Ghostbusters, the reboot of the classic 1984 film and its slightly less classic 1989 sequel, is much worse than the sum of its parts. This film, gender swapping the four paranormal exterminators, and secretary, seems fresh. And admittedly, it can be amusing, but gone is any chemistry and any witty script, sterilizing what should be a unique take on a unique franchise into your generic big-studio blockbuster.
The film's stars, Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates, Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert, Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzmann, and Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan. Those are our Ghostbusters, and only Leslie seems to be giving it any effort. Actually, she gives it her all. She talks with her body, and devotes 100% of her energy to everything she says, whether or not the script gave her anything actually amusing to say. Unfortunately, it rarely does, but there is so much sass and attitude that you laugh at how she says something, not what she says. She is the civilian here, much like Ernie Hudson in the original two movies, and does a good job acting aloof at the several encounters with the paranormal.
Melissa's character is passively charming, sure, in the way all of her characters are, but she lacks any energy, creativity, or sense of fun, reading from the script instead of believing in it. Kristen plays her lifelong friend, reconnected suspiciously coincidentally at the beginning of the movie. She imitates Bill Murray for most of the film, staring unamused and dryly giving her lines, but her and Melissa have no chemistry, and spit out technical jargon together that is neither original nor funny. When Egon and Ray coyly discussed all the nuance of ghost-adventuring, you believed that they believed in everything they said. Here, the girls read a script. That is it.
That leaves us with Kate's character, the tech wiz of the group who builds much of the ghost-catching equipment. Her unkempt look and initial entrance locks her as the group's weirdo, but every facial expression, line, and body movement is artificial, awkward and artificially awkward. She seems to be riffing on Rick Moranis' character, only her performance has the most overacting since Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor.
The plot is a retread of the original, where the group of characters lose their jobs and decide to hunt ghosts professionally. They rent an office above a Chinese restaurant, where much of Melissa's best lines involve her wanting soup in a refreshing rip on Seinfeld. The villain performed by Neil Casey, perhaps one of the worst in recent memory, just lurches around looking weird. Playing Rowan North, his plan honestly makes no sense. Under the guise as a custodian of a large hotel, he designs and builds ghost-creating machines, and erects a giant "dooms day" like device in the basement. It is also briefly discussed that he has been alive for centuries. How he got the job, if he really has been alive that long, is never explained (most jobs require at least one reference, and everyone he meets either does not like or even acknowledge him). Neither is how he can build all of the ghost machines on a custodians' salary and hide it in the basement (I mean, I might stop writing and do janitorial work instead).
Thus the film insinuates that all the specters spotted around the city are caused by his little devices we watch him plant. The movie does not elucidate that there have been any true sightings before he began placing these devices, so are there actually ghosts, or do you need those devices?
Once his plan is discovered by the Ghostbusters, he becomes a ghost by killing himself, and takes possession of the secretary, who has a much more physically capable body. How, if he has been along for so long, he is able to kill himself so easily is one of the other elements never explained. His big powerful machine is then activated and all hell breaks loose. This is when the film becomes a special effects picture, much like the original. Neither movie had particularly special special effects, but at least the original one had charm, wonder. Here, everything is CGI, we know everything is done on computers, and we sit back and watch a video game like cut-scene instead of photo-trickery or anything much actually in front of the camera.
The film gets most of its comedic mileage out of the scenes where the ghosts move on the loose, where one in a trench coat flashes a woman (ripped straight from Gremlins, but hey, if you are gonna steal jokes, at least steal funny ones), and ghost rats pour out from the subway. Then the Ghostbusters show up, and bust up the ghosts. Not using traps, like they demonstrated earlier in the movie, but with just hitting them hard enough. Consistency is not one of the film's strong suits.
But perhaps most egregious is the climax. The malefactor, surrounded by police and military personal, all with guns pointed towards him, freezes them in a dance-like pose, then the Ghostbusters show up. Why, if he can control people's movements, he did not have the gun-touting group shoot the Ghostbusters, or freeze the the Ghostbusters as well, is never explained. And then, when the villain begins to take its final form, all four Ghostbusters watch, guns cocked and pointed at the baddie. But they do not fire either, instead they wait until he grows to biblical proportions, and they run away. So instead of destroying him when they had the chance, there is more special effects. I guess audiences need that.
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