Ghostbusting (heavy spoilers!)
Nov. 21st, 2021 11:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
migmitWell, I finally watched the new Ghostbusters movie. Here are my thoughts.
Overall — it's not bad. It surely isn't a great movie, but it's pretty enjoyable. The kids are doing a decent job (at least), their mom is OK, Paul Rudd is pretty good. There are a few mistakes here and there — like, for example, Rudd's character saying "science is never safe, if you want safe, go for geometry" — dude, you know that geometry is science, right? And another, when he says that the town they are in is "nowhere near a tectonic plate" — um, everything on Earth is very near a tectonic plate. Both can be viewed as character errors, and even as such they might just be tongue slips, but it shows that the script can use a little bit of polishing. Those are minor things, however, and if you don't expect greatness — it's easy to enjoy this thing.
...until we come to the ending.
Here is where heavy spoilers come in. You've been warned. Twice.
So, the main characters have a plan to, essentially, save the world. Good. That plan goes wrong — pretty common for plans in movies. That's fine. And then the cavalry arrives. And that cavalry is the original Ghostbusters.
Their arrival achieved three things simultaneously. First of all, it killed the mood. Here we are, having a really tense moment, everybody freaking out — and then those guys arrive with the look on their faces that says "we're here, the movie's cool now". It's clear that the movie creators were counting on a warm feeling it should induce in the fans — but that warm feeling itself is something that doesn't mix well with the tension.
Secondly, it robbed the main characters from their victory. Sure, they do something, but it all looks — and is treated in the movie — as if they are now holding a gun while the real hero ties his shoelaces.
And thirdly, it showed that the movie creators did not believe in their own creation and thought they needed heavy hitters. Which is really a shame, since everything before it kinda stands on its own. As I said before, the kids are good, actress that plays Phoebe — Mckenna Grace — is sometimes hilarious with her jokes that never land, but the movie actually expects them to not land and makes fun of that (this is a stark contrast with Bill Murray's behaviour at the end, when he starts cracking jokes that are even more awful, but the movie clearly expects them to be seen as funny). The boy who plays Podcast (I don't think we've got his real name) has his moments too, like when the kids are stopped by a cop, and somebody asks "what do we do", and he says "I say we fight" — completely deadpan, and so much in character, it is really amazing.
It could be a good semi-reboot, kinda like Jumanji, it had the potential, but the ending killed it. Completely unnecessary, overly long, and actively hurting the rest. Shame.
P.S. Come on, they clearly set up Phoebe as a smart one, why is it that Trevor comes up with a bright idea near the end, and Phoebe just charges guns blazing? I guess they realized he is pretty useless otherwise and tried to give him something to do, but they could, for example, make him save the day by doing something risky instead.
Overall — it's not bad. It surely isn't a great movie, but it's pretty enjoyable. The kids are doing a decent job (at least), their mom is OK, Paul Rudd is pretty good. There are a few mistakes here and there — like, for example, Rudd's character saying "science is never safe, if you want safe, go for geometry" — dude, you know that geometry is science, right? And another, when he says that the town they are in is "nowhere near a tectonic plate" — um, everything on Earth is very near a tectonic plate. Both can be viewed as character errors, and even as such they might just be tongue slips, but it shows that the script can use a little bit of polishing. Those are minor things, however, and if you don't expect greatness — it's easy to enjoy this thing.
...until we come to the ending.
Here is where heavy spoilers come in. You've been warned. Twice.
So, the main characters have a plan to, essentially, save the world. Good. That plan goes wrong — pretty common for plans in movies. That's fine. And then the cavalry arrives. And that cavalry is the original Ghostbusters.
Their arrival achieved three things simultaneously. First of all, it killed the mood. Here we are, having a really tense moment, everybody freaking out — and then those guys arrive with the look on their faces that says "we're here, the movie's cool now". It's clear that the movie creators were counting on a warm feeling it should induce in the fans — but that warm feeling itself is something that doesn't mix well with the tension.
Secondly, it robbed the main characters from their victory. Sure, they do something, but it all looks — and is treated in the movie — as if they are now holding a gun while the real hero ties his shoelaces.
And thirdly, it showed that the movie creators did not believe in their own creation and thought they needed heavy hitters. Which is really a shame, since everything before it kinda stands on its own. As I said before, the kids are good, actress that plays Phoebe — Mckenna Grace — is sometimes hilarious with her jokes that never land, but the movie actually expects them to not land and makes fun of that (this is a stark contrast with Bill Murray's behaviour at the end, when he starts cracking jokes that are even more awful, but the movie clearly expects them to be seen as funny). The boy who plays Podcast (I don't think we've got his real name) has his moments too, like when the kids are stopped by a cop, and somebody asks "what do we do", and he says "I say we fight" — completely deadpan, and so much in character, it is really amazing.
It could be a good semi-reboot, kinda like Jumanji, it had the potential, but the ending killed it. Completely unnecessary, overly long, and actively hurting the rest. Shame.
P.S. Come on, they clearly set up Phoebe as a smart one, why is it that Trevor comes up with a bright idea near the end, and Phoebe just charges guns blazing? I guess they realized he is pretty useless otherwise and tried to give him something to do, but they could, for example, make him save the day by doing something risky instead.
