Especially considering Star Wars had already set the formula for how to do this kind of transition story effectively.
They still had time to do re-shoots after Force Awakens dropped.
Feig had a huge budget and a blueprint for success and he still f~~~ed it up because he violated the golden rule. You never write to be empowering. That creates preachy, stale work.
Ima analyze what went wrong here from a writing perspective. Buckle in. It’s gonna get long.
Their first mistake was their trailers were full of self empowering talk. By which I mean:
“Holtzmann, You’re a brilliant engineer”
“Erin, no one’s better at quantum physics than you”. (while getting the math on the blackboard wrong [her logMx/m results in her expressing 21.5 = 1.5])
“We can see things no one else can”
“You guys are really smart about the science stuff”
“We might be the only ones who can stop it”
“We have a gift”
“We see what no one else is willing to see”.
“We do things, others can’t do.
“We’re the ones to answer the call”.
“Except you girls, I think you can handle it”. (all the prior empowerment talk doesn’t allow that joke to work, as we’re thinking of course they can handle it. They’ve said so what, 12 times already? They don’t come across as the fish out of water underdogs the men did. We even have one doing acrobatics in trailer 2 with a proton pack on!
Ever been to a party where someone won’t shut the f~~~ up about their achievements and how great they are? That’s what this is. And from that position, it’s VERY hard to tell jokes.
The 1984 version worked because those characters weren’t constrained to being role models. Writers should never set out to write role models as it suffocates characterization. It needs to happen organically or not at all.
And the anti male bias actually ruins the film’s internal logic. The jokes are one note:
Why is kristen wigg’s mild mannered ex college professor, one step away from tenure, talking about, nay emphasizng how slime went down every crack after saying it went everywhere? Despite the grossed out reaction of her peer? Why does this highly educated woman at the top of professional academia have no concept of TMI?
cos she’s weird and stupid. That’s the joke.
Why is kevin drawing already gigantic busoms on the ghost symbol and then talking about making them BIGGER?
Cos he’s weird and stupid. That’s the joke. Never mind that no man ever would seriously suggest making them bigger.
Why didn’t they say “Haha funny. Where’s the real symbol?” Why didn’t they assume he was joking? Because literally every human being above the age of 9 would assume that.
Oh right, cos they’re all weird and stupid. That’s the joke.
Why would that jerk from MAD tv talk about how scary and foreboding the ghosts are, how they’ll haunt their nightmares, then suddenly reverse it and say the girls can handle it – UNLESS he was consciously trying to make a joke?
Could it be that he’s …weird and stupid?
Why would Patty slap mcarthy again and quote the exorcist after shes seen the ghost leave her friend and after she’s heard mccarthy talk about how thats gonna leave a mark?
Cos she’s loud and stupid. That’s the joke.
Unlike the 1984 version, this is humour derived from throwing out the fundamentals of how human beings communicate with one another. The contradictions in logic and sense compound on the movie and it is broken.
The following is gained from watching a spoilered reviews:
This film has an anti male complex. Every single man in the movie is either ludicrously inept, or toxic as hell. Firstly the obcession with smashing male genitals. Kate mckinnon develops the “nutcracker” at the end and they shoot the ghostbusters logo in his crotch. Which doesn’t make sense as it’s obviously not a vulnerable point in a giant supernatural monster. It was just done because f~~~ men.
Being strong against a twisted strawman isn’t very strong. That’s why if writers are going to go down the strong female character route, they need, nay MUST write strong males beside them. Far from making the female character weaker, it will actually make her seem stronger and more legit.
The male librarian poos his pants during the ghost scene while the women are all badass about it. They mock him in fact. Even with “jokes” about his virginity I hear.
Rowan is a study in “toxic masculinity” made into a character. Kevin is written stupid beyond the point of Homer Simpson. Out of his mouth comes “humour” as stale as “Can I bring Mike cat to work?” “He’s actually a dog!” He’s in the kitchen making sandwiches during the apocalypse, he takes the lenses out of his glasses to clean them and whenever there’s a loud noise – he plugs his eyes. With his fingers.
They repeat that joke several times in fact. That is literally chimpanzee behaviour.
Kristin Wigg hires him purely on looks, as we saw in the trailer, “You’re hired” Heheheheeh!” Yeah, because this ex professor, literally at the pinnacle of academia, (“Erin, no one’s better at quantum physics than you”) is really gonna trust this chimp level dimwit around an unlicensed power plant and other easily lethal state of the art nuclear tech, cos he’s HAWT. Would she let a child run around there too? Cos it’s the same thing. At least the Original Ghostbusters had Winston interviewed. She doesn’t know the first thing about this asshole.
Kate Mackinnon apparently just mugs for the camera the whole time. And acts “quirky” Meaning delivering non sequitrs. All reviews are unanimous on saying that the cast seem to be ad libbing and stepping out of character often. Melissa mccartly steps OOC and becomes melissa mcarthy. As if Paul Feig just said “Say funny things! Go!” They try to pack joke after joke like an SNL skit that’s limited on time, seemingly not realising they have a feature length running time to deliver quality over quantity.
For example, there’s a running joke about a pizza order. They did that crap back in the super mario bros movie with Bob Hoskins. Wasn’t funny then either.
Krisen Wigg is the best in the world at quantum physics by the trailers own words. So that’s like Stephen Hawking saying that. It’s not believable. She should have been the anal retentive “straight (wo)man” to the other’s wacky hijnks. The one who gets annoyed by the others and then opens up and comes together in friendship at the movie’s climax And it makes me wonder how they didn’t know to do that. (they’re idiots).
I’ve consistently heard that they act like deadly accurate, acrobats and well trained fighters by the end when that was never established earlier in the film in order to be “empowering”. One flies like Superwoman in a wormhole, and the beams kill the ghosts when they were only ever established as trapping beams.
When Holtzman licks one of her guns as she goes to confront some ghosts, far from being a brash, berserker-scientist Holtzman moment, the inevitable question arises:
Why does she do that? Who’s she doing it for? Why would she ever put a gun that dangerous near her face? Doesn’t she know how these guns burst with energy? Ya like bad gun safety do ya? Ya like characters licking things that probably have nuclear waste on it? There’s no thought to anything that’s happening.
lonestar77 3 years, 5 months ago.
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