GHOSTBUSTERS: Answer The Awesome Call!

It would be to put it lightly that this film’s reputation preceeded it. After years of people theorising about another sequel to Ghostbusters (1984), naively deciding to overlook the fact that Bill Murray didn’t want to work with Harold Ramis again, and Ramis’ recent death, a new film was announced. The only problem was that noted comedy director Paul Feig was put in charge. He wanted to put women in the lead roles, and with that the internet went (pardon my language) ape-shit.

If you were ever under any misapprehension that sexism still existed, surely the past few years of social media have put paid to that. The Gamergate controversy, social media attacks on Caroline Criado-Perez, noted academic Mary Beard, and conversely the attack on physicist Dr Matt Taylor and the Everyday Sexism hashtag have held a mirror up to society and shown us that not only do we live in an anonymous, reactionary society, but that there are men out there who will do anything to put women ‘in their place’.

Accused of pandering to ‘feminazis’ and the current zeitgeist driving home women’s rights, the new Ghostbusters film has had to hold its head high and push on through the hate poured on it by the ‘manosphere’. Director Paul Feig has been forced time again to defend his actions in casting his talented colleagues, who he never recruited to make a point, simply stating that the funny people he knows ‘just happen to be female’.

Ghostbusters was never about women’s rights, but the very fact that it was made has revealed something very important about our society, so it’s become a representative for our time. With so much pressure riding on it, and so many misogynists for us to stick two fingers up to, it’s a damn relief to say that Ghostbusters is a fantastic film.

All The Feel Of The Originals

It would have been neigh on impossible to watch this film and not compare it to the originals. Set in a New York where the original ghostbusters never existed, it begins on day one of a group of academics making their foray into paranormal investigations. The film shares many similarities with the original story, and so it should.

Abby (Melissa McCarthy) and Erin (Kristen Wiig) are the straightforward academics, Jillian (Kate McKinnon), the comic relief, and Patty (Leslie Jones), the street-wise character with all the real world experience. While they’re all stereotypes in one way or another, they are also exactly what we wanted and expected from this film.

But what really gives it the feel of the original films is its mix of high comedy and high horror. There are some scenes that are properly creepy, but never so much as to really freak you out. The jokes are great, some are straight quips, others are jokes at the manosphere and the contemporary culture of ghost hunters, some are just great physical gags.

While McCarthy, Wiig and Jones are good in this, it is Kate McKinnon that is the real surprise. She’s a sharp comic wit, with a great sense of physical comedy, no doubt a number of her lines will be quoted for years to come.

In the background of the main characters we have secretary Kevin (played by Chris Hemsworth). Hemsworth is there to drive home the stereotype of the dumb but sexy secretary that the original films lacked but is all to common in film as a whole. Hemsworth is a great comic and really pulls off the jokes given to him.

In addition to this, most of the original Ghostbusters cast turn up in, by turns, brilliant and sometimes awkward, cameos. My only real disappointment was in Andy Garcia as the Mayor and Cecily Strong as his assistant, I felt like they could have been given a lot more to do.

Any Problems?

I’m not going to pander to the idea of this film being a shining light in women’s rights, that would be ridiculous. It would also be unfair to the film to load so much pressure on it. This film does have its problems.

Like with most Paul Feig films I feel the stress is on the jokes more than the story. Here there’s no small plot points, then big, dark, then light, there isn’t much of an arc at all. While it does build to a grand crescendo you feel you don’t really have any sort of adventure on the way. Which is a shame, but something I’ve come to expect of Feig.

I also thought the overall writing and directing could have been better. There were so many cheesy lines, and not even entertaining ones. Plus, some jokes were just delivered badly. I feel Feig sometimes just lets his actors run with it, when they really need some direction. While I do think they’re great actresses, I found Wiig to be too sedate and Jones to be over the top. However, on the whole what they did give was a lot, so I’m not going to complain too much.

When it comes to character I also would have liked to have seen a bit more depth is Hemsworth’s Kevin. While he gets a lot of the laughs, his position in the film is shallow, and unevenly matched to how big his role becomes in the finale. But, I’ll say it again, I’m splitting hairs. While I would have liked more from him I’m certainly not disappointed with what I got.

Very Effective

I’m one of those people who likes just the right amount of special effects, too much and I get annoyed. So I was particularly thrilled with Ghostbusters, because while there were a huge amount of effects used (there had to be) they were not only perfect but more creative and brilliant than I have seen before. The ending scenes, especially, are an incredible beautiful delight.

I wonder if this approach to SFX comes from the fact that Feig’s background is in comedy as opposed to action or sci-fi films. Perhaps he was able to guide the effects artists more creatively?

For whatever reason the artistry used really makes the finale a rich and entertaining affair, and while the effects lack the shock and awe we experienced in the original films (we are, after all, used to SFX now) they really do add something special.

Conclusion

I know soo many people who won’t watch this new Ghostbusters because they feel like so much is riding on it, and they’re afraid that if you don’t like it they’ll be branded as a misogynist. Which is a great shame, especially since the trailer for this film is already the most disliked movie trailer ever on YouTube, and the manosphere is out in force to decry the film on IMDb (it’s holding on to a 5.1 rating at the time of this review, when it clearly should be 6.7+). We need you behind us, so please go watch this movie.

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While it has its imperfections it has all the heart of the original, with the right amount of jumps and jokes. The cast is great, and Paul Feig, even with some problems, totally pulls it out of the bag. I watched this film in a cinema packed with groups of young women who actually cackled at jokes, and danced every time the Ghostbusters theme was played.

This may have once been a 80’s horror comedy franchise but now it’s something bigger. It’s a great big ‘f*ck you!’ to the people who think we as women don’t get a place on the cinema screen.

I grew up in the 80’s with movies like The Goonies, Gremlins and Ghostbusters, and while I did have Ghostbusters jeans, I never got any of the toys. My male cousins and friends did, but never me. But finally, I get to be a Ghostbuster! I get to rock up to the next fancy dress party as Jillian Holtzmann, and all the whining misogynists in the world can put a stop to how awesome that feels.

Have you seen Ghostbusters? Did like it? How do you think it compared to the originals?

Ghostbusters is currently on release in the UK and US, for the release dates in your country check here.