* Spoiler Alert
Anyone is capable of being a Ghostbuster, and no degree is needed — filmmakers included. While I would have liked a continuation with the founding team, this rebooted product helmed by Paul Feig is fine. It succeeded at being very entertaining. For those craving the original team, I recommend Ghostbusters: The Videogame (available for the PS3, Xbox and PC) where Dan Aykroyd and team helped fashion the narrative. From that non-theatrical product, the idea of how to continue as a business is put forth: training a new generation is required or franchising out.
I read the many pitches to bring the original team back, but with all the waffling going on, ultimately (as Bruce Boxleitner said to me about TRON 3 during Fan Expo Vancouver 2014) it is up to the studio executives if they really want it or not. Ivan Reitman could not imagine directing another Ghostbusters movie after Harold Ramis’ passing. He gave creative control back to the studio. They were allowed to do whatever they wanted. Violet Ramis Stiel affirmed this fact in her essay for SplitSider. She further added, “There can be no Ghostbusters without my dad! They blew it by waiting too long and now it can never happen. At the moment, that felt right…
“This community grew out of the seed of the original films but has taken on a life of its own far beyond anything the creators could have imagined, and it’s beautiful.
“So let’s take a page out of the Ghostheads’ book and not restrict the Ghostbusters universe from extending as far and wide as it possibly can. Let’s be generous and make room for all of the visions and interpretations of what Ghostbusters can be. I still get annoyed when I see blond cartoon Egon, but who cares?! It’s a 20-year-old cartoon! The new movie is not the original and it’s not trying to be. Give it a chance and go see it!”
I was moved by Stiel’s words and what I offer is a look at the material Paul Feig is putting into the lore than to recycle most of the arguments already heard before.
This writer/director deserves props for creating worthwhile 3D that pops out of the IMAX screen. I recommend checking with the theatre if they are matting (letterboxing) their presentation or not before going to a specific location. The special effects work is excellent. It’s not lazy at all. The fact he was deploying as many practical effects as possible is wonderful and when half the ghouls look like they came from Jim Henson’s Creature Shop (like the demon during the concert setpiece), there was an added familiarity to this product. He wanted to recreate moments from the 80’s and not all of them have to be from the original film. The improved hazy look of the spectres recalls the look some spirits had in the movie Poltergeist and Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the effects people improved upon it. The way the film is matted to have the phantoms and photon beams appear outside of the frame is very welcome. I do not recall any other movie employing this technique and all I have to say is it’s about bloody time!
The hauntings the Ghostbusters team are familiar to those who know the two films very well. While the first spectre is a reimagining of the Library Ghost and the spooky tension is developed much the same way, the “big boo” moment is not necessarily a carbon copy. A back story was offered, and that was not done before.
Unlike the previous film, where Ivo Shandor built a high-rise complex to concentrate energies from the cosmos to bring deadly gods to this planet, the villain in this movie, Rowan North (Neil Casey) is out to charge the ley lines (a specific pattern of land said to contain mystic energy) to bring forth the power to break open the barrier between the ghost world and the living. That’s where Patty Tolan’s (Leslie Jones) historical knowledge of the city comes in handy. She has a lot of time on her hands as a subway clerk. With everyone ignoring her, she can read history books. In what she knows helps explain why Rowan is targeting certain areas of the city. She even knows what took place at specific locations even before Manhattan was built. My favourite is at what happened at the spot where Hotel Mercado lays now. Some can say who needs Gettysburg when you have Mercado! I suspect there are shades of Poltergeist lore snuck into this movie, especially with how the Other Side looks. Just how they deal with Rowan is only a beginning, if everything Patty knows ties into a greater conspiracy. She is the only person concerned with the fourth cataclysm, whatever that may be.
Tolan’s knowledge is exemplary and that’s why she’s vital to the team. However loud-mouthed and stereotypical African-American she is in manners, that’s easy to tune out. She even helps explain why the second ghost the three spirit seekers – Dr Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Dr Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and Dr Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) – is there. The entity is a prisoner who was electrocuted; the way he floats about while the girls are trying to get answers to why it is there. This individual reminded me of how the Scoleri Brothers buzzed about from the second film. They were sentenced to electrocution and so was this second encounter.
All hell is not ready to break loose until Rowan fully enters into the narrative. He’s a certified loon going on about the end of days and wanting to break the veil between the living and the dead. There’s a bit of back story revealing how he’s been bullied, often left alone as a shade of his former self, and the team try to say to him life is not that bad. He needs to learn how to embrace living for himself than seeking vengeance. Cinema will always treat the supernatural as a source for evil. In real life, it’s not to be feared. However, there’s no turning back for this cardboard villain who’s a textbook psycho. As for how he’s learned quantum physics to make a gate to the other side, that’s a detail forgiven in lieu of keeping this film short.
The performances by these comediennes and the laughs they offer are hit and miss. The standout is with Gilbert at the later part of the film when she gets to channel Louis Tully fully freaked out in a scene many Ghostbusters fans will be familiar with. Holtzmann — most likely named in honour of Hans Holzer (a well-respected real life paranormal investigator) — was too spaced out to really be a highlight of the film. She’s flying at a different cosmic stream and there’s even a moment in the film where Patty acknowledges her as just a loon.
In the story that matters, the drama between Erin and Abbey is at the crux of this film and while they seem to never see eye to eye, their relationship is important. Feig’s screenplay shines when these two offer a meaningful back story about how they have become ostracised from high school and helped each other out. More of that drama would have helped make this film stand out more than the nostalgia trips.
This film nicely serves its purpose of being breezy popcorn entertainment. It does not succeed anymore. It will most likely go down in history as the most criticized by the entire fandom. For me, the film did not offer anything new and the end credit saying this film is “based on Ghostbusters” indicates that it was fully intended to borrow moments from the originals. I’m always curious about how Hollywood portrays this fringe hobby of ghost busting (I rather use the term paranormal investigation, since busting means destruction in some form), and am glad it took a pointed stab at the television programs out there. I would have truly laughed if this film included a who’s who of the paranormal reality shows. That in-joke would have had me busting a gut.
While this film got a few concepts about the lore wrong, the presentation did not destroy my world. The proper term for ghostly voices recorded on tape is electronic (not electro) voice phenomena and I have to ask how a certain taxi driver knew the class and type of entity he refuses to meet up with again? I’m guessing there’s more than meets the eye with that character.
Also, I’m not surprised Tobin’s Spirit Guide is replaced with a new textbook, Ghosts from Our Past: Both Literally and Figuratively: The Study of the Paranormal
Anyone interested in looking at the real lore is best advised to read the material published by Brad and Sherry Steiger. Their latest work, Real Visitors, Voices from Beyond, and Parallel Dimensions, is a better examination of the spirit world and it is written by real-life paranormal investigators who have investigated supernatural goings on since the 60’s.
3 Ghosts out of 5