It takes a man to admit he was wrong. When I saw the terrible marketing campaign for this film, it was hard not to go into Ghostbusters skeptical. But I will also say the vast majority of people who think this movie sucks are also people unwilling to admit that they were wrong. They are people who went into this film gunning for it, and so even the best film ever made wouldn’t be able to convince them otherwise. But I’m not one of those people. I was wrong.
Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters is a shockingly good reboot and one that’s well worth your time. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Far from it. But I still had a shockingly good time, and Ghostbusters is certainly a film that stands out in an overall weak summer season.
Let’s get the negatives out of the way. First off, (and most importantly) the main villain is very lackluster. Not only that, there was at least a little bit of an uncomfortable tie to real world events with this guy, played by Neil Casey. But these scenes are few and far between, and obviously I am in the minority on this since I haven’t seen anyone else talking about it. In addition, the four main characters (plus Chris Hemsworth) weren’t particularly fleshed out, and they didn’t have much of an arc to them despite their excellent chemistry. That said, did I care that they weren’t super-fleshed out? Heck no, because I was too busy laughing my ass off.
That’s the big plus of this film: if you’re willing to turn your brain off and just laugh at four extremely funny women going back and forth with each other, and constantly enjoy Chris Hemsworth being a buffoon, you’re gonna have a good time. All four of these women are hysterical and giving it their all under the direction of Paul Feig, a man whom I think is right there with Judd Apatow for funniest director in Hollywood right now not named Edgar Wright.
On top of that, there’s Kate McKinnon. Oh boy, if this isn’t a breakout performance for her, something is wrong, because this is one of the funniest performances I have seen in years. Despite being essentially a one-note character, she absolutely killed every single scene she was in. I found myself watching what she was doing even when she wasn’t the centerpiece of a scene, and she had a sequence in the final action scenes that sent chills down my spine. This film is worth the price of admission for Kate McKinnon alone. And that’s not to mention the chemistry of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy (Edgar Wright, can you please do a film with these two and Simon Pegg/Nick Frost?).
Ultimately, while Ghostbusters is not perfect (there are a few problems with pacing I won’t elaborate on here), it is vastly more enjoyable than many people are saying it is. And this is coming from a guy who enjoyed the first Ghostbusters, but then only mildly enjoyed the second. I would honestly watch this film over Ghostbusters 2 all day. I want to see where they take this franchise, so I hope it makes enough money to warrant a sequel. (Wow. I haven’t felt that way about a reboot since 2009’s Star Trek.) Go check it out!
