On March 3rd the trailer for Ghostbusters was released with millions of fans worldwide ready to watch in anticipation. What was supposed to be the basic outline of a story and the potential exploits of the protagonists instead was a stale mess which left many fans of the previous installments worried that the reboot may be unable to live up to the the standard left behind in the previous movies.
Now, as a fanboy I understand that sometimes we can be quite critical of content we hold dear in our hearts, but I personally feel that the concerns that are shared by everyday fans, and even famous fans like Kevin Smith are extremely valid. In a rush to reflect the new politically correct culture, the creators of this movie seemed to have sacrificed quality of the story in order to reinvent the wheel to bring this franchise into the 21st century. There were flat jokes, less than desirable special effects displayed, and even a complete disconnect from the original movies.
With an ensemble cast that should equal the original in comedic excellence consisting of Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wig, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones, and Thor himself Chris Hemsworth, the cast should have no problems delivering an excellent performance. If you also include cameos by original cast members for the first two films, this should be a perfect fangasm. On paper Ghostbusters looks like it has more than enough on screen talent to make even the hardest of hearts burst into laughter.However, the trailer just doesn’t deliver.
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I would like to give the movie the benefit of the doubt. Now, we might be jumping the gun when it comes to Ghostbusters, and the movie might be chock full of quality fan fun. And it wouldn’t be the first time ever that a trailer had given people the wrong impression. Just look at this trailer for Gattaca. For most people, the trailer did this sci fi classic no justice. It completely misled viewers about the story, while at the same time tried to appeal to people outside of the sci fi genre.
This, as a issue can be seen with other movies as well. For example, the End of Watch trailer gave the audience the idea that it was going to be a DVD bin movie. From the strange shots used, to the confusing story line it was trying to tell, it just felt like a slapped together B-movie. And of course the one most people till this day get angry at, Bridge to Terabithia. The trailer gave the impression it was going to be a fantasy movie. Which as anyone who has sat and watched it can atest that sure isn’t the case.
Now, can we expect that this is a case of a bad trailer with Ghostbusters? I doubt it. Watching the trailer, there was little left to be desired. The line ripped from the Exorcist, seemed forced among others, and the effects just didn’t make the movie look visually attractive. We have to ask ourselves, is it more likely that the people who slapped together the trailer were just downright neglectful in what they included? Or was what was in the trailer what we can expect from the movie? There is still a few months before we will have an answer to either of these questions, and we will all have a chance on July 15th, 2016 to see if we would really call the Ghostbusters.
