It looks like those negative pre-release comments about the film may have taken a toll. The all-female reboot took second place at the box office behind The Secret Life of Pets (which is in its second week).
Did anyone here see it this weekend? Any wild and unfounded theories you want to throw out? Are the Hollywood bean counters right and female-led movies just don’t gross as much money? Or were audiences just not willing to put any money down to see a reboot of a beloved classic? Or a little of both?
Comic Book Girl 19 has an interesting take on the film:
A brilliant take on the whole kerfuffle.
There might be some truth to what she’s saying — I obviously have no idea.
I don’t agree with her that Ghostbusters was horrible, though. In fact, I disagree with almost every point she complained about, but that’s me. :-\
When I first saw the trailer, I was really disappointed. It did not look good. But I think the movie was really fun and entertaining.
Its not the female cast that bothered me as much as it was a complete reboot.
I would have loved the Ghostbusters to be the daughters of the original cast, that would have been really cool.
I am not a huge fan of full reboots (i.e. there is only one Footloose movie and don’t even get me started on Point Break….).
I’m about done with Hollywood and reboots. There’s so much new stuff coming out in the genre that’s crying out for the big screen, and yet all they seem to want to do is reboots and established franchises – I can understand the low risk, (probably) guaranteed profits angle, but it’s awfully short term thinking. At this point, I’m done with all of them at the cinema unless they get absolutely stunning reviews from paying audience members, otherwise they can wait until I can see them on a streaming service or borrow the disc. Not much of a protest for original content, but it’s the best I can do…
We enjoyed it, laughed frequently and hard, and were very entertained.
I went in not making comparisons to the original. I think that helped a lot, although the constant references to the original made that hard.
I liked a lot of things about the show and am honestly looking forward to seeing it again. I thought the effects were great, the character motivations were really interesting (and I liked that they actually wanted to do this to help people not just to make money, as in the original), and the comedy was very fun. No, it wasn’t the same kind of comedy as the original, and no I didn’t enjoy the comedy as much as the original, but the action was far more entertaining and the characters actually had some backstory.
At the same time, Feig & Co. were way to obvious with all the Chekhovs’ devices flying around, which was lazy writing, even if some of them fed into funny gags.
Personally, I’m fine with reboots when they actually make a good movie. This I will count as a success, but that’s just my opinion. I won’t get started on the failures — I have better things to do. ;-)
The one movie I really wish they’d reboot is Dreamscape. With today’s technology and a decent, updated script, that could be awesome and really feed into today’s state of paranoia and fear.
This is one of those movies that I’d never have watched in the theatre unless it got massive positive reviews from regular people. You know, like when the first Iron Man came out. No way was I going to waste my time and money.
When I heard “Ghostbusters Reboot” I pretty much said “Count me out.” When I heard “All-Female Ghostbusters Reboot” it didn’t really affect my opinion, even when it was announced that some of the leads are actresses I know are funny and talented. It just doesn’t matter; I have no interest in a Ghostbusters reboot.
I’m not surprised it turned into Misogynism v Feminism: Dawn of Nonsense. The sad thing is that it’ll make honest reviews of this thing incredibly hard to find. I’ve already read/heard a lot of reviews that start with an apology and/or justification. “I love Melissa McCarthy, but…” or “I don’t have anything against an all-female lead, but…”
Worse yet, I’ve heard at least one established, respected (local) movie reviewer trip all over himself trying not to say a single negative thing about it, describing the movie as mediocre (“but that’s ok!”) at every step, constantly contradicting himself (“It has nothing to do with the original. All the original cast have cameos and there are lots of homages to the original!”) and giving it 4.5/5 “ticket stubs”.
I have no doubt the movie is entertaining in a “Well that killed 2 hours” kind of way. But I still remember my dad taking me to the theatre to see the original Ghostbusters. I very much doubt this is the kind of movie you remember 30 years later.