The original Ghostbusters is a crazy amalgam of some of the greatest elements in entertainment at the time. It began with a script by SNL veteran Dan Ackroyd whom also showed a love for all things paranormal and extraterrestrial. The script itself was way too costly a concept for the time period as it depicted different Ghostbusters teams across different dimensions and planets. In comes director Ivan Reitman who proved his horror chops with his first endeavor the cult classic, Cannibal Girls and was most known for his comedic skills in producing Animal House and directing Stripes. Together with comedian Harold Ramis they took the basic scientific concepts of Ackroyd's script and grounded it on Earth with their flavor of comedy. The comedy most of which was improvisational due to the cast that included SNL actors as well as actors from SCTV. To top it off it included creatures and FX from Star Wars own Phil Tippet. These elements gave us a fantastical science fiction comedy that has resonated through the decades with fans and still does to this day. To me though the key elements of Ghostbusters are that it is a science fiction film whose protagonists are overly comedic. The science fiction is as important as the comedy. That was my biggest concern going into the remake was with Feig's track record of pure comedy, with the exception of his television show Other Space, would he focus on the science fiction aspect as well? I went in with the lowest of expectations simply because it was a remake as I do with almost any remake of a film I like and I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome. I laughed quite a bit at the film especially Kate Mckinnon's Jillian Holtzman who stole the entire movie with her crazed Doc Brown inspired type of mad scientist! However while it's a damn funny film it isn't without its problems. 
After a historical mansion in New York becomes haunted, it's curator seeks the aid of Professor Erin Gilbert who wrote a book on the paranormal a long time ago with her friend Dr. Abbey Yates whom she has since ex communicated from her life. Unfortunately Erin is about to be up for tenure at her college and the book could jeopardize her career. She seeks out Abbey to see why the book has resurfaced only to find her selling it to help fund her research into the paranormal with Dr. Jillian Holtzman. Abbey agrees to stop selling the book if Erin takes her to the mansion that reported the haunting and the three women set out to document the ghost. They arrive and to Erin's surprise finally document a ghost on film as it slimes Erin and they excitedly proclaim ghosts are real! Unfortunately the video goes viral and Erin loses her tenure and is fired from the university. The three decide to go into business together to prove they're not crazy and catch a real ghost. At the same time a subway employee named Patty Tolan sees a strange man walk into the subway and unleash some kind of weird technology that unleashes a ghost in the subway. Patty meets up with the newly formed team and informs them of the strange device and what's happening, they soon discover someone is unleashing these ghosts upon New York and they form the Ghostbusters to stop him! 
They refreshingly didn't do a complete rehash of the Ghostbusters movie as they make it their own. The one thing that did creep into my mind was that it definitely felt more like a Saturday morning cartoon, with a crazed villain unleashing these ghosts with a maniacal plan to destroy the world. Funnily enough it feels as influenced by the cartoons as Ghostbusters 2 was. It's a fun concept but the villain, Rowan is pretty uninteresting and confusing. He's basically just a dude who read Abbey and Erin's book and decided to unleash ghosts on New York because he's been bullied his whole life. It's never explained how he knows to create these devices that unleash the ghosts in any way. He's a walking scripture whose creepy as hell and you don't feel anything negative or positive for him he's just there. Then in the end he has abilities that seem even more powerful than Gozer from the original. He can control people without inhabiting their body, he can control the ghosts he's unleashed and for some reason he can shape shift into a giant monstrosity capable of destroying New York. I'll give you the idea that he helped free the ghosts so maybe they'll listen to him but he's just a dude who turned into a ghost, why is he a god all of a sudden? He opened a portal but nothing was ever stated about the portal granting him powers. 
In the movie they catch one ghost. It's a pretty cool sequence at an Ozzy Osbourne concert with a cameo from the Prince of Darkness himself that gave me a chuckle. It's where they have a giant dragon demon that can inhabit inanimate objects and it's a pretty funny and action packed sequence, but it is the only time in the entire film where they catch a ghost. There's a huge action scene at the end of the movie that if you've ever played the Ghostbusters video game, which introduced all kinds of different Ghostbusters technology, it's basically like that. Holtzman has developed tons of firearms and gadgets to deal with ghosts, but in this huge sequence they pretty much just throw the ghosts around, mulch them, shoot them and grenade them. I loved it as I watched the film but once the sequence was over I sat there thinking, wait they're ghosts, they're not dead so wouldn't they just re-materialize? I guess the idea was that the weapons disrupted the ectoplasm but it's never stated in the film. Even in the video game with these weapons you still needed to capture the ghosts, you didn't shoot them until they disappear. That part bothered me a bit. The science fiction elements just didn't really matter it seems. You just had to roll with it. It was more important to have a huge action sequence then to make sense. I love action but I would have just preferred something with a little more substance in the storytelling on that end. The saving grace of this action piece which was just so much fun I turned my brain off and basked in the gloriousness of Kate Mckinnen's Jillian Holtzman going postal on some ghost ass.
Let's take a minute to talk about Holtzman. She's genius, eccentric, humorous and kicks ass. I want a buddy movie with her and Christopher Lloyd's Doc Brown. I laughed in the movie but the moments where I died laughing were all Holtzman moments. Whether it's the simplicity of her eating a potato chip in the face of danger or her finding a metal pipe in the trash to make a proton shotgun she is the answer to all our comedy prayers. Her look alone echoes the strange hairdo of Egon from the Real Ghostbusters cartoon that I never thought I'd see on anyone in real life. As I said she has the greatest part of the ending action sequence where she tears through a slew of ghosts sliding and jumping with two proton pistols with ease and a smile. She is and forever will the love of my nerdy life. 
Melissa McCarthy is toned down from her normal crazy schtick which was a nice change of pace for her. Kristen Wigg has some pretty genuine moments, one of which is pretty poignant where she tells a story about why she and Abbey bonded over ghosts, but other than that scene she is probably the most boring character in the film. This isn't bashing either one as performers I just wasn't interested in either character in the film. They're just kind of there to move the plot along it felt like. Chris Hemsworth is the dumbest sack of rocks ever in this movie which at times can be pretty funny but does wear on you a bit. The only thing I truly hated was how stupid Kristen Wigg would be when it came to Hemsworth as Kevin. She's supposed to be this big heroic snd brilliant scientist but she turns into a moron when he's around. It just seemed a little insulting. I was extremely happy Leslie Jones wasn't as racist and one note as she was portrayed in the trailers. In the film she is a historical fount of knowledge on New York spouting facts about its history for every spot a haunting occurred. She does have a lot of stereotypical dialogue but it was nicely balanced out for how smart she was which I liked.
Every single original actor from Ghostbusters has a cameo in this film, with the exception of Rick Moranis. I liked them all to a certain degree with a Harold Ramis nod being my favorite, whom if you watch through the credits the film is lovingly dedicated to. The only cameo that I had a problem with was Bill Murray. He basically plays this film's Walter Peck as a man who debunks the Ghostbusters on TV as a bunch of crackpots. It's a funny little bit that should've just been left there as a television cameo but instead he comes to the ghostbusters headquarters after their first and only catch and convinces Erin to release the ghost to prove its real which she very stupidly does. The ghost throws Bill Murray out the window killing him. They kill Bill Murray, it's not funny, it doesn't serve the plot, it just happens. 
I'm the guy when everybody was complaining about it being an all female led Ghostbusters who was complaining about it being an all CGI led Ghostbusters. I hoped for maybe one puppet, one practical effect. After all the original one came from Phil Tippet who worked on Star Wars! But this is a completely Sony owned film and as the credits proudly say the FX were by Sony image works. The ghosts in the trailers looked god awfully painful like out of a video game. In the movie? They're not so bad. I think the final product was cleaned up a little more and the ghosts given nicer distinguishing features. I had heard that the ghosts were actual people who were covered up with computer graphics. It would've been really cool to see what they looked like beforehand but the CGI wasn't completely terrible. Slimer looked a little weird and female Slimer wasn't really my cup of tea but they're barely in the movie. In a perfect world ILM would've done some work on this film or better yet Weta Digital because the ghosts they did for The Frighteners looked awesome.
It's a pretty funny comedy. Some jokes are a little more contemporary that I think may not play well in a couple of years and some aren't funny on multiple viewings as I've seen it twice, but the jokes that do hit, hit hilariously hard. I just wish Feig had worked a little harder on the science fiction aspect of the film and given some of the more confusing elements explanation, which is why I think it's a good film but maybe not a good Ghostbusters film in my heart, but that's how I enjoyed it by separating it from being a Ghostbusters film. That and Kate McKinnon, I'd watch a whole movie on Holtzman. There's a stinger after the credits that could mean several things. One could mean the sequel will go Star Trek Into Darkness and just be a rehash of the original Ghostbusters or something far better. My hope is the stinger could bring in the original concept of different dimensions of Ghostbusters where the original team could meet the new team. Now that would be a worthy sequel! Only time will tell! Three and a half class five roaming vapors out of five!
