Decent reboot of a classic franchise that shockingly didn’t ruin collective childhoods, nor end the world.
Over the last 10 days I have somewhat reluctantly subjected myself to two reboots/sequels (requels?) that are both based on films released at least 20 years ago. One was a below average action film that escaped a mass online mauling upon its release, lost its own interest in entertaining an audience, quietly sauntered off into the distance with a whimper – and featured Liam Hemsworth. The other was an enjoyable movie that was the target of an intense racist and misogynist campaign of irrational hate that made me despair at the state of human decency yet would definitely justify multiple viewings, was funny and exciting, and starred Chris Hemsworth. Sorry Liam, but in the battle of best summer blockbuster featuring a Hemsworth brother 2016 you have suffered a definitive loss. I’m not a fan of anyone, regardless of gender, being sexually objectified, but let’s give it up for Chris for winning this prestigious title….*temporarily abandons principles*
[I was always a sucker for a man in glasses.]
With all the online brouhaha surrounding the all-female reboot of Ghostbusters in the last six months, I was very glad to have exited the cinema and make my way home all with the world still spinning. Sure, the film isn’t flawless, but did it deserve all the contempt and vileness that spewed forth from the forgotten corners of the internet? Did it deserve to be the mast against which so many nailed their despicable opinions against? About halfway through I couldn’t help but think, this? This is what people put their grumpy pants on for? It has a less-than-solid storyline, but Ghostbusters is a decent action/comedy popcorn flick that pays the right amount of homage to the franchise origins while making a strong case for more blockbusters featuring all-female casts with funny, smart, and watchable characters to be made.
The story is as it was 30 years ago: academic institutions consider the investigation of paranormal activity as frivolous and wasteful, scientists are stripped of their funding and go out on their own, and using their own equipment start to trap ghosts for study. But of course, it’s not that simple and New York starts to get its ass kicked by the supernatural. (See original 1984 film for more info on plot).
The adapted story doesn’t hang that well together, but it does have enough in it to make it an enjoyable few hours of escapism. The four main characters are strong and it was great that it wasn’t a heterosexual romantic pairing that pushed the action forward, but these characters’ thirst for knowledge. There are some scenes that don’t really fit with the overall story (Erin’s ‘Ghost Girl’ anecdote), but hearing these characters talk with an overabundance of scientific terms and being so excited about their discoveries was encouraging when thinking of younger people seeing the film and being reassured that prioritising the pursuit of knowledge over the pursuit of a partner is actually pretty cool. (Look I know that it’s a fictional film th at shouldn’t be taken too seriously, but name another movie that places a group of female scientists at the forefront of the action?)
Not only that, but these women are funny – unfortunately there are quite a lot of jokes that fall completely flat mostly due to them having a weak delivery or being US-centric, but when you throw in a front-bum fart joke very early on without much warning, you’ve definitely caught the attention of my crude sense of humour. I also had a stifled air-punching moment watching the Ghostbusters fighting off ghouls in Times Square with their newly invented gadgets: the action sequences were great to watch and not once did I think, ‘Gee you know what is missing from this fight? A man swooping in to save them all.’ There aren’t any woe-is-me damsels in distress here.
The all-female reboot of Ghostbusters isn’t perfect, but they could’ve done a darn sight worse than a lot of the other reboots making the rounds in the recent times. They do just fine on their own, cracking jokes, pushing the (crumbs of a) story forward because they’re eager to solve a mystery, and vanquishing ghosts. If only their powers extended to ridding the real world of pathetic trolls and the attitude that gender role reversals in fiction films are scarier than the prospect of ghosts being real.
Not The Target Audience 