Author Topic: Ghostbusters: How do you follow up the most charismatic cast in film?  (Read 4774 times)

commandercool

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With a really, really charismatic new cast and a movie that, unlike the original, has actual jokes to go with the weird quirky character bits.

So I just got back from seeing the Ghostbusters reboot. It's really, really good.

I would definitely rank the first Ghostbusters pretty highly among my favorite movies of all time, and honestly the reboot is a really solid successor to it. The fanservice may be a bit heavy, the action may fall a bit flat just a few times, the effects may not be as charming, but it's totally successful at basically everything it sets out to do. The cast is great, the many jokes are great, and the whole thing comes together just about as well as such a derivative work could hope to.

There is this weird thematic bit that threw me at first where
Spoiler:
the villain is a nerd who gets treated terribly by everyone for the whole movie, and his plot to create an army of ghosts is his retribution for a lifetime of being bullied. That made me feel a little weird at first, but everything fit together in the end. The main cast is also made up mostly of nerds who were bullied their whole lives, and they decided to make something of themselves rather than lashing out at other people. When the climax ultimately comes down to a socially awkward loser getting his ass kicked it makes a lot of sense since other socially awkward losers are the ones doing the ass kicking. And is his resemblance to a shrieking entitled Reddit poster a coincidence? Probably not entirely.

So if you were on the fence about whether to see it, I totally recommend that you do. If you go in looking to be mad I'm sure you can find plenty to get mad at, but if you're doing that then you've probably already decided you're not going to give it a ticket sale, so whatever, miss out on how funny Chris Hemsworth is.
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I nearly laughed so hard last Sunday when I went to see it with my aunt no seriously my sides hurted so badly until the end of the movie from laughing so hard.
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Your Everyday NEET

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After I watched Fantastic Four (2015) and heard about the controversy surrounding the new Ghostbusters, I make a promise to myself to watch that movie and see it if it's that bad. To my surprise, it's actually quite decent. I'm not calling very good though, very good rating is reserved for Civil War, The Dark Knight, The Force Awaken, etc.

I got a few complaint though: First, what's with the stupid men? We have clumsy Jason Statham in Spy, and now Chris Hemworth? Does the director actually hates men? Second, the CGI. Sure, the first few ghost are actually beautifully rendered and can be actually scary, but in the climax, the ghosts are very cartoonish. Last, all the juvenile adult humor. I don't like adult humor, I don't laugh with the fellow audience at the adult humors.

Other than that, the movie can be pretty entertaining. I laughed together with the audience, the ghosts are actually pretty scary before the girls became Ghostbusters, and the most important thing, all the 5 main characters were clearly enjoying themselves, especially Chris Hemsworth. You can clearly see he's having a blast with his role, especially at the end credit. Though Erin's actor seems to be the dullest.

I don't get why many Americans hate this movie. In IMDB, the reviews are all extremely negative. When I look at other site, the reviews are average to positive.

Suwako Moriya

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I don't get why many Americans hate this movie.

America hates women. Even ignoring the quality of the movie (I've heard mixed reviews), this movie was never going to see anything but negative backlash from the American interwebs solely due to its casting choice.
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Tengukami

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America hates women. Even ignoring the quality of the movie (I've heard mixed reviews), this movie was never going to see anything but negative backlash from the American interwebs solely due to its casting choice.

Yup, as we saw in the run-up to and in the opening days of Fury Road. But minorities are also subject to the same hysteria. Just mention the idea of a black James Bond and watch as people lose their shit.

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N-Forza

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Given the popularity of the Alien series and other highly praised movies with women in lead roles, that strikes me as slightly inaccurate (not to mention the backlash over Mad Max wasn't anywhere near as vicious from what I saw). I mean, sure, you're always going to have your he-man woman haters deriding stuff like this, but I think there was a decent amount of people who genuinely dismissed it as a halfhearted, cash-grab reboot completely irrespective of the gender of the main cast (like AVGN). They got unfairly accused of being misogynistic, and actual misogynists saw that and went "I told you so" and it all snowballed out of control. Because what is the internet for if not making mountains out of molehills?

I am looking forward to seeing the reception when it opens in Japan.

commandercool

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Yeah there's definitely the extremely weak trailer. Not that extremely weak trailers are uncommon, but people definitely latched onto this one. Between that, nostalgia rage, and at least some definite misogyny this movie has a hell of an uphill battle.
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Tengukami

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Given the popularity of the Alien series and other highly praised movies with women in lead roles, that strikes me as slightly inaccurate

Seriously? I think it takes a special kind of selective reasoning to make a contention like that. Praise for movies with female leads in some cases doesn't make the misogynist backlash elsewhere any less real.

But maybe we're just looking at different parts of the internet or something.

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Fetch()tirade

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Judging by the poor trailer, the director's history, and the trend of questionable reboots/remakes (bonus rage for including LGBT, minorities, and/or women in leading roles), people were expecting it to be a cringe-worthy man-hate parade.

But from what I've heard (haven't seen it since I'm not interested), it was just a normal summer movie.

Given the popularity of the Alien series and other highly praised movies with women in lead roles, that strikes me as slightly inaccurate
No it doesn't. Why? Because Alien was remembered because of H.R. Giger's awesome monster designs and the creepy atmosphere. Not because of the strong female character.
They got unfairly accused of being misogynistic,
In AVGN's case? Not really, people just thought he was a whinny fanboy who jumped ship on rather it would suck or not based on the crappy trailer. Few people accused him of actually being sexist.
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Amraphenson

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Re: Ghostbusters: How do you follow up the most charismatic cast in film?
« Reply #10 on: July 27, 2016, 09:01:39 PM »
Given the popularity of the Alien series and other highly praised movies with women in lead roles, that strikes me as slightly inaccurate (not to mention the backlash over Mad Max wasn't anywhere near as vicious from what I saw). I mean, sure, you're always going to have your he-man woman haters deriding stuff like this, but I think there was a decent amount of people who genuinely dismissed it as a halfhearted, cash-grab reboot completely irrespective of the gender of the main cast (like AVGN). They got unfairly accused of being misogynistic, and actual misogynists saw that and went "I told you so" and it all snowballed out of control. Because what is the internet for if not making mountains out of molehills?

I am looking forward to seeing the reception when it opens in Japan.

Ripley and a majority of other female lead roles you're referring to get the pass because they were eye candy. I mean, how else do we explain Sigourney Weaver's gratuitous panty clad ass? This Ghostbuster's movie had people screaming 'oh my god look at these sjw tumblrinas' when they looked at the cast.
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Re: Ghostbusters: How do you follow up the most charismatic cast in film?
« Reply #11 on: July 27, 2016, 10:42:07 PM »
I imagine a large chunk of the reason the women were a thing is because it wasn't just a movie with women, it was a reboot where all the lead men had been replaced by women. People aren't gonna just yell at every movie starring females, of course.

In any case, I saw it, and had a pretty awesome time. <3 Great movie. I'd like to see it again sometime.
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N-Forza

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Re: Ghostbusters: How do you follow up the most charismatic cast in film?
« Reply #12 on: July 28, 2016, 01:23:48 PM »
I'll admit, I'm not much of a movie buff so I couldn't think of any better examples than Alien, so that was on me. I was mostly reacting to "America hates women". I knew it was hyperbole, but I had a rough day and that inexplicably set me off so I had to vent. My bad.

Suwako Moriya

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Re: Ghostbusters: How do you follow up the most charismatic cast in film?
« Reply #13 on: July 28, 2016, 06:00:06 PM »
No worries, and sorry for setting you off like that. There are admittedly many more factors than just that one, but I do pretty firmly believe the American internet backlash would have been noticeably less if the cast had been mostly/all men, even if none of the original actors reprised their roles.
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