Review of Ghostbusters (2016) by Dan B — 31 May 2017

In contrast to the gender politics surrounding this film, this films seems rather tame. If there is a pro-feminist message to the film it's lost among cliche characters, bland writing and poor chemistry. Even those who haven't seen *gasp horror* or were fans of the original movies may be confused about what this film is trying to achieve.

The plot is extremely predictable that tries to mimic The force awakens method of retelling the original story in a new manner. The main failure to this however is the acting is far from convincing and it's a story told a million times over. Creepy things happen, people try to prove ghosts, no-one believes them, they end up right, catch ghosts, big event happens, they save the world. All this happens while ignoring the events of the original films for no real apparent reason. Fans of the original films will also be disappointed the art direction this movie takes as most of the ghosts are now shown in low quality neon CGI. And talking about special effects, the opening 'setting up' scene prior to the Ghostbusters title at the beginning of the film is potentially the worst I have seen in recent years. My partner who I watched the film with seemed confused to the actual reasoning behind using the Ghostbusters trademark. Sure it had ghosts in it, however the art direction is so drastically different, the story tries to be new but ultimately is the same story and it's done far worse. She felt there was no point to the movie and this was coming from someone who was excited to see the film and only watched the originals for the first time, a few nights before, to hype herself up. She also highlighted the amount of times they tried to reference the original films, but otherwise ignored them completely.

The acting is a mixed bad as are the characters. I couldn't help but resist enjoying Kate Mckinnon's performance in this film. Okay it may be too obviously trying to recreate Egon quirky side from the original, but it was fun and convincing. Leslie Jones also had her moments, but many of her lines often descended into stereotypical streetwise wisecracking. I think at one point she even highlights how streetwise she is, but lacks the others smarts.

The biggest actors were the most unconvincing. Melissa McCarthy seemed to be trying to recreate Dan Aykroyd, the result is a complete mess. Herself and Kristen Wig lack their normal chemistry and their lines seem entirely flat. She often devolves into techno babble lines that seem about as convincing as me trying to explain quantum physics to master students (hint I have no idea what is even involved in quantum physics). Kristen herself is seemingly reduced to the most boring and uninteresting role in the film, which is despite being the role with the most screen time. Finally Chris Hemsworth, while offering some entertainment, is basically reduced to a character so stupid, it often reduces the film to the level of an extremely crude slapstick comedy.

In conclusion, in contrast to the films pre-release claims of trying to create something new, it falls flat on its face and instead tries to re-create the original film to an extremely muted effect. It's not bad per se, just it doesn't add anything new to the franchise. The best way to describe this film, as worded by my partner, was 'bland'. Sure it's consumable and will fill your time up, but it will not do anything for you in the short nor long run. There's no thrills, no excitement or horror, it's just a film that tries to recreate the success of the originals but doesn't go anywhere. I have a sneaking suspicion that the Critic Reviews were propped up b the gender wars surrounding the films release. I rate this film 2/5.