The Ghostbusters trailer relies on old jokes and new faces
I’m a little late to the party, but here’s the Ghostbusters trailer for the reboot coming out later this summer. Since its debut last week, fans of the franchise and outspoken voices on both sides of the Hollywood racism line have chimed in to tear the trailer and the movie apart. Give it a watch, and decide for yourself whether the new Ghostbusters movie is worth your ticket when it comes out.
Check out the first Ghostbusters trailer after the jump.
(UPDATE: An international trailer with more Ghostbusters footage has been released, so I’ve included that after the jump as well.)
To be honest, as neither a die-hard Ghostbusters fan or what you might consider a casual movie-goer, there’s nothing here that makes me excited to see the movie. Maybe it’s the cast. Sure, the original was supported by SNL-types as well, but this mix is just strange. Maybe it’s the idea of another forced reboot trying to flip gender/racial roles and revive old properties. Maybe it’s the idea of three white scientists and a street smart black woman that’s getting people’s panties in a bunch. Ghostbuster’s star Leslie Jones defended her character on Twitter because the controversy pot was being furiously stirred.
Or, maybe it’s just the unfortunate cutting of the first Ghostbusters trailer that’s turning off so many viewers. There’s a lot of material here that could have been pulled from old slapstick staples, as Kevin Smith and Ralph Garmin recently observed, and overall the trailer has a very odd feel to it. Check out a fan cut trailer from YouTuber Bevan Bell that gets rid of that excess exposition and absurdity and sticks to the basics:
Not bad, right? In fact, that short teaser blows the first trailer out of the water, which is what a lot of people are saying. As always, if you’re smart, you’ll wait until you actually see the movie before you pass harsh judgement on Ghostbusters 2016. If you watched the Kevin Smith video linked above, he makes a good point about the people involved having a pretty solid track record of making us laugh. Kristen Wiig can be great. Melissa McCarthy is solid when she’s not being obnoxious. Kate McKinnon looks like she’ll be a hoot. And Leslie Jones…well…she’ll be there slapping ghosts out of people. It’d be pretty unfair to kill the movie before it even hits, which is what’s happening, so let’s give it a chance.
UPDATE: Here’s that international trailer.
Unfortunately, the “official” plot for Ghostbusters reads more like a marketing pitch than it does an actual plot synopsis, but it’s all we’ve got right now:
Thirty years after the original film took the world by storm, Ghostbusters is back and fully rebooted for a new generation. Director Paul Feig combines all the paranormal fighting elements that made the original franchise so beloved with a cast of new characters, played by the funniest actors working today. Get ready to watch them save the world this summer!
According the the movie’s IMDb page, Ghostbusters stars Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Charles Dance (not listed but confirmed), Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts, Elizabeth Perkins, Michael Kenneth Williams, and Andy Garcia. Hopefully we’ll get more than a shoehorned cameo out of the original cast. The movie was directed by Paul Feig (Bridesmaids, Spy), and you can check out Ghostbusters in theaters on July 15, 2016.