The First Ghostbusters Trailer Ain't Afraid of No Ghost

[JaredJones]

The First Ghostbusters Trailer Ain't Afraid of No Ghost


Who you gonna call?

The reaction to Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboot/sequel/whatever it's supposed to be had been divided, to put it mildly. With only a handful of set photos [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/165514-First-Images-From-Paul-Feigs-Ghostbusters-Released] having been released up until this point, many diehard fans of the original have already taken to their soapboxes to preemptively trash the Ghostbusters and/or Feig for "ruining their childhood"...and with an all-woman cast, no less!

But the proof is in the pudding -- or rather, the slime -- right? Surely a director with as proven a track record as Feig's can't mess this thing up too, badly, riiiiight?!

We'll know for sure when Ghostbusters hits theaters this summer, but based on the first trailer released this morning, it's hard not to be cautiously optimistic about how Feig's Ghostbusters will turn out. It's got Slimer! The Ecto-1! Gorgeous visual effects! A Chris Hemsworth Exorcism gag!

I dunno, perhaps my unattainable crush on Kate McKinnon has left me blinded to the trailer's shortcomings, but I'm going to give Fieg the benefit of the doubt here for now. How about you guys?

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[Zhukov]

Huh.

So that's what it feels like when something tries to tug on threads of nostalgia that aren't there.

Doesn't really look like it was worthy of all the fuss.

 

[Something Amyss]

Really? I thought the trailer looked meh at best for most of it, with a couple of positives and mostly negatives.

Also, do we really need a dubstep (or whatever you want to call that version of the song, I can't be arsed right now) version of the Ghostbusters theme?

 

[09philj]

It wasn't funny in 1984. Somehow it is less funny now.

 

[Leg End]

From that trailer, who else wants a Blaxploitation Ghostbusters with four sassy black women catching ghosts? I'm pretty sure it's a bad thing when a trailer sells me on something that it isn't trying to sell, as well as not existing.

 

[Casual Shinji]

This. Looks. Like. Garbage!

Hey, remember when the Ghostbusters were people we could buy as genuine scientists, and not awkward looking cartoon characters who are a walking punchline? Remember when back in 1984 the visual looked great, and not like post-2000 Tim Burton picked his nose and rubbed it all over the screen?

And the humor... uuuuuuurrrgh. Is this that fantastic Paul Feig touch I've heard so much about? Seriously, what happened to the guy who made Freaks and Geeks? Are we sure Adam Sandler isn't in this movie somewhere?

 

[Casual Shinji]

Also, do we really need a dubstep (or whatever you want to call that version of the song, I can't be arsed right now) version of the Ghostbusters theme?

You're forgetting the freaking minimalist piano keys every trailer needs to have now.

And seriously, an all-female cast and you DON'T put Dana Barret in there!? The fuck is wrong with you!?

 

[Ruisu]

The cast mostly looks good in their dynamic (Leslie Jones excluded), but this trailer just doesn't feel right. I feel like apart from a few character moments, the movie will be really bad if this trailer is anything to go by.

 

[Something Amyss]

You're forgetting the freaking minimalist piano keys every trailer needs to have now.

I hate the overall trend, but I like it in this context.

Well, at least they didn't give away the entire plot in the trailer

and the ghosts look kinda cool

You're assuming there is a plot. I'm not so sure anymore.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Looks better than I expected, not a lot and my bar was set really low.

 

[Gorrath]

I have a ton of nostalgia for Ghostbusters. It was one of my very favorite things. But I'm in agreement with most here. That dubstep remake of the theme sounds AWFUL. The jokes are seriously unfunny, especially that stupid Exorcist line. The outfits, the way most of the ghosts look, even the plot sounds stupid. "Someone has created a device that amplifies blah blah and the blah blah." The trailer specially makes me wish they had gotten Tina Fey and Amy Pohler, though I can't tell if it's because of the actresses or the dialogue that I'm cringing. I'll stay optimistic despite the trailer because I know how bad trailers can do bad things to good movies but that optimism has been seriously tested. Blah.

 

[Bindal]

And suddenly my interest went from "Eh..." to "no, thanks".

That trailer convinced me that this is not going to work out.

 

[Gorrath]

Hey, remember when the Ghostbusters were people we could buy as genuine scientists, and not awkward looking cartoon characters who are a walking punchline?

....No? I thought that was the point of the first movie, in that the 3 scientist characters were so quirky and non-scientist looking that nobody believed them? Are you saying that Egon "drilling a hole in my head would have worked if you hadn't had stopped me" Spengler wasn't cartoony and a walking punchline about being weird? Did you believe Bill "I'm faking a psychic test so I can sleep with one of my students" Murry was an accredited scientist?

I think we watched different movies growing up.

Like I get it. The trailer looks mediocre as fuck but you don't have to make shit up about how bad it is.

I'm with you on this. I felt Eagon was the real deal and Ray felt like a super nerd who was really into the supernatural stuff but didn't come off as a "scientist" and Peter didn't feel like a scientist at all. There's a reason why no one took them seriously until the Titanic showed up, because the movie intentionally painted them as crazy fringe "scientists" no one took seriously. If anyone saw the movie and thought it was portraying them as "people we could buy as real scientists", I'm not sure what part of the movie suggested that at all.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Hey, remember when the Ghostbusters were people we could buy as genuine scientists, and not awkward looking cartoon characters who are a walking punchline?

....No? I thought that was the point of the first movie, in that the 3 scientist characters were so quirky and non-scientist looking that nobody believed them? Are you saying that Egon "drilling a hole in my head would have worked if you hadn't had stopped me" Spengler wasn't cartoony and a walking punchline about being weird? Did you believe Bill "I'm faking a psychic test so I can sleep with one of my students" Murry was an accredited scientist?

I think we watched different movies growing up.

Like I get it. The trailer looks mediocre as fuck but you don't have to make shit up about how bad it is.

They were guys who were in over their heads, because ghosts, but they were still scientists, especially Egon. And eventhough Peter was a brat, when things got real you could tell he didn't simply cheat his way through college.

With these characters it feels like I'm watching The Nutty Professor.

 

[VaporWare]

So, I've tried to be fairly reserved about the whole thing. I enjoyed the original as a child, and there's nothing implicitly wrong with a reboot (though the trailer seems a bit confused on this point, introducing itself by reminding everyone that Ghostbusters existed rather than letting itself stand on it's own merits. Early on it almost feels like they weren't sure if they were doing a reboot or an inheritance story), and I could care less who or what they cast if they can sell the story.

But I can say the trailer leaves me underwhelmed. The humor bits we see feel extraneous and forced, spending extra lines pointing at the punchline and laughing on behalf of the audience rather than trusting the audience to 'get it', with a lot of missed opportunities along the way (compare the introduction of Ecto-1 in the original to Ecto-1 in the reboot, and you'll see what I mean) left hanging.

So, thus far, the script looks kinda weak (this is admittedly a small sample of it, but one would expect them to give the trailer their best shots, not their cheapest). The actors seem to be into it at least, and that can help make up for a lot of cinema sins. There are some implied changes to plot structure (emphasis on someone actively building a device to cause more ghosts to manifest, rather than uncovering something someone already did before anyone even knew to look, emphasis on possession as a job hazard, a much clearer sense of malfeasance on the part of the ghosts, etc.) that actually manage to make it sound a lot schlockier and less thoughtful than the original, and that's saying something given the subject matter.

I suppose on the bright side, with expectations set this low, I can be much more pleasantly surprised if it turns out to be good after all.

Here's hoping, anyway. I'd hate for this to be what kills Ghostbusters before someone finally works out that you could make a decent paranormal investigation based MMO out of it.

The franchise rights alone could make them rich beyond their wildest dreams.

 

[Alleged_Alec]

Whelp. They did it. They made a digitally transmissible variant of Ebola.

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I don't think any trailer for a comedy film has ever looked or sounded enticing, no matter how great the film is as a whole. You just cannot pick joke scenes out of context to sell to a critical (or in my case, miserable) audience. Have you even seen the trailers for Coen brothers movies? They make them look just as awful. I have avoided many great comedies due to this pitfall in marketing. So i was expecting this to be a much worse first impression than it turned out to be. Should've expected the escapist audience would preemptively judge the whole thing by the trailer, as even a picture alone is enough to bring on the salty fingertips of dismissal.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Well, at least they didn't give away the entire plot in the trailer

What are you talking about?! They literally say someone is building a device to harvest ghosts, and the name of the movie is GhostBusters.

What do you think the plot is going to be about?!