Thoughts on the New "Ghostbusters" Trailer

Yesterday the first trailer for the new Ghostbusters reboot was released, with this one having an all-female cast starring Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones. Now, most people already know that I was sort of against this movie from its announcement, and not because it's an all-female cast (though I don't really get the logic behind expanding women in film by just rebooting an old franchise with women who are already famous instead of giving chances to new female filmmakers but Hollywood is anything if not inept on how to appease the masses on things like this). Especially once Harold Ramis died, I was pretty against the idea of making a third/reboot Ghostbusters movie regardless of the cast. I love the first Ghostbusters and the second one is decent, and like most good or great franchises, I kind of wished that they'd just left it at that. Not to say there isn't more creatively that you could do with this universe (the video game from about ten years ago proved that), but especially in the era of modern film comedy (which this video does a really good job of explaining why I'm kind of tired of most of them), I just didn't really think they could do anything that astounding with it. So, then, after over a decade in development hell, it was announced that the reboot would feature an all-female cast, and I said, "Okay, let's see who they cast." I made my guesses for the four women they would choose, and I got 50% of them right, as I guessed McCarthy and Wiig (my other two were Tina Fey and Amy Poehler). When I saw the cast and director, I said to myself, "I have a pretty good idea of how this is gonna go, but let's see a trailer first."

And now here we are and the trailer has come out, and yeah, it's pretty much what I figured. This is Bridesmaids with ghosts, and honestly, I'm so underhyped for this to the point of being sort of indifferent. The two glimmers of hope the trailer gave me was McKinnon seeming like a legitimately loose cannon character compared to her three super-typecast costars, and the designs of the ghosts themselves. While there is a sort of charm to the good-but-not-that-great effects of the original films, it's neat seeing Ghostbusters-y things in the updated world of modern cinema. The first ghost in the trailer and the giant stilt-walking ghost in particular were really cool-looking. Other than that, I will be going to see this movie, but I'm not super duper pumped for it.

Okay, before I keep going, I want to make clear that a reboot of Ghostbusters, female-led or otherwise, at the end of the day doesn't really bother me. I'm studying film at college, and I can't tell you how many times I hear classmates (usually guys, weirdly) lamenting the over-abundance of superhero movies and big-budget blockbusters that are saturating the market. I won't go into why right now, but in short, I really don't care. "Reboot culture" or "sequel culture" or whatever is really a small price to pay for the (apparently unrecognized) increased availability to the industry that digital film brought in the early 2000s. So that being said, neither the existence of this film nor the decision to have an all-female cast are not going to make me lose any sleep, and likewise for whether this movie makes a ton of money (it will). I also want to say that, while the first one is certainly a classic, the Ghostbusters movies aren't unbelievable feats in filmmaking. If this reboot is even 70% on Rotten Tomatoes-level okay, it will not even come close to "tarnishing a great franchise" or whatever. The Ghostbusters franchise consists of one good movie, one okay movie, a video game, and a cartoon. It's okay.

With that said, my biggest problem with the trailer (and therefore what I suspect will be my biggest problem with the movie) is the sense of humor. Again, this is Bridesmaids with ghosts. Now, I like Bridesmaids and still find it funny, but that brand of humor from Paul Feig and the like, as well as most modern famous comedy directors, is getting stale, at least to me personally. Even Judd Apatow is starting to lose steam for me. And the only reason Seth Rogen and his ilk are anything entertaining to me is because they keep one-upping themselves with ridiculous premises that make for decent comedy. This movie seems to be about loud, wacky characters saying silly things and falling and getting hurt and things. That's fine, and can be funny, but the original Ghostbusters was almost 90% the characters being jackasses. The humor was subtle, quick, and understated, and you could miss jokes and have to rewatch to get them all, a quality I love in comedies. Now again, this all just comes down to what you personally find to be funny. To me, if you're going to reboot a franchise, you should stick to the best elements of the original or have something really clever and fresh in its place, and this movie doesn't seem like it has it.

With all that said, this movie doesn't look "bad" by any means. It'll probably be a fun time, and I'll probably enjoy myself. I'm ballparking my rating for it at a B (come back in July of this year to see if I'm correct). That said, it's always been hard to do better on the original in a reboot, and the gender of the cast has no bearing on the success or failure of this movie for me (although there is a small but vocal group of people that apparently it does, which is funny and pretty dumb). These are talented actresses, but they're dealing with a pretty different style of comedy that is less to my liking in a movie whose existence I wasn't too thrilled about to begin with. But if, when I see this movie on July 15th, it turns out to be really good, I'll be the first to recommend it. And if Bridesmaids-style humor hasn't gotten old for you and you love it, you'll probably have a ton of fun with this movie...

Based on the trailer. The movie hasn't even come out yet. You know what? Let's all just shut the fuck up.

I'm seeing Zootopia tomorrow.