That being said, I finally got around to seeing the new Ghostbusters (now subtitled Answer The Call) the other night and I have to tell you... I didn't hate it. I found it to be a perfectly fine, but wholly unnecessary film. It didn't crap on the legacy of the original film, but didn't really do anything exceptional to justify its existence.
I don't know if there was another film in 2016 that was as highly scrutinized as Ghostbusters: Answer The Call, and that's really unfortunate. Misogynists railed against this film because of its all female cast, and racists went on a deplorable tirade at Leslie Jones on Twitter. The initial trailer to this film was the most disliked in YouTube history. All of this negative backlash definitely had something to do with its underwhelming box office returns. Looking back at it, I will say that people had a reason to dislike this film, they just did it for the wrong reasons. We should be having a discussion on Hollywood's eternal chase for the next "cinematic universe," and why that is bad for business. Ghostbusters is not a world that deserves a rich and expanded cinematic franchise. I think the original Ghostbusters worked because it was a finite story. I'm still not fully convinced that the 1989 sequel ever needed to happen. My biggest issue with this new film is that it was about 80% remake and about 20% new. Let's break down this film into its elements to see where it went wrong.
Cast
Much has been said and written about director Paul Feig's choice to have an all-female cast. I'm not against this in any shape or form. My biggest problem was that the cast seemed to be going through the motions for large chunks of this movie. Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig were basically playing themselves the entire time. Leslie Jones wasn't given much to work with besides portraying the characters she does every week on Saturday Night Live. There wasn't much beneath her character. The only standout in the 4 female Ghostbusters was SNL superstar, Kate McKinnon. Her character (whose blond hair was a shoutout to the 1980s Real Ghostbusters cartoon series) was the only one who had me consistently laughing. The other stand out in this film was Chris (Thor) Hemsworth, who played a hilariously dumb receptionist (so dumb that he covered his eyes when something was too lout). Hemsworth should explore his comedic side in future films.
Cameos
Every original Ghostbusters cast member had a cameo in this film (with the exception of Rick Moranis, who is effectively retired from acting). These cameos were all a bit of a distraction to me. They all spoke lines that were essentially a wink and a nod to the original films. While I appreciated them, I didn't think they were needed. I have said from the beginning that this should have been a movie where the original cast passed the torch to a new set of Ghostbusters, and this film failed to do that.
Plot
This film was essentially a remake of the original plot. Scientists get kicked out of Columbia. Scientists find ghosts. Ghostbusters are formed. New York City is in danger. Ghostbusters (spoiler alert) save the day. The ghosts and villains were "different", but not really. They even teased a Zuel appearance in an after the credits scene.
Music
Fall Out Boy's re-imagining of Ray Parker Jr.'s classic theme song is terrible. The less said about it, the better. Moving on...
Overall, I did not hate this film. I laughed sporadically throughout, and thought it was a decent little film. However, I still don't think it should have been made. Hopefully, there wasn't enough of a box office success to justify future Ghostbusters movies and we can all move on in life.
No comments:
Post a Comment