First Impressions: Ghostbusters 2016

I know I said First Impressions will be videos, and that's technically still true, you can see why if you look at yesterday's Podcast. But this is one that I felt needed more detail. So consider this more of a "Second Impression" for the movie, mainly because its one that I've been seeing a lot of "mixed reactions" to the movie (as gently as I can put it). Some like it for what it represents to them, granted I've seen that with a bit of projection onto it, some like the trailer because its a new Ghostbusters trailer for a new Ghostbusters movie, and props to them for it. However, about 325,000 people, at time of writing, aren't so on board with the movie. So where do I stand?

Honestly, not a fan of these poster designs, they're just generic and some parts are overkill for the"All girls team" idea

First, let's get this out of the way first. So early in fact that if I still get people using that use it as an excuse, I can conclusively say they didn't read this. My problems with the trailer don't stem from the all female main cast. To reiterate, I DON'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THE ALL GIRLS GHOSTBUSTERS! That is both a complaint, and something used to ignore any other critique that I've seen about this movie so far, so much so that I don't know which is worse. I've stated time and time again, I don't look at characters based on their gender, unless their personality makes their gender a core aspect to their design, where changing it makes the character weaker. Now that has been established, can we talk about this trailer in a civil, unbiased way?

The first major positive I can say for this is the backing music, I think its a very good remix of the Ghostbusters theme, iPod worthy for me. If someone can direct me to a version of that song just on its own, that would be great. Unfortunately though, that's about the most work going into the trailer itself. Baring in mind, trailers are normally a collection of heavily edited scenes from the movie, so bare that in mind when I say that the editing for the trailer itself... is awful. It shows off a lot of Ghostbusters aspects, to help make sure that the public knows its a Ghostbusters movie, but one thing it doesn't do is actually help distinguish the characters.

For the original movie, which I have enjoyed more on post review re-watches, I did enjoy the characters, they felt natural, and worked off each other well. While the comedic moments may not have aged well, and don't work in today's world, they still help make the four of them unique. I can't say the same thing for this team. Venkman, Stantz, Spengler and Zeddmore feel unique, with their personalities clashing just enough for them to work well with each other, leading to comedic and believable interactions. Based on this trailer, I cannot say the same thing. Leslie Jones' character, and yes I am going to be going off their actors names over their character names for reasons I'll explain in a moment, feels like she's trying to be a comedic foil for a team of comedic foils, which I don't think will work like Ernie Hudson acting like the every day New Yorker, only going along with it for the money. As for the actual scientists, Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wig and Kate McKinnon, none of them come off as interesting, mainly because so far they just blend together. I should stress, I don't want them to have the same personalities as the original team, as that would only make them worse for me. It would be a gender swap then which is the laziest form of writing for me, unless you're doing it as an experiment, or have an interesting idea for it and are willing to give more differences then "Its a girl version of him". I just wish that the four of them are more unique then this trailer is letting on, because I'm yet to see it.

Another issue I'm having with the way this is edited is "What are you trying to be?" I can't tell if this is a full reboot, or a continuation akin to Star Wars VII. The early parts of the trailer look to be a continuation, establishing that the original team did exist. But parts of this look to be a reboot, that the team didn't exist, and this new team has to build up from scratch, as established when they meet the ghost in the library, and them starting the business including making the new Ecto-1, and the ghost busting gear. Combined with the cameos of the original cast, or who are still alive to do it, and you've got more evidence to this being a continuation unless they're like Marvel's Stan Le cameos. I don't know, am I just thinking too hard on this, looking deeper into something that doesn't exist?

I both agree and disagree with the critiques of the CGI. I agree that the fluro blue ghosts is a bit much at times, I still think they look cool. They're animated really well and taking the blue away, they look really nice. I think the fluro could be dialed back a bit, maybe having some more shades of green, greys ect. I think they could look great with some more variety, but on analyzing the trailer closer, I think they are doing more variety in colours, with people focusing on the times where the editing slws down to show them off, which is when they're mostly bright blue. Aside from that, the rest of the movie looks great, a proper modernization of the original movie.

This trailer has not sold me on the movie, and right now the only reason I'd be seeing it is to review it for Halloween as I'm still working on deciding Halloween content for this year, so congrats, you get more Ghostbusters content. I just hope it doesn't become yearly as I don't want to keep going back to franchises every year unless there's enough of a difference. That being said, as the podcast said, I'm probably going to be covering Legends of Everfree if I get enough requests for it, aren't I? I'm actually curious though, what are your views of this trailer? Comment below on your thoughts so far, do you like it, hate it, or are in the middle. For now, come back tomorrow for The Dark Knight Rises, and no I have no plans for Thursday and Friday content.