Trailer Trashin’: Busting Makes Us Feel Good in the New Ghostbusters Trailer
Hello again, dear readers, and I hope a lot of you got out to see Zootopia this past weekend. This week’s Trailer Trashin’ examines the first Ghostbusters trailer for the upcoming reboot of the 1984 classic.
Premise: Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) and Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) are a pair of unheralded authors who write a book positing that ghosts are real. A few years later, Gilbert lands a prestigious teaching position at Columbia University, but her book resurfaces and she is laughed out of academia. When ghosts invade Manhattan, Gilbert reunites with Yates, teaming up with nuclear engineer Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and subway worker Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) to save the world from a powerful demon known as Rowan (Neil Casey), who can exercise control over human forms.
My take: First things first: I love the original Ghostbusters. I’ve seen it dozens of times since I was a kid, and it’s one of my absolute favorite movies. When the news came out that director Paul Feig, who brought us Bridesmaids (2011), The Heat (2013), and Spy (2015), would be helming a reboot of Ghostbusters featuring an all-female team, I was intrigued. The first trailer for the new Ghostbusters is here, and while there are some problems, I’m still looking forward to it.
Just like the original film, there are four Ghostbusters, but the characters here are not direct analogues for the four guys from the original film. The two main leads are Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates and Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert. They previously worked together in Bridesmaids, and hopefully they’ll play as well off one another here as they did then. For me, the standout of the four so far is Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzmann, described as “a nuclear engineer and Yates’ new partner.” Every single bit with her works, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of her character. On the other hand, Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan seems like the weakest of the four so far. Jones is a talented performer, but the character comes across as loud and obnoxious here. We briefly see Chris Hemsworth, best known as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, as Kevin, the Ghostbusters’ receptionist. The cast also includes Neil Casey as a powerful demon named Rowan, Andy Garcia as the Mayor of New York City, and Michael K. Williams as someone named Hawkins, plus Charles Dance, Elizabeth Perkins, and Cecily Strong in currently unknown roles.
For the most part, I like what I’m seeing so far. The first ghost encounter, which recalls the library ghost scene from the original, was funny, even though I thought the whole thing of Erin getting covered with slime was a bit over-the-top. I love the look of Ghostbusters’ uniforms and gear, which evokes the originals while still being distinct. I especially love the new ghost trapping device, which looks kind of like a bear trap. The bit of Erin in the costume shop being startled by Jillian wearing the goofy wig and hat made me laugh. The shot of the four Ghostbusters walking through Times Square with all the ghosts swarming around was very impressive. The ghosts themselves look really cool, although I hope not all of them are humanoid in the final film. And the quick cameo by Slimer was nice.
But like I said earlier, there are some problems. The big moment that stands out as not working is the “possession/exorcism” bit at the end of the trailer, which feels too broad. I hope the film doesn’t rely too much on this kind of slapstick. It also seems odd that the captions at the beginning of the trailer are calling back to the original film. The filmmakers have all said that the new film is a complete reboot, not set in the same continuity as the original. So unless they’ve been lying to us this whole time, this is just a marketing thing to remind people of the original film. I just worry that this could backfire if people walk into this movie expecting the characters from the original film to show up.
Based on this trailer, the new Ghostbusters seems like a mixed bag, but one leaning towards the good. I’m hoping the movie itself is good, and this is just a not-so-great trailer. There are talented people involved and the project has a lot of potential, so I’m giving the film the benefit of the doubt. At this point, I’m definitely curious to see how Ghostbusters finally turns out when it’s released in July.
ANTICIPATION: I ain’t afraid of no reboot!
Starring: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, Chris Hemsworth, Neil Casey, Andy Garcia, Charles Dance, Michael K. Williams, Elizabeth Perkins, Cecily Strong, and Matt Walsh
Director: Paul Feig
Writers: Paul Feig and Katie Dippold, based on Ghostbusters by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis
Timothy Monforton
