March 29, 2024

I’ll say this up front. I was never the biggest fan of Ghostbusters. To me, it’s a mildly entertaining comedy film with a few good jokes and an interesting theme. As you may know, Ghostbusters is getting a reboot and this news has been less than well received. The trailer was one of the most disliked videos on YouTube in history. Among accusations of sexism and responses to those accusations, a new trailer popped up recently and is getting the same treatment from fans. Out of approximately 2 million views, the new trailer already has 89,506 dislikes. Compare that to the meager 18,984 likes.

We have been inundated with reboots of classics in the last few years, and while some of them are great and do the original films justice (Jurassic World for example), most fail to meet expectations. They amount to nothing more than lame and lazy money grabs, relying on the hope that die-hard fans will enjoy anything as long as it shares a title with the original. Ghostbusters,  instead of being the exception, is the rule. Don’t get me wrong. Going with an all female lead cast was a bold decision and I always appreciate that kind of risk taking when it comes to making movies. That still can’t save either trailer from showing this film’s glaring faults. Jokes that fall flat, Chris Hemsworth for some inexplicable reason, generic characters, terrible CGI effects, and even slapstick that manages to not be funny. It look like sloppily thrown together piece with very little thought and effort put behind its production. My opinion is solidified by the fact that the director of the film, Paul Feig, decided to ignore facts by stating “Every community has bullies who make up a very small minority of the community as a whole. Bullies scream the loudest and seem to get the most attention. But, they are simply bullies who in no way represent the vast majority of wonderful, thoughtful people who make up our geek community.”

Feig, and those on his side are completely ignorant of the tens of thousands of dislikes both trailers received. This isn’t a minority of angry geeks being bullies and misogynists, hunting the internet for something to hate on. The cold, hard data speaks for itself. Ghostbusters failed before it even started and the producers, director, and supporters of this abomination really have no one to blame but themselves. Watch both trailers and form your own opinions. I have a feeling the majority of them won’t be in favor of going to see Ghostbusters when it launches later this year.

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