Walking into a
review of this movie is basically sticking my foot in a shark tank.
There’s no opinion I can express that won’t make someone mad.
So, saying I like the movie, I await the misogynists tracking me down
That said: Chris
Hemsworth character is the weakest part of this movie. This isn’t
because Hemsworth is a bad actor, or because the film is bashing men.
Rather, it’s because Kevin is so stupid and useless that the
decision to continue employing him completely killed my suspension of
disbelief. He went above and beyond the standard “stupid secretary
who doesn’t care” into utter absurdity. This even continues
after Patty (Leslie Jones) points out that she has a cousin who is at
least marginally competent, and would work for less. I jumped for
joy when Kevin was possessed, and I could finally see Hemsworth being
charismatic and funny.
That out of the way,
however, this is probably about as good as you’re ever going to get
remaking a classic film. Yes, there are references to the original,
but for the most part the movie is doing its own thing. Story-wise,
I suspect some aspects of the canceled Ghostbuster 3 scripts
may have been used. The villain, while underdeveloped, feels like
something of a logical follow-up to Gozer (I’ll discuss this more
when I do a regular review of the film someday). Plot-wise this
movie is arguably less of a rehash of the original than Ghostbusters
2.
The characters,
however, are where this movie really shines. For the most part, none
of these characters are direct translations of the original team, but
they all feel fleshed out and developed to one degree or another.
Kate McKinnon gets the fewest character moments, but makes up for it
by being awesome to watch. More significantly, they manage to make
each character believably smart without defining them exclusively by
their intelligence, or failing to distinguish them.
The trailers did a
poor job of representing this film, but I’m honestly not sure how I
would have done it differently. This isn’t a film that’s easily
summed up in clips a few seconds long, because much of the humor does
come from establishing the characters and watching them interact.
Yes, there’s childish humor, but in the context of the movie we can
tell that it’s the characters, rather than the writers, who are
childish.
Is it as good as the
original? No, not really. But it isn’t trying to be compared to
the original. It’s trying to be a new film about the concept of
busting ghosts. As that film, it works.
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