Rating: B
I only watched Ghostbusters (1984) for the first time last year. I thought the characters were kinda boring and the story was a bit silly and didn’t really understand the hype. Going into Ghostbusters (2016), I had pretty low expectations and zero nostalgia for the original film.
But I was pleasantly surprised! Starting off strong with plenty of one-liners, and great banter between our initial trio of Ghostbusters Erin (Kristen Wiig), Abby (Melissa McCarthy) and Jillian (Kate McKinnon), I was laughing way more than I expected to from the get go. Later they’re joined by GB #4 Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones). They poke fun at all of the initial hate film trailer got. When critics are accusing the Ghostbusters of being “fake” it mirrors the reactions of people towards the trailer on the Internet and the ridiculous sexist and gross backlash it received. This was well handled in the film and shows how toxic Internet communities can be.
Chris Hemsworth is really good at playing a PA who is really not good at his job. He’s never put down for his failings as a secretary, and the Ghostbusters are always encouraging of him, which is really lovely. His attitude towards answering phones is exactly how I feel, so his character is pretty relatable.
Despite the laughs and cool characters, the overall story was pretty dull and the villain in this movie really, really, really sucks. He is basically just seriously cliché in every way. He has been bullied and called a freak his whole life, so obviously wants to destroy the world for whatever reason and does this by unleashing ghosts onto Manhattan.
Kate McKinnon was the star, she was just so damn hot and totally over the top, particularly in the ending fight scene she really goes for it, which was great, as the rest of the action scenes were seriously boring.