An Uneven Reboot Makes 'Bustin Still Feel Good
Director and co-writer Paul Feig's Ghostbusters reboots the famous comedy-horror franchise in just the right way: it's the premise you know and love with new faces and different comedic sensibilities. It's neither a sequel nor a remake, but rather a reverent adaptation that succeeds in introducing a strong new ghostbusting team. The original 1984 film is a great movie, and this new iteration isn't as consistently funny or as well paced, but everyone involved clearly loves and understands Ghostbusters, and it's that passion that makes this film a worthy, proton pack-toting successor.
Feig and co-writer Katie Dippold (who partnered previously on The Heat) have retained some familiar story elements, such as the Ghostbusters' start in academia. Dr. Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) is a Columbia University professor on the cusp of tenure when a book on the paranormal she co-wrote years ago resurfaces and brings her old partner Dr. Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) back into her life. Yates now works with the eccentric Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) at a less than reputable scientific institute, and when the three doctors go to investigate a supposed ghost sighting, their findings get them kicked out of their respective institutions. Forced together as a ghostbusting team, further investigations lead them to Patty (Leslie Jones), a New York MTA employee and ghost witness who joins the team as an expert on the city.
Though all these pieces of the story work fine on their own, they take a good chunk of time and are followed by sequences of the team testing Holtzmann's new proton packs and other ghost fighting gadgets. As a result, the film plays as an origin story a bit too often, displaying how these Ghostbusters get into a groove more than simply doing their work. Some of these sequences aren't particularly funny, and feel like more of a drag on the film than they actually are as a result.
This is a pacing issue more than anything, and it's a problem not at all uncommon with many comedies these days. As a whole, Feig's Ghostbusters flows and moves fairly well, but it occasionally stops dead, sometimes in the middle of a scene, for characters to do a brief, extended riff on a joke. (At one point Wiig and McCarthy start to discuss the origin of the saying "the cat's out of the bag" in the middle of a meeting with the mayor). It feels like the story stops for the joke to happen rather than the joke happening organically between the characters, and it may well be the result of on-set improvisation that could have used just a smidgen more tightening in the editing room. It's not a frequent problem, but you certainly feel it when it occurs.
What helps the film—and 1989's Ghostbusters II—in these flatter moments is the inherently unique premise and iconography that the Ghostbusters franchise has at its disposal. With the wonderfully unstable proton pack laser beams and ghosts that can be legitimately creepy, Ghostbusters can thrill without always being funny. The special effects of today allow the ghosts to be a colorful and creative array of shapes and sizes (perhaps the best being a ghostly Macy's Thanksgiving Parade), and the Ghostbusters' arsenal is expanded here to include proton grenades, guns, and gloves giving them a variety of ways to fight the ghastly apparitions. I got chills several times during the film, and it was because Feig and his collaborators got the ghostbusting part of Ghostbusters so very right. The effects and gear look great, the new cast looks great fighting ghosts, and when paired with the iconic theme music it's simply perfection.
Beyond the look and feel of Ghostbusters, the film's other truly great asset is its cast. McCarthy and Wiig are both good as the reunited partners, even if their characters come off as relatively bland next to Jones and McKinnon. It's a nice break to see McCarthy play a character for Paul Feig who isn't boorish (though she's good at it), though she still makes Yates strong willed and intelligent. Similarly breaking a pattern is Leslie Jones, who often plays crass and loudmouth characters on Saturday Night Live (and like McCarthy, is good at it). Here she brings an insight and slight softness to Patty that makes her more than just a one-note caricature without fully abandoning that persona.
The undeniable scene-stealer is Kate McKinnon. She sometimes feels like she's in a different film, but in the best way possible. Like Bill Murray in the original Ghostbusters, her energy is different from her co-stars' but nonetheless an effective comedic presence and foil. Holtzmann isn't anything like Murray's Peter Venkman, but she's the Ghostbuster you never want to take your eyes off. She's always doing something that's at least interesting, if not also very funny.
Chris Hemsworth is also a welcome presence as the Ghostbusters' handsome, but very dim-witted, receptionist Kevin. He's given a fair amount to do, and is always funny. Filling out the rest of the supporting cast is a wealth of comedic character actors, including cameos from nearly every key cast member of the original film (Rick Moranis is effectively retired and the late Harold Ramis is honored as a bust at Columbia).
Late in the film there's a big ghost brawl at Times Square, and when it's over (it crescendos with a Kate McKinnon showcase that can only be described as kickass), these Ghostbusters have fully arrived as their own entity. In this moment it's clear that despite its faults, this film will endure for those willing to embrace a new Ghostbusters, especially those too young to know the original. The little girl sitting in front of me in the theater was practically dancing to the theme song during the closing credits, and she certainly seemed like she'd experienced something special. For her to see a group of women scientists fighting evil must mean a lot, but beyond the film's successful gender swap, Paul Feig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon have made 'bustin once again feel pretty good.