‘GHOSTBUSTERS’ Fans Would Never Have Been Happy

Author’s Note: To hear the audio version of this editorial, check out the MOST RECENT EPISODE OF LOS FANBOYS, where you can also hear the discussion that followed this monologue. You can also check it out directly below:

On March 3rd, Sony launched the first official trailer for the all-female reboot of GHOSTBUSTERS.

This is a film that’s been barraged, berated, and blown apart by the internet ever since it was announced. Before the cast was in place. Before the film even had a director, it’s been chastised as perhaps the biggest blasphemy in cinema history by some, and a product of today’s ugly and liberal culture.

I’m not even going to get into the whole gender issue. That’s an argument I JUST won’t win, no matter how hard I try. But on top of that, I almost feel like that isn’t quite the issue at this point in the game. With every little bit of information that’s come out since the film idea was brought to light by the studio, it has faced an incessant outpouring of hate from the online community. When the first official image dropped, here are a couple comments that were dropped along with it.

“ho-lee shit! What kind of fakery is that? To quote the late great clarence boddicker. Bitches Leave,”

“Social Justice Warriorbusters – Who you gonna call? NOT YOU!”

And mind you this is just of an image where the lead women are just standing there.

Again, I’m not going to harp on the whole gender issue, but from the reactions heard round the internet, it’s very clear that this is a film that the fan community has wanted to hate from the very onset. This is the internet at its most sexist, most hateful, and most close-minded form. Claims of “ruined childhoods” are likely to blame for this outpour of annoying bickering, but I have a secret to share with you. The original GHOSTBUSTERS wasn’t that good.

I know it’s hard to hear, but it’s true. Is it a good movie? Yes. It’s entertaining. Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd are a lot of fun, but Harold Ramis is woefully underutilized, and don’t even get me started with Ernie Hudson. The first half of the film is pretty good, but once the actual plot kicks in, it kinda fails to live up to the promise of its premise.  I’m not saying the film is bad. It’s a fun romp, but were it not for most fans having seen it at a very impressionable age, I don’t believe it would be classic it is today. Is it bad that people adore this movie? No. Absolutely not. we all have our films that latch onto at a young age and love unconditionally. That’s human nature.

The original GHOSTBUSTERS is apparently too beloved for fans to think clearly.

The original GHOSTBUSTERS is apparently too beloved for fans to think clearly.

What’s terrible here is the complete and utter unwillingness for fans to lift up their nostalgia goggles and realize that the film they love so much may not have been the best picture in the world. I’m sorry. It just wasn’t. 

But that didn’t stop fans from immediately batting down the idea of an all-female reboot to begin with, and based on the response to the recently-released trailer, I get the impression that the fan community has been WAITING to pounce on this one. On YouTube so far, the trailer has received over 20 million views, and of the over 500,000-some ratings, over 350,000 have been thumbs down. That’s more than two-thirds of the viewers giving negative response.

I’ll be the first to admit, this trailer wasn’t the greatest in the world. Admittedly, those who love the original film may not like what they’re seeing. Where the first film was mostly deadpan–with the exception of Rick Moranis’ character–this one is more over-the-top in its nature. I can get why some people don’t necessarily like it.

But does it deserve the amount of hate it’s received? Hell no. Not by a longshot. Does it deserve 99% likes? No. As I’ve mentioned before, the trailer wasn’t the greatest. But this, very clearly, a disproportional amount of hate.

I’ll go ahead and cut to the chase. This is a movie was doomed to fail from the start. It could have been the best movie in the world, had the best trailerin the world, and the best marketing campaign, and I argue that chances are it still would have failed. Sadly, this goes to show the annoying mob mentality the internet has. The unwillingness to accept anything when judgment has already been cast, and let me tell you, judgment was cast on this film by most before a single reel of film was shot. Hell, before any creative decisions were made, fans had decided they would hate this movie. It’s an infuriating look at how bullheaded the internet can be.

I know this rant has been more about the online community than it’s been about the trailer itself, but I believe the issue is more an issue with the fan base than it is with the trailer. I can’t help but feel this movie hasn’t been given, and will never be given, a fair bit of judgment from the internet, who have sworn it off upon announcement.

Some of you may disagree, saying “no, I was making a judgment based on the shitty trailer,” and that’s fine. I can’t argue that this is a flawless trailer. But I couldn’t count the number of YouTube comments that stated something along the lines of “I called it from the very beginning! This movie’s gonna fail!”

People love to be right. People love to be seen as soothsayers, and curators of good taste. They wanna be that guy who predicted from the offset that something was amazing or garbage. So no matter how good this trailer was, there would’ve been a large group claiming it was complete bile because people HATE being wrong. It is this mindset that has inflamed me completely. Never before I have I wanted a movie to be amazing.

SPY was a film that turned out to be one of my favorites of last year.

SPY was a film that turned out to be one of my favorites of last year.

Now, who knows? 

The film may be a complete train wreck, and those claiming as such could ultimately be right. But I’m a fan of the cast, I’m a fan of the director Paul Feig, who exceeded expectations with BRIDESMAIDS, and exceeded them yet again with SPY. He’s done nothing in his career to make me think he’d botch this one. Yes, I’m a bit worried to see Melissa McCarthy’s shtick return, but on the whole, I’m willing to give this film a shot. Does this trailer fill me with confidence? No. It’s not great. It has its moments, it has a fun tone, but I wouldn’t call it strong.

The difference here is the amount of baggage that comes with this trailer, and the inability for fans on the internet to see through the fog of their nostalgia goggles.

What do you think? Has this film been unfairly judged? This is obviously a very heated discussion, and I very much expect to be flamed down below. But all the same, we want to hear what you have to say. Let us know your thoughts in the comments down below!

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