Advance Review: Ghostbusters (2016)

Ghostbusters is the reboot of the classic 1984 film of the same name; yes it is a reboot, not a continuation of the much-loved franchise. Now, I could go through and write an article just on the marketing of this film and all its failures but that has been talked about already. I am here to talk about the new film starring Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones and directed & co-written by Paul Feig of Spy and Bridesmaids fame.

Let me tackle the biggest issue first: yes, when compared to the 1984 Ghostbusters, this new movie is not as good, but what movie could be? The sequel to the original is just the same movie again with the cast clearly phoning it in but we still love it, so why not give this new movie a chance? With that out of the way, the new Ghostbusters film has some positives and some negatives going for it.

Ghostbusters follows paranormal enthusiasts Erin Gilbert (Wiig) and Abby Yates (McCarthy), nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon) and subway worker Patty Tolan (Jones) as they deal with the new threat of a ghost invasion of New York. The four new Ghostbusters are the prime example of what works and doesn’t work with this film. Wiig and McCarthy, in my mind, were the weakest of the new Ghostbusters. While McKinnon and Jones are playing characters, Wiig and McCarthy are playing themselves with weak character development and even weaker chemistry. In the first 15 minutes, Wiig and McCarthy go through of an arc of hating each other to being best friends again in a Hollywood trope that I hate. McKinnon and Jones give the performances that carry the collective group in this film. McKinnon plays oddball very well and she has a great action setpiece in the third act that should help her land work in more action comedies. I owe Leslie Jones an apology, since based on the trailers, I thought she would be the weakest link in the cast but she plays straight man to everyone and does it very well. The worst parts with Jones’ character are in the trailer but she really does well in the film.

My favorite performance in this movie is Chris Hemsworth as dumb yet hot assistant, Kevin. Chris plays dumb to a level I haven’t seen since Channing Tatum in 21 Jump Street. Hemsworth has some of the funniest moments in this film, and he steals every scene he is in. I am happy to see Hemsworth try to stretch his acting wings into comedy and unlike in 2015’s Vacation, this is a memorable performance.

Ghostbusters 2016 tries to blend comedy and horror much like the original but I’m not sure if Feig’s humor works well with the horror genre. If you love his comedy writing then you will love all the jokes in this movie, if you are not a fan of his humor, Chris Hemsworth will help you get through it. The story for the new Ghostbusters is nothing new and this does lead to some pacing issues. The first act seems to lag, then the second act is too short, just to make room for the big third act.

One pressing issue I had with this film was the fact that they did themselves a disservice by making this a reboot instead of a continuation of the Ghostbusters universe. They spend too much time on trying to familiarize the audience with the Ghostbusters world, which leads to the aforementioned pacing issues.

We all know who and what the Ghostbusters are, you do not need to re-educate us. We can figure it out.

While trying to familiarize the audience with Ghostbusters, the creative minds behind the new film brought back the cast from the original for cameos, but only half of them have good cameos. I mean the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man has a better cameo than Bill Murray – a sentence I never thought I would type in my life.

At the end of the day, though, does this new Ghostbusters deserve all the hate that the Internet seems to have had for it before it was ever even released? No. Is it going to ruin your childhood memories of the original film? Not any more than Ghostbusters 2 did. I believe in this possible new franchise for the Ghostbusters;, the mix of humor, horror, and special effects work. I would have given this movie a 3 out of 5 stars but the post-credit scene is brilliant and pumps the grade up to a 3.5 out of 5 stars.