Ghostbusters (2016) - Film Review

Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones & Chris Hemsworth

Screenplay: Katie Dippold & Paul Feig

Directed By: Paul Feig

Certificate: 12

 

Usually the hardest part of writing these reviews is finding enough background information and context to introduce what it is I'm reviewing, and some are easier than others. But with 2016's Ghostbusters, I could genuinely write a thesis about everything surrounding the release of this film. By the time the first trailer debuted online, a full-on hate campaign was launched against this film on a scale that no one had ever seen before. While the trailers set barely anyone's hopes high for the film, all sorts of abuse was thrown at the cast and crew, with Leslie Jones even having to temporarily leave Twitter because of so many internet trolls. The trailers certainly didn't leave me looking forward to the film, but I can categorically say that the majority of hatred towards it has been bone-dead stupid since day one. If people didn't like the film, then that's fine – it's their choice, but for some people to organise down-vote campaigns against its promotional material, abuse the creative team behind it, and even for a certain number of people to hurl racist and sexist hate at the cast … that is just sick. I'll talk more about the backlash later, but Ghostbusters brought out the absolute worst in a lot of people online, with consensus towards the film seemingly divided into those who liked it, those who think it's decent, and those who think it's an abomination. As for me, well let's take a look...

 

Dr. Erin Gilbert is a professor of physics at the Columbia University. She finds her job under threat when her old friend and colleague Abby Yates publishes a book they both wrote about their investigations into the paranormal. Going to see Abby to bring the book out of circulation, she finds herself joining a ghost-hunt with Abby and her own colleague, Jillian Holtzmann. When the trio make contact with a ghost, Erin finds her belief in the paranormal renewed. Together with their dim but handsome receptionist Kevin, and subway station worker Patty Tolan, the group establishes themselves in the city to capture and study the ghosts.

 

In order to prove to the people like me who were still unsure as to whether this film would turn out passable or not, Ghostbusters really needed to win them over within minutes of starting by hitting hard and heavy with the laughs. Unfortunately, it just didn't do that. It just takes too long for the film to get going and really show what it can do. For the first forty minutes of the film, the audience has to sit through its weakest point and endure often flat, unfunny and out-of-place jokes. Examples of this include Abby making THREE very questionable and cringe-worthy jokes about soup, as well as Erin and Holtzmann awkwardly and randomly dancing in their new base of operations. It genuinely ended up taking me about ten to fifteen minutes before I even smiled, and about double that time before the film reached its first laugh.

 

It's a shame because by the time characters like Patty and Kevin show up to join the team, then the new Ghostbusters really start to gel. But by this point, it's entirely possible that those who were unsure about the film give up on it and either join the bullies online or just move on. Still, because I didn't give up on it, I was very happy to find that the second and third acts of the film are a distinct improvement from the first act. It's at this point where the new team have all their equipment ready, an established base and car etc. The pay-off is much better than the set-up and once they get more to chew on, the chemistry between each of the cast really starts to show itself, and everyone works and interacts with each other really well.

 

It's of great benefit to Ghostbusters that each of our new main characters prove themselves to be likeable and enjoyable to watch. Though they may at first be let down by cringe-worthy moments of comedy, they too fill their potential as the film goes on. Abby and Erin make for a great pairing and both Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig manage to convince me that their characters do share a years-long friendship. It also makes for a really great moment when Erin finally starts investigating the paranormal with Abby again, abandoning her job as a university physics professor. If there's one character that probably steals the award for being most memorable, it would probably be Patty. For a lot of the time, because she's much more down to Earth compared to the other three, Patty ends up acting as something of a bridge between the team and the viewing audience, simplifying a lot of the film's science mumbo-jumbo. Similar to how Erin was fleshed out thanks to a backstory involving her repeatedly seeing a ghost as a child, Patty also has an interesting backstory as well, involving working in a subway station as well as being a local history expert. While Holtzmann doesn't get quite the same level of development, she almost gets away with it as she's definitely the standout amongst the four with her eccentricities and unconventional approach to her work. Not to mention, in the third act Holtzmann gets legitimately some of the best action sequences of the entire film.

 

Not every character gets as much justice from the script, as we're given a very bland and forgettable villain that even the writers drop halfway through. Our villain gets so little screen-time that his motives and plan are something I'm even having trouble remembering what they were. As I've said, the character is literally so flat that the writers drop him halfway through the film and have his “spirit” form inhabit Chris Hemsworth's character instead.

 

On a writing level, the biggest problem with this reboot of Ghostbusters is that it lacks an identity and doesn't entirely know what it wants to be. Similarly to last year's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, this new Ghostbusters doesn't seem sure if it wants to be a sequel to the original two films, a remake or a reboot. I say this because the main cast that are still alive from the original Ghostbusters make cameo appearances in the film. Now I assumed that they were reprising their original characters, but then Bill Murray shows up as a paranormal debunker and Sigourney Weaver as Holtzmann's mentor, so is this a reboot instead? Is that why events thirty years ago seem to have been forgotten, despite being brought up in the trailer? If so why does the taxi driver that Dan Akroyd is playing seem to know so much about the ghosts, and is Ernie Hudson playing Winston Zeddemore again? There are probably simple answers to all these questions in the film, but I'm really having trouble finding them and this is something that could be so easily sorted out.

 

As for how the film looked, I found its visual style to be impressive and one that marks a clear change from the original films. The direction is also one of the few definite improvements from Paul Feig's previous film, Spy. While the original films look terrific and still certainly hold up today, I enjoyed the new approach at making Ghostbusters feel big and cinematic. The effects used to create the ghosts are much more cartoon-y, and unlike most of the internet, I enjoyed this style. It felt as though Ghostbusters was embracing its wacky and mad side rather than shying away from it. I even liked the way the film was lit – it set it aside from most other blockbuster films and it somehow felt warmer than its contemporaries.

 

In conclusion, 2016's Ghostbusters is far from the abomination many people would have you believe, but at the same time, I can't quite call it good. It's irritating if anything because this film is on the cusp of something that I can call good cinema, but isn't quite there. It has the looks and most of the characters nailed, but at the same time lacks an identity and takes too long to get going. It doesn't best the original films, but it was never going to and it doesn't try to. One thing for certain is that it did NOT deserve the toxic reception it received. It's just an OK film and shouldn't have had to deal with backlash on that ridiculous scale – but then again, no film ever does.

Ghostbusters



6/10