The Ghostbusters reboot did not start out on a good foot. With its trailer one of the least liked videos on YouTube, a lot of people were thinking that it would be a horrible movie.
Those people would be wrong. Go in expecting to laugh. It’s a hilarious movie, filled with quips and slapstick humor. Is it particularly sophisticated humor? No, but I wouldn’t have called the original Ghostbusters classy either (classic, but not classy).
The best part of the movie was the main four actresses. Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones have great chemistry and an interesting dynamic. They worked well with each other even with a plot that was cheesy and almost buried beneath the jokes and references. Some of the jokes in the movie were a little irrelevant, like the scene where they interview Chris Hemsworth’s Kevin, but they will still make you laugh.
Discerning critics will notice that there really wasn’t much of a plot to the movie. It’s a reboot so the disgraced-scientists-turned-city-heroes schtick will feel familiar, but the actual plot of the movie seemed to only be there to facilitate interactions between the characters. The villain, Rowan, may have had a cooler name than the original’s villain (Gozer? Really?) but he was weird and one dimensional.
However, one thing this movie definitely does better than the original is that I was never sold on Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver’s characters getting together. It was creepy and they didn’t have chemistry. For all Kristen Wiig’s character awkwardly crushes and hits on Kevin the dumb secretary, they don’t end up together, so it remains a joke instead of an unwelcome romantic subplot.
It is possible that people who loved the original Ghostbusters will not like this movie. Ghostbusters (2016) is very clearly a movie from another time. It is faster paced, with quips slung around like rapid fire. The battle scene at the end was also a great visual spectacle not at all like the one the original Ghostbusters gave us, but par for the course for most blockbusters from the past decade. The ghosts looked cooler and the equipment used to take them out was an awesome array of proton gloves, proton handguns, proton grenades and even a proton shredder.
The more lenient fans of the original movie should be happy with the numerous references and homages slipped in throughout the course of the movie. From the very start of the movie, with a scene mirroring the library ghost one from the original, to the after credits scene that sets up for a potential sequel involving Zuul, Ghostbusters (2016) is rife with tributes to the original movie.
Ultimately, this movie will make you laugh. It’s not some cinematic masterpiece, but it is a fun comedy and decent way to spend two hours of your day.
