movie thoughts: Ghostbusters (2016)

[orangerful]

I saw Ghostbusters again yesterday at the budget theater down the street (you can't beat $4.50 for a movie ticket these days WOW!)

I still enjoyed it and found myself laughing out loud, looking forward to certain jokes and their delivery. I'm very happy with the movie overall. I really like that it has it's own story, that these characters are their own, not just female versions of the original team. I love how excited they get by science, their sheer joy in moments of discovery. I'm also really glad there was no romance, just Gilbert's hilariously bad flirtation with the always oblivious Kevin.



But on this second viewing, I did notice some clunky edits. There was definitely a HUGE chunk of relationship stuff cut between Erin and Abby. You can see the hints of it during there first conversation. There is an awkward cut where Abby says that the book is helping her pay the bills, but that really doesn't line up with what Erin had just said to her.

Later on, after they get "fake arrested" at the hotel, for some strange reason Erin is at her home, looking depressed and by herself, while the rest of the team is at their headquarters. Something must have transpired between the two in those deleted scenes that made them "break up", I'm guessing some kind of blow up about her losing her tenure which she never got properly upset about. Which doesn't seem like a big issue, but it does take away from the "You're back!" moment when Erin appears and pops the balloon. Even worse, it really hurts that finale, when Erin dives in after Abby and saves her, saying something along the lines of "I couldn't leave you again". This moment was clearly supposed to solidify a friendship in turmoil but all the turmoil had been edited out. I'm guessing the movie ran too long and this was the plot they decided to drop (which is fine because bickering best friends is pretty cliche) but unfortunately they had already shot the entire movie and must have been on a time crunch (perhaps preview audiences targeted that plot line?).

Anyway, clearly no effort was made to film additional scenes to make the pieces fit together better, which makes me think it was a last minute decision to tighten things up, remove an overly serious plot line from a goofy film and help things stay funny.

The one joke that did make me cringe was when Patty jumped into the audience and no one caught her. That, by itself, was a hilarious bit of physical comedy, but then she is lying there and says that she wasn't sure if it was a race thing or a woman thing. And that joke didn't work for me because we already had Abby jump into the crowd so clearly it wasn't a woman thing (or a weight thing, which was initially where I thought the joke would go), which makes it feel like a race thing and...I dunno, that moment made me a little uncomfortable but that might be just because of the current climate and me being hypersensitive.

My only other request is that for the sequel (which I really hope they make!) that Patty find the time to take some science classes. Perhaps the team tutors her while she goes to community college and gets a science degree. Or maybe the city gives her an honorary degree as part of being a Ghostbuster. Either way, I just do not want to see the "We're Scientists....and Patty" scene again. I know that was kind of fixed in the "We're Ghostbusters" moment, but I want Patty to be able to say she is a scientist, that she understands what is going on (I mean, obviously Holtzmann is on a whole different level than the rest of them, so not her). I just don't want the one person of color in the main cast to still not be a scientist.



Anyway, the movie was a lot better than I thought it was going to be and it held up well a second time. I felt like I had something in common with all the Ghostbusters but Holtzmann was my favorite over all. Probably because she was the most unique of the set. She is a mix of Ray and Egon - excited about all the science but also really smart and the creator of all of their toys. And awkward around everyone except for her new family.

Comments

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It's annoying that they did that, but she really pushes beyond it.

Interestingly, the CGI'ed Times Square they used had locations in it that haven't existed in years. So Patty's NYC is an AU. ;-)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

She did push beyond it, thank goodness! It was one of my major worries about the film when I saw the first trailers, which I noticed they made sure to cut with her being the loudest character, but in the movie, she fits right in.

That is hilarious! Takes a keen eyed New Yorker to catch that stuff! Were they locations that existed in the original Ghostbusters? What do you think the reason behind including them was?

[chelseagirl.livejournal.com]

I think so. I noticed Bonds' Department Store which I remember from the cover of a bootleg Clash album I have. I think it's been gone for years. I'd have to rewatch the original to see if it was there then. I can't really even remember whether there were scenes in Times Square; I mostly remember the firehouse and Dana's apartment building and the Columbia campus.