian (Kate McKinnon) the blonde and quirky sidekick of Abby who whips up ghost catching inventions and Patty (Leslie Jones) the lively Subway worker who discovers ghost activity and joins the teams to save the city.
Each of these characters are unique at first glance, yet it felt like there was a lack of creativity being put into them. I'm sure that I've seen this set up before (not including the original ghostbusters) and I've seen it over and over again.
I attempt not to judge a film because their formula is familiar to other movies because everything has been done at this point, but I complain about it now because there was nothing to really defend this problem. Meaning that the characters weren't that interesting, given what they got.
They behaved unrealistically sometimes, especially during distressing or tense scenes. It was as if they treated the death of a character like it was just another Monday at work. It makes them come off as uncaring and oblivious to the serious problems at hand.
The bond between the foursome didn't feel strong enough either. The relationship between Erin and Abby in particular was lacking because the movie states that the pair were best friends and you learn they shared a long history and have had each other's backs for a while, but given the things we are shown on screen, it's rather difficult for me to believe any of it.
Jillian felt the most one-dimensional to me, being only an inventor and comic relief and stuck around just to be funny, leaving the audience little to no chance to really sink in the gravity of the situation. There's not much I can comment on Patty individually, so I suppose she wasn't the most bland. I won't complain too much about how the writers made the only main african-american character behave ghetto and loud. That stereotype is getting old, but to be fair, media has been showing more diverse african-american characters in terms of personality, so this is the least of this movie's problems.
One of the major issues I noticed straight away was this movie's pacing. I felt like most of the scenes were left unfinished, like the writers sent in their first draft and didn't bother to polish it up so the scenes can be filled with greater dialogue and so on.
For example, there is a moment where Erin reveals a sad part of her life right after a brief dance sequence and it felt so out of place. Why was she motivated to tell that secret to her colleagues? Why if this is a sentimental scene is it still being played for laughs with Jillian drinking loudly from a cup?
I understood its purpose and how it affected the story, but the execution felt very clunky.
Speaking of clunky, other characters I should address are the receptionist, Kevin (Chris Hemsworth) and the main villain. Starting with Kevin, he was supposed to be the charmingly dumb assistant of the ghostbusters, but he just comes off as completely stupid with no charm whatsoever.
The movie tries to excuse it by always having the characters around him bring up how attractive he is. The constant compliments about this guy, makes me think that his looks are the only thing that got him the job for the movie in the first place and they want the audience to appreciate how hot he is in those 'nerdy' glasses.
The cute but dumb stereotype could have been good, it's been executed well in the past. Hemsworth is a good actor after all, most notably known for playing Thor in the Thor (2011) and Avengers (2012) series, so I can only think that the directing was the cause of his downfall as well as the other characters.
As for the villain, I could tell that the actor was trying his best to pull off a mysterious evil villain vibe, but the story provided him nothing big to work with. He gives a small exposition about why he wants to hurt the town, but it sounds so typical you know you've heard it in many other movies before. The actor was decent, but I wished there was more value to his character.
Onwards to the biggest question that I mentioned in the beginning: Was this movie just a ploy to promote girls being better than boys? I think not, there was no sign of the females complaining about the male race or demeaning guys for just being themselves, although in the final scene with the villain, there is a part where the ghostbusters hit the villain in the crotch which came off very very cliche and ridiculous.
The action scenes were cool, it felt great to hear the ghostbusters theme rocking out in the background whilst Jillian fought off some ghosts. The effects were decent as well. I heard a lot of jokes about the ghost designs being horrible, but frankly, I don't see a problem with it. I was fascinated by the design and the bright colors. Besides, they're ghosts, wouldn't you want to see them all bright and just a little cartoony?
Ultimately, I found this movie to be pretty bland and this is thanks to the poor dialogue, weak attempt at gross out humor, one dimensional characters, confusing decision making, and scenes that just left me shaking my head in disapproval.
Thankfully, it's not a preachy film, but it's nothing very entertaining either until the end where all the ghosts showdown with the ghostbusters in the city. Until then, it's just one scene of awkward dialogue after another.
I give this movie a 2 out of 5 stars.
MY RESPONSE ON THE LESLIE JONES COMMENTS DRAMA
I'd like to make a comment about the issue with actress Leslie Jones and the disgusting comments that were made on her twitter account.
Many people started bullying Jones soon after this movie was released, saying needless racial slurs about her-some so grotesque, even the news reporters won't release them on television. No matter what I think about this movie, that does not dictate how I feel about this actress or any of the performers of this film. The people are separate from the story they are trying to tell, so saying that I didn't like the movie does not mean I do not like Leslie Jones.
No one deserves this much negativity for being an upcoming movie star, Jones is a beautiful young woman who has the potential to pursue many avenues of her career. She is a rising actress that will undoubtedly receive lots of hate throughout her life because of this; there will always be awful people spreading their hate when they lose enjoyment out of their own lives.
For Jones and others who are being bullied online (and/or in person), do not allow these people to chose whether you are happy or not. They highlight THEIR behavior, not YOURS. Usually when people try to hurt you, it's because they know you are happy.
Remember movies like Mean Girls or even Halloween, they have one thing in common: They have villains who want to see others suffer because they have suffered. Keep that in mind and never let them bring you to a point where you will have hate in your heart and become like them: a bully. Everything changes in a blink of an eye, one day you're in school, the next you're in the working world where everyone is far away from one another and forgets the chaos of school. It will be okay.
For those who have done things like the commenters who like to talk about people in such a harsh manner, if you're saying these things to be downright cruel: don't do it. If it doesn't benefit anyone, if it's not considered a joke that both parties can laugh about, don't post it.
Once you hit that send button, your words will forever be implanted into the internet. Even if you delete it, someone will remember it, someone will take a picture of it. Someone will know what you said and it will bite you hard in the future.
Stay strong Leslie Jones <3
SPOILERS AHEAD!!!
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Something cool that the movie did was that they let the original ghostbusters return to give cameos, but something bad they did with that was how they used the cameo for Bill Murray. Murray is arguably the most notable ghostbuster in the original movie, and how do they fit him into the film? They make him play a jerk who doesn't believe in ghosts and dies as soon as he's shown. The reason why he died was pathetic too. It was all Erin's fault, she let out the ghost and killed him, yet when the police investigate what happens, she casually swoons over Patrick Swayze movies. What kind of heartless ghostbuster are you, Erin?
Speaking of Erin, her character was all over the place. So she is trying to get tenure at the school she works for, but after being posted on youtube by her 'friend' Abby, she gets fired, but she seems totally fine about the whole ordeal and confident that the ghostbusters job will be successful (even though no one believed ghosts were real at first). She seemed to be working on that tenure for years and when it was snatched away from her because of Abby, Erin should have been way more upset and have taken some time before she was happy being around the group. For a woman who was so determined to get her tenure, she sure got over it quick.
When Erin is wondering if they should name their team Ghostbusters, an alternative version of the ghostbusters theme plays right after it. Why play the theme if the group hasn't even decided to be called the ghostbusters? It's like Peter Parker trying to decide on his superhero name while the Spider Man theme song plays in the background.
How come Rowan doesn't know to blend in when he possess Abby? He has an idea that she doesn't act like he does, so why behave creepy in front of her friends? You're going to get caught!
The scene where Erin is looking at Rowan's drawings on how he will control the city is funny if you think about it. She's looking at cartoons while suspenseful music blasts in the background. If it wasn't funny the first time seeing it, look at it again. It might just be me, but that was the one scene that made me laugh a lot.
The piano that plays in the beginning of the ghostbusters trailer was heard in the movie. Don't believe me? Listen really closely when Rowan breaks the piano, it plays a very brief segment of the music before the piano is demolished. It was a pretty tone, I wish it went on longer. Maybe Rowan could have been playing it before he died to add a creepy effect, or he could have played it as a ghost too as the ghostbusters entered the room.
Why use Kevin's body to walk around when Rowan can clearly shape-shift into anything he wants that can have solid matter and touch things like a human could? I guess he used Kevin so some of the alternative trailers can have Chris Hemsworth looking like a sexy bad guy.
You know that lots of people died that night where all the ghosts and Rowan destroyed the city.
There had to be people who perished. Where are the news stories of the great ghost tragedy?
When Erin dived into the green hole to save Abby...that was the jumping the shark moment for me.
I wonder what the original ghostbusters thought of this movie...
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