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| Rated PG-13 for supernatural action and some crude humor |
The best way to describe this movie is a harmless fun time. There are some delightfully spooky portions, which director Paul Feig handles nicely for being primarily known for comedy, and the action scenes are, I thought, really well done. I wanted to be a Ghostbuster and knock out the dead while watching the gals go at it. "Bustin' makes me feel good" sums up my feelings pretty well. I do wish some of the comedic elements landed better, though. There's a repeated gag about Chinese food that I didn't find particularly funny or clever, but it doesn't get obnoxious. While not all the jokes land, none of them bomb like the running gags in Daddy's Home or the majority of Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2 (I still hate that movie) did. I admire the wit of the 1984 original, and I'm disappointed this one went for broader jokes.
However, Ghostbusters (Answer the Call), is its own beast. When the giant ghost battle climax is happening, I thought to myself, "I really wish they included the whole Zuul thing like in the original." But then there would be no point to the film's existence if they just did a remake of the original. So I'm glad they did something relatively fresh. Granted, some portions seem familiar from other movies and stories--the dumb receptionist, the apocalypse-mongering small fry, an apocalypse itself--but the new film does, for the most part, stand apart from its counterpart. This is definitely for a new generation of viewers, with humor, pacing, and story beats directed towards this audience, so it doesn't have the same tone or attitude of the original films. In fact, I think when it tries to reference the original film, it actually falters more; it wants to stand apart, but it also wants to stand on the shoulders of what brought it here. For example: in theory, it should be a great idea to see the old Ghostbusters in cameo roles, but for the most part, they come off as joyless. Maybe it's because they're not the 'Busters in this film, but rather skeptics. Perhaps fittingly, Sigourney Weaver and Annie Potts have better things to do in the film than the men do in their cameos. It struggles to please all crowds, but it works best when it shoots for the 2016 crowd instead of 1984's.
The film's not as hilarious as it could be and the cameos don't always work. Luckily, the four girls triumph with their chemistry, and they seem to be having a blast. I was pleasantly surprised by Leslie Jones. Based on the trailers, I thought she was going to be the most annoying part of the film, but she really brought great comedic timing and had some of the best lines and gags, especially in her encounters with the ghosts. I genuinely cared for Kristen Wiig's character in the film, and I loved seeing the four bust some ghosts together. Also, Chris Hemsworth, though the character he plays is impossibly inane, shows good timing that makes his stupid gags work. McCarthy and McKinnon also dedicate themselves to their characters, more notably McKinnon. Thankfully, they don't just seem like female versions of the original four. Sure, you could draw connections between Leslie Jones and Ernie Hudson (heck, the movie kind of does that, too), but McKinnon's Holtzmann is definitely no Egon, and Wiig's Erin feels different from Bill Murray's Peter Venkman.
Perhaps the biggest fault of the film is the villain, Rowan, played by Neil Casey. When he's introduced, he's pretty interesting: an enigma who knows about as much ghost knowledge as the Ghostbusters themselves but uses it to attract ghosts. Then almost as soon as he's introduced, Feig chooses to reveal his master plan in a not-very-subtle way. Rowan's not a very interesting villain, and the chaos he causes is far more memorable than he himself--I couldn't remember his name until I Wikipedia'd it. They could have done more with less, so that we discovered his plan alongside the Ghostbusters then revealed his character quirks, making the finale more of a pay-off. We just see way more of him than we probably should have and he ends up being meh.
In the end, Ghostbusters (Answer the Call?) ends up like a The Lost World: Jurassic Park in the Ghostbusters franchise. It's not as good as the original, but it's still a worthy and watchable entry in the series. However, it's pre-release disdain will haunt this movie for some time, which seems to be a trend for Sony. When Sony came out with The Interview, the North Korea controversy preceded the merit of the film; audiences got so riled up with the preceding press that people were surprised when the film was considered an average Franco/Rogen comedy. Now the backlash to this film's marketing will obscure the general merit of the film, which is, frankly, just alright. The film tries to do new things, and it does well with most of it. It has serviceable chuckles, but not enough hearty laughs (although the two older ladies in front of me were having the time of their life with this one). It's spooky, there's fun action, and it's worth seeing if you just want to have a good, fun, carefree time at the movies.
Nothing less. Nothing more.
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| Can't deny. Bustin' makes me feel good! 3 out of 5 Stars. |
