Ghostbusters (2016) Review

I love the original Ghostbusters. Who doesn't? It's a classic that has a great cast, a creative premise, hilarious comedy, and one of the best theme songs in film history. The sequel, while it is a total rehash of the original and parts of it made no sense, it was still enjoyable and some of the jokes made their mark. After that, the movie franchise had remained dormant until a reboot was announced.

The controversy surrounding it was crazy, but that's not what I'm here to talk about. I didn't have any faith in this movie after the first trailer came out because it didn't seem funny. However, I was open to the film actually being better than what the trailers have made it out to be. Now that I have watched it, did it exceed my expectations even though I didn't have any or did it actually deliver on what the trailers made it out to be: nothing but lame jokes? Let's find out.

Just like the original, it centers around four characters (played by Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones), who form a group to catch ghosts haunting New York City. They go through some trouble building up their reputation, yadda yadda, and rise up to face some villain. It's a reboot, meaning it doesn't share the same continuity as the first two films, so it's going to go through some familiar territory, which I'm not going to hold it against.

Each cast member has something in the characters that they play that make them stand out: Erin (Wiig) is the straight person, Abby (McCarthy) is the nerd, Jillian (McKinnon) is the eccentric one, and Patty (Jones) is... the Winston of the group, which means she is a bland, regular person.

I didn't care for any of them. I couldn't buy any of their chemistry. I know they're played by talented women. I liked Kristen Wiig in How to Train Your Dragon and The Skeleton Twins, for starters. I also liked Melissa McCarthy in Kim Possible and St. Vincent, though the latter was more of a serious role than her usual "funny" one. However, the script didn't really do much to make me get invested in these characters, like this friendship between Erin and Abby that isn't explored very well. They also tried to add drama with Erin that feels forced rather than natural. I was most disappointed with Jillian, who looked like someone I would enjoy watching. I dig eccentric characters and I can tell that she was having the most fun just hamming it up.

There is something holding me back from enjoying these performances. Why is that, some might ask? The so-called "comedy" is what ruined this movie for me. Get your hate comments ready because I have a confession to make: I am not a fan of director Paul Feig's comedies. Bridesmaids, The Heat, and Spy were all just desperate attempts at being funny and got no laughs out of me. I was sitting throughout this whole movie with an annoyed look on my face and cringing at a lot of these so-called "jokes." In contrast, the audience was laughing and I was thinking to myself "Am I missing something here?"

A lot of the comedy comes from improvisational humor that drag on for too long just to get a cheap laugh out of me and fails miserably. Some of them even lack subtlety. Take that moment where Patti was about to crowd-surf and instead lands on the floor. She then goes on to wonder if it was because she is a woman or because she is black. Whose idea was it to hammer that line in? I kind of got a chuckle out of this one reference to Danny Phantom, but that's it.

The film also wants to beat the audience in the head about how stupid Chris Hemsworth's character, Kevin, is. He doesn't know the difference between his eyes and ears and he has a hard time figuring out how a phone works. We get it: he's stupid! Can we move on? I'll give Hemsworth credit: he seems to be a versatile actor. After all, he also played Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But still, I feel bad for him because all the script has to offer is that he is stupid. In addition, the movie also implies that all male characters are either idiots or cowards. Did anybody proofread this script to realize the unfortunate implications it's bringing?

What about the climax? It seems epic enough, but the humor of the entire movie took me out of it so much that I stopped caring about everything that went on. I should have been excited to see some of these new gadgets being used like that one device that punches ghosts or blows them up. I wasn't even excited to see Slimer on the big screen when I should have. He should have been the funniest part so that I can get one laugh out of this unfunny movie, but I had no expression whatsoever.

The movie also goes for pandering to fans of the original by including some call-backs that are insultingly slapped in there. There are even cameos of some of the original cast members, this time as different characters, who all looked like they were there just to get their paycheck. It's making me think of a much more superior movie that I could be watching right now. This stuff makes it harder for this movie to stand on its own.

Are there things that I do like? Well, it does provide some good suspense, especially at the beginning. I also didn't think the CGI on the ghosts looked half-bad. They're obviously CGI, but it works to its advantage because they're supposed to look like things not from this world.

Other than those praises, I really didn't like Ghostbusters (2016). It's not because it's a reboot. It's not because the Ghostbusters are now women (that would be stupid and wrong of me). It's not because it "ruined my childhood." It was because it's annoying and unfunny like the rest of Paul Feig's movies. Remember, this is supposed to be a comedy. If a comedy cannot make me laugh, it fails.

I don't like this movie, but that doesn't mean people shouldn't watch it. If it does make people laugh, then I guess it's doing something right. That's right: I say...

THINK FOR YOURSELF

If there is one good thing that came out this movie, it's that it brought back the Ecto-Cooler juice. When I first tried it, I thought it was nothing special, but refreshing. Thank you, Ghostbusters (2016), for bringing back Ecto-Cooler.