The Ghostbusters films and the stupidity of the internet.

Cafe Society
1

When it was announced that the 2016 cast of Ghostbusters was going to be all female, I heard complaints on the internet right away.

The trailer came out, and I admit it wasn’t the best trailer ever, but I was still excited. Meanwhile, people’s arguments began to somehow shift from it being a female cast to it looking like a poopy movie.

James Rolfe got a lot of crap for not seeing the movie, but if the trailer doesn’t entice you I don’t think you should see the movie.

Some people pretended as if they didn’t mind that there was an all female cast. Some people genuinely didn’t like the trailers. And some people seemed over-enthusiastic about the Ghostbusters movie, and even perhaps the fact that their was an all female cast leading the way. I was one of those guys.

I wanted the women to do well because why should it be any different with all men. But I really disliked the movie, guys! Of course, it had some big shoes to fill. I think there are some who genuinely enjoyed the film, and I think there are some that genuinely wanted to enjoy the film and acted as if it was a good movie. Then there are those who will hate it no matter what.

Now this new Ghostbusters: Afterlife is out… and all I’m hearing is; “This is all I wanted”.

Horse Pucky!

You have no idea of what you want.

People who hated 2016 Ghostbusters would claim that this movie looks ‘awesome’. And of course those who liked the 2016 iteration seem to think it should have been where the franchise should go, (to which I disagree but I understand if you like a movie you want to see more instead of Sony acting as if it never happened).

The new trailer looks ok. I think people, (mostly the haters, but some of the people on the other side), are letting their bias get in the way.

Maybe I’m wrong. What do you think?

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I think you haven’t seen this recently bumped thread which was started back in January.

3

I think you are assuming an awful lot about the motivations of a lot of people. Twitter is not real life.

4

I enjoyed Ghostbusters: Answer the Call, and didn’t care about the cast. But it was also essentially the same story as Ghostbusters 1 and 2. I’m excited to see something completely different.

5

I covered all grounds… I didn’t like it but wanted to. Some liked it. Some hated it for stupid reasons.

What else is there?

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But then you seem to distill it down to anyone who’s excited for the new movie is wrong?

7

And I’m sorry, I did miss the revised thread.

Though I think that’s the thread that someone suggested I start a thread like this a while ago not to hijack it, but I’m not sure I haven’t followed that link yet.

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Perhaps I didn’t mention those people, but I’m sure they exist and acknowledge their right to opinion.

9

I didn’t care that the 2016 movie had a female cast. I didn’t think it looked all that funny in the previews and my wife, who was jazzed up to support women in film, saw it and reported back that it was “Eh, okay I guess; wish it had been better” (this was also her pocket review of Ocean’s 8 and that movie billed as “Superbad, but with girls”). The parts I’ve seen of the 2016 movie make me think she’s correct or maybe being a little generous.

I’m not terribly excited about the new Ghostbusters because “Ghostbusters, but with kids” wasn’t anything I especially wanted. If later previews or early buzz makes it sound better than it does now, I might see it but it’ll likely be a streaming choice down the line. Unless my wife gets excited to see it in theaters.

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I don’t mind the kids. I understand why most like the new trailer, but to say; “this is what we wanted”… They had no concept about what they wanted, aside from the original cast being in the movie as themselves, maybe.

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For every movie there are people that like it and people that don’t. The stupid reasons category is the only thing that made this one notable. But those were twitter and reddit trolls and not real life.

What ultimately sunk the movie was that it wasn’t very good. I enjoyed it in the theater but that enhances the experience. Upon reflection the major flaws stood out. Too many cameos shoehorned in. The audience wanted to see the old characters not the actors playing random people. It never should have been a reboot to begin with. New all female main cast? Fine. No reason why it couldn’t have been in the same universe. This new one seems to have solved that issue which makes me want to see it.

12

To me that’s it exactly. GB3 not GB:the reboot. It’s
Ghostbusters but Venkman never existed? What’s the point?

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Personally, I thought that the 2016 movie wasn’t quite as funny as the original, but that everything else about it was better, to the point that, overall, it was a better movie. And I think it’s fair to say that not all, but a significant fraction, of the dislike directed at it was due to misogyny.

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OP: How is this different than any other movie? You may or may not like the stars, or the director or the writer or the trailer or what the media say the plot is about–then finally when you see the movie you may be disappointed or you may be pleasantly surprised.

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This. It was a gigantic mistake to make the 2016 movie (which I have never watched or wanted to watch) a reboot.

16

I think I would have been more exited about this if the 2016 movie had never existed. I liked the 2016 one, although I thought the final CGI massive battle was a bit too much.

But even without the 2016 movie I think I would have seen this one as riding Stranger Things coattails (which is fair enough, since ST rides all the coattails of the 1980s).

And I think my ability to suspend disbelief is going to be sorely tested by “every ghost in the world was rounded up in the 1980s” thing Paul Rudd mentions in the trailer.

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Venkman may have been a slimy sexist pig, but- credit where credit is due- if not for him, Spengler would have died of self-trepanation, and NYC would have been wiped out by spooky forces in 1983…

18

I didn’t want to see the reboot because the trailer had terrible, unfunny jokes. I gave it a shot when it came out on DVD and I was right, it sucked and was unfunny. I made it about 45 minutes in before I bailed.

The new trailer looks bad for a different reason: it has zero jokes. I don’t want Ghostbusters to be to be a serious horror drama (which maybe this movie isn’t but the trailer certainly wants you to think so); I want it to be a funny sci fi action comedy with some scares. Or better yet, leave it alone and make something new and I can watch the copy of Ghostbusters I already have (yes I know I can still do that but resources put into this movie mean another movie that could have been something new wasn’t made).

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I don’t think we need to spoiler trailers since it’s what we’re talking about. That’s not what he says. Just that there haven’t been any ghost sightings since the 80’s. Which fits with how the movies have worked so far. Remember how after they defeat Gozer in the first movie all ghost activity stops until Viggo pops up?

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What puzzles me the most is how a property that’s been all over the map over the decades managed to get an extreme militant ultra-hardcore following in the first place. It would be like if there was a group of rabid diehard fans of the original black and white comic or the 80’s cartoon series who pounced on every single Twitter discussion of the current Nickelodeon show. The original comic, the 80’s cartoon, the later comic, the first NES game, the first arcade game, every NES, SNES, and Genesis game that came after, the first movie, the second and third movies, the live-action TV series, the other live-action TV series, each was its own thing and had its following. If you argued for a “definitive” TMNT, you’d get laughed out of the room. Let’s face it, there’s no way anything called freaking Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is ever going to develop anything remotely close to “canon”, so there’s simply no point in getting in a huge lather over this or that incarnation.

With Ghostbusters, which has varied vastly in tone and style over it’s various existences (including that Data East game which, despite the title*, had zippo to do with Evon Spanker, Ray Rabbit, Peter Cetera, or William Leroy Emerson Bucktooth dammit I can never remember these names), getting outraged over any part of it strikes me as preposterous. Star Wars, I can understand. That one’s a landmark. Marvel Cinematic Universe, vast property backed by a hegemonic entertainment titan that’s maybe gone in a few questionable directions. There are going to be outcries. Anything at all about Jesus? It’s much weaker now, but you can still count on most of the usual suspects to spit out the usual invective. Ghostbusters had two movies, a bunch of failed attempts at a third, a few video games that don’t look or play anything alike, two cartoon series that don’t look anything alike, that short lived magazine, and a few more bits and pieces, and at no point was it ever the thing.

Me? Honestly, I’ve never been impressed by any of it. Original movie, I thought was okay. Special effects were on par with a campy TV adventure serial a la Xena, overall plot was pretty good, maybe two-thirds of the jokes hit, characters were mostly annoying but not unbearably obnoxious, background lore didn’t make much sense, the way the final villain was brought in was way too confusing, and in the end I felt reasonably satisfied and not ripped off. Cartoon series* was the usual forgettable kiddie time-filler, a more action-oriented, less tryhard Beetlejuice. NES game was boring as hell and had an incredibly clunky final level, and I did not appreciate the SNK Boss at the end that took like 200 hits. Current arcade game is a first-person shooter; I’ve never been any good at those. I haven’t seen the other movies, but from what I’ve learned they’re not must-sees by any stretch of the imagination. So it’s no great surprise that this new trailer leaves me cold. Legacy? Realizing one’s purpose? The values of rural America? What the heck do I care about any of that? I want to seen ghosts getting zapped and big battles with scary monsters and charging to the rescue and witty barbs and some slapstick with the green guy. Entertainment. Excitement. Fun.

If fans are grateful to have a new movie, fine, but I’m not seeing how this is going to…ahem, resurrect the franchise.

  • I still find it really weird that the two things called “The Real Ghostbusters” were a flippin’ cartoon and a dolled-up port of a completely unrelated video game called Meikyuu Hunter G. No joke.