Ghostbusters (2016) Movie Review

Ghostbusters (sometimes known as Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) is a 2016 comedy horror movie directed and co-written by Paul Feig, with help from screenwriter Katie Dippold. It stars comedy actresses from TV and movies that were popular at the time like Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon and MCU star Chris Hemsworth. The film came after a long and drawn-out attempt, or several attempts, to make a third Ghostbusters movie that went basically nowhere. So it was met with skepticism when a brand new twist was implemented: an all female cast. The well-known controversy began, which for a lot of people marked the beginning of the so-called "culture war" on a major scale than before as the release of the trailer brought up some rather awkward and bewildering conversations online, something that spilled to the mainstream media.

The film follows Doctor Erin Gilbert, a former scientist interested in the supernatural but now turned University professor, reunites with her old friend Doctor Abby Yates, her partner in paranormal investigation who had a fall out with Erin after she disavowed her unorthodox line of work to be more conventional and rational. Abby now works with physicist Jillian "Holtz" Holtzmann on her projects and wants to republish the old book she co-authored with Erin, who is convinced by Abby to investigate a real paranormal occurrence, reigniting their love for ghost-hunting and friendship. Transportation worker Patty Tolan joins the team as well as their business is put on the media spotlight. Meanwhile, a haunting menace has nefarious plans for New York.

It's been ten years since this reboot or requel (?) of the Ghostbusters franchise was released and became a notoriously hated movie among geeks and internet users. The controversy the trailer ignited accompanied it to its very release date. I remember being on IMDB on thursday and as soon as ratings became available people started giving it low scores, they were review-bombing it before even getting a chance to see it. I became uninterested in the whole thing and waited until family members watched it when it was released on home video. My thoughts back then? It was mediocre and mostly a mixed bag. My opinion now? Not that different. I have a less harsh attitude towards it but I still think it has the flaws many comedies suffered from back then and even today.

Without comparing it to the first movie (a film I am not crazy about to begin with), I can say that the comedy itself seems to fall into the mechanically quirky improv style comedians applied to just about every piece of media they did after Judd Apatow movies got popular. A lot of emphasis is put on being weird, odd characters trying to act crazy or behaving in unorthodox ways but there's very little contrast when these things happen, every character seems to be peculiar, armed with quips, and a lot of the dialogue seems to be interchangeable. The improv aspect is overdone as some scenes are extended slightly longer than they should have been or for way too long. This breaks any controlled pace the film could have had and instead turns it into a brief riffing session that goes out of rails just enough to throw off the timing a lot of the time. The length is also way too excessive for a comedy, of any kind. 

I will also say that while there's nothing wrong with crass humor the way some mainstream movies used it was either too tame or just baffling, for a cheap laugh without much else going on. However, in this movie I found it to be quite decently implemented. I remembered it being much less effective in my first watch years ago, but now I think the delivery was on point sometimes. Besides, this was at the time when more risky comedies with women were being done in Hollywood and I assume it was part of the backlash to some degree.

When it comes to the characters I think they all work fairly well, they do take on the roles the original team had but they aren't just imitations of the original characters, the girls have different personalities even if their narrative and practical roles are somewhat similar. The continuity with the franchise doesn't bother me either so I never had a problem with its place in the timeline and I thought the cameos were alright as well. The special effects do look relatively plastic and completely lack any weight or interesting art direction even if they are technically well done when it comes to CGI. The sludge effects, the textures and the lighting they apply to the ghosts are just not quite there, they look stale and too cartoony to achieve the contrast the first film had, like a forgettable version of the monsters from Scooby Doo 2. It goes for a full-on lite cartoon tone. I guess that's not out of place for a comedy but a lot of potential is lost by defanging the horror elements.

Overall, It's a heavily flawed movie that can be sort of a guilty pleasure if you wanna turn your brain off and just put it on the background for an alright time. It's light entertainment without much else going for it, but it has enough moments of laughter that work to be worth one watch if you are curious. 

Danny Phantom S2E1: Memory Blank and the Trinity of Doom

For this halloween season we can take a look at a very interesting Danny Phantom episode. This second season opener deals with Sam, the shows token goth sidekick girl, having issues with her friend, Danny (the show's main character) and Tucker (the nerdy helper of the hero), who are invited to a party by the popular chick in school instead of accompanying Sam to see a movie she's been eagerly waiting for: Trinity of Doom. 

The movie within the show is actually the most interesting part. The poster shows three female versions of horror and science fiction icons: Femalien (Nothing to do with the softcore movie of the same name, this is a Predator parody), Terminatra (a woman terminator) and Nightmerica (a female counterpart of Freddy Krueger). Now, this is a movie I would watch, and by the way Sam describes it, it's sure to be a riot. Imagine a big budget movie with three ass-kicking female action ladies and monsters in an adrenaline fueled rollercoaster. It would have been beautiful to see that.

 Femalien

Terminatra

Nightmerica

With a setting like that, one would think by the title card and scenario that it would deal with the characters fighting against these monster women, but instead the plot takes a more character driven focus. It's about Sam accidentally wishing that Danny and Tucker never knew her in the first place (because she's so angry at them for being selfish) and having to gain their trust once their memory has been wiped by the ghost genie named Desiree, who serves as the episode's real antagonist. 

The monster ladies are only there for a couple of action scenes and they aren't properly implemented, they are mostly irrelevant, used as stock enemies.

Sam in an improvised ghosthunting outfit.

It's a fun half-hour overall, and it's nice to see an episode that features Sam saving the day with both her wit and skills. There's also some seeds of the eventual shipping that would take place. I just kind of wish they did more with the creature ladies, because a premise like that is too good to be wasted.

Watch all of their scenes here: