---
My Feelings on the Extended Edition of Ghostbusters (2016)
 |
| Property of BLT Communications, LLC |
"They witness a ghost, and then decide to witness ghosts professionally."
The plot of this movie, much like my recollection of it,
started strong, was well paced, but then fizzled out into something else
entirely. Here we go:
Erin (Kristen Wiig) is a college/high-school professor/teacher
fighting for tenure. She has to
reconnect with her old friend, Abby (Melissa McCarthy), after some spookers
appear in Manhattan. This makes sense
because Abby and Erin wrote about said spookers in college, or the 80’s. I’m not sure how old these characters are
supposed to be, actually. Abby is a
scientist/professor/teacher at another place, where Holtzman (Kate McKinnon), her
apprentice/sidekick/girlfriend/weapons expert, is introduced. At this point it had started snowing
outside. Or, rather, the snow, which had
already been falling, began to stick.
They witness a ghost, and then decide to witness ghosts
professionally, wherein Patty is introduced because she also witnessed a ghost
elsewhere by herself and wanted to be around some other people. Then there is this weird dude that is trying
to bring ghosts/demons to the real world from the ghost dimension for some
reason. He mentions being bullied a lot,
but he’s an adult with weird sideburns so it seems fair. Then some ghosts appear, they do some
shenanigans, more ghosts come from hell or the ghost dimension or
something… Basically, once these
characters are established, that’s about as far as the movie held my attention. There’s a big fight at the end, but it’s not
memorable. I didn't realize the Extended Edition added 15 years to the running time.
Honestly, the development of the four mains as a group is
done really well. But, individually, it
leaves a lot to be desired. Erin is the
only one with an actual backstory. We
see her with aspirations to get tenure and advance in her school of an
indiscernible level of education, and she has a boyfriend-thing that has some
funny moments. She is a good
character. Abby’s only backstory is that
she was Erin’s friend growing up, and there is a really funny scene they share
reminiscing on a project they did on the paranormal (“Protect the Barrier”) in
middle school, but that’s about it.
Holtzman and Patty are basically caricatures. Patty isn’t the stereotype everyone makes her
out to be; She at least has a job and some specific character quirks that make
her more compelling than Holtzman.
Holtzman seems to be there to just make weird faces and retorts in odd
situations. I like these comedians a
lot, I like Kate McKinnon a lot, but she just didn’t seem to get that much to
work with here.
Chris Hemsworth is also in this movie, but aside from a few
funny moments near the end of the film, he’s just a dumb/handsome dude who gets
in the way.
The Cameos in this movie were… odd. Bill Murray’s scenes were the most involved,
even though he was the most against a third Ghostbusters film. Dan Aykroyd was the most fervent on making this
movie and his appearance as a grumpy cabbie was for less than a minute, and
wasn’t even funny. Sigourney Weaver was
Holtzman’s mentor or something; it was gratuitous. Well, it has to be gratuitous, that’s the
point of a cameo. Ernie Hudson appears
as Patty’s uncle, which is cool. Annie
Potts had the best cameo referencing her old role: she was a desk clerk at a
hotel; so basically, she was on the phone the entire time she was on camera,
just like in the original. No Rick
Moranis though, which is unfortunate, but I get it.
The Fall Out Boy Ghostbusters song is actually terrible.
This movie has inconsistent special effects. At first everything looked fine. The ghosts had an odd neon glow; like they
were being lit by poorly diffused prop lights, but looked fine otherwise. Things got worse when this strange
demon/monster/zit appeared. This thing
looked like the Pokémon Reuniclus was given polygons from 1997 then grafted
onto the shoulder blade of an angry old lady.
I have a very vivid memory of this thing, because it was startlingly out
of place. I wish I had bought a scraper
for my windshield before it got covered in snow, but I’m glad I put up my
wipers.
There were some cool 3D effects here and there. The entire movie was presented in 2.4
letterbox, but has matte bars covering the 1.55 it was shot in. I just looked that up, but basically that
means there are black bars on the top and bottom of the screen during this
movie. When something paranormal/ghost-like
happened, things would “pop” above these black bars, which was pretty cool. I
can’t say I’ve seen that in a movie before, but I know it’s been done. My problem was its inconsistency. One monster would face the camera, and these
black bars would cut off the top of its head and the bottom of its legs, then,
seemingly at random, different ghosts and specters would jump in front of these
bars or remain behind them. I’m telling
you: I wasn’t expecting it to snow this much.
Furthermore, near the end of the movie the frame goes full screen when
we see the “ghost dimension,” which is pretty cool in theory, but in execution
it was kind of lame. It was just an odd
choice, and I’m not sure how else to talk about it.
I really don’t get the hate of this movie. It’s not bad, just mediocre. It’s fitting I watched it now, considering
it’s a typical January quality comedy they released in October. I guess this was so the ghosties would be out
at the appropriate times. Seriously, if
you ignore the history of the original Ghostbusters and see this as its own
piece of history; i.e. a modern movie made with all female leads in a genre dominated by dudes, then you might like it. Or if you're a young person, aka the audience for this movie, this might trigger your to watch the superior 1984 film of the same name. But I warn you: they replace all of the women
with dudes.
Ultimately: I’m snowed in, I’m off work, This movie was alright.
---
-Jacob
---
-Jacob
