The Ratings System Explained
Date: July 15, 2016
I actually went to see this on it’s opening day…without any preplanned intention.
Oh…I was expecting to see it, ever since it was first announced…But I wasn’t chomping at the bit, to be there on opening day…It’s just how it worked out.
The theater could have been more full…but it was hardly empty.
…A kind of funny thing happened before the movie started, as I spotted a family enter the theater, led by a rather cute boy [I’d say seven or eight years old]…they scanned the theater for somewhere to set…and I thought to myself, “Hey!…Come set next to me!”…Next thing I know, this cute boy is leading the group up to my row…and takes a seat, one empty seat removed from my own…
…Such a curious omen…The boy read my mind?…I suppose, I wasn’t too scary to keep that young lad away from me…Which is pretty typical, to be honest.
The actual movie had tons of references to the original Ghostbusters movie…Maybe a few too many…But it didn’t badly detract from the enjoyment of the movie, in my opinion.
Comparing it to the original…the first movie is deeper, and better fleshed out…Yet, this one is not bad…It moves along briskly, and it’s constantly entertaining…even if it gets a little bit tacky, at a point or two.
Filming style and atmosphere are on par, with what you’d expect from the franchise.
I’m not going to say much about the plot, because it’s paper thin…and it’s just something to give an excuse behind the end confrontation.
…Some people have knocked this movie over the plot and the villain, claiming the original was meant to be taken more seriously…and I have to disagree…Ghostbusters was never meant to be taken at all seriously…It’s a comedy…and maybe even a spoof on horror movies, in a sense.
I was pleased with the cameos…which were one of the reasons I wanted to see this movie…Sure…It would have been nicer, had more of the original cast had deeper roles…but, it was just fun to see them return.
I would recommend going to see this movie…Just don’t expect the deepest story…Other than that, I think they hit the anticipated bases of the franchise quite well.
About the last several months:
I feel compelled to say something about all the complaining over this movie, well before it was released.
It seems to me, Ghostbusters 2016 was the unfortunate victim…of finding itself in the crosshairs of at least two substantial push-back movements of our time…
1) A lot of people are very tired of seeing the studios crank out remakes and reboots, of movies we love…when usually, they end up being inferior…and not something we like.
It’s kind of like click bait, to get us into the movie theater…Of course, if we loved the original…we are going to have a natural interest in seeing the remake…But experience has taught many of us, that it just wont be able to recapture the magic of the original.
…And as for reboots…some franchises [IE: Spiderman] have become quite confused, because it’s hard to keep memories of the previous movies separate.
2) The seemingly forced nature of social narratives in entertainment, has become truly obnoxious…dare I say, insulting…And a lot of us are just done with it.
…We don’t really want to patron something, where we leave feeling like we were just fed a carefully laid out, moral message on how we are supposed to view the world…And more so, when that moral message is based on pop culture ethics…which are maybe based on shaky reasoning.
Given the replacement of the male cast with a female one…it’s clear to see, where this movie became an easy target for people who are tired of having “fads of the day” shoved down their throats.
“Women are interchangeable with [or superior too] men” has become the cliché norm…right alongside with representing men as dumb and incompetent…inferior to women.
Mind you…in the setting of this movie…it’s hard to really take any of this seriously…But a lot of people obviously thought, it was shaping up to be that.
3) A potential third string in all of this…is the fact that many people are getting fed up with the really insane strain of “feminism”, which we are being assaulted with today.
Even though this movie does not deserve being tainted by that…there is probably some pushback over obnoxious, overbearing and aggressive [sometimes mean and nasty] “feminists”, rubbing off on people’s perception of this movie…
…And they likely interpreted the changes in this franchise, as catering to the demands of those kinds of “feminists”.
…If you reject those kinds of “feminists”…then you wont likely want what they’ve heavily influenced, either.
Conclusion:
It’s really unfortunate that this movie has been dogged like this, by what amounts to a social backlash towards extremes.
I never got the sense that this movie ever meant to be anything, beyond a fun couple hours of viewing.
If you are curious…don’t let the noise of the last several months stop you from seeing this…
…Don’t expect it to be just like the original…Expect a corny scene or two…But expect to have fun…because you likely will, if you’re not taking it too seriously.
01) Game of Thrones and BL
