The Ghostbusters Remake Trailer & Its Reception

The new Ghostbusters remake trailer has been released and fans have been reacting.

And it’s not been a very warm reception.

After one day since its debut the number of dislikes on the trailer posted on Sony’s Youtube channel has dramatically pulled ahead of the positive thumbs up. Just a quick glance one can see this is not the kind of greeting any studio would want from the first peek of a hoped-for big-budget summer blockbuster with the aspirations of reigniting an ongoing franchise.

I figured there would be some cynical apprehension about this new Ghostbusters movie – but not at this level. People really take Ghostbusters seriously!

My quick thoughts on it. I wasn’t impressed at all. I’ve been wary of a new Ghostbusters for the longest time. The idea of not only reintroducing a new cast, but remaking one of the most beloved comedies ever made is a tough sell.

But Sony wanted to do it. Director Paul Feig’s idea of recasting the ghostbusting team as a group of women seemed odd to me. Not that I didn’t think four women could hold their own against ghosts or they couldn’t be funny, but it just seemed like it would alienate a potential section of the audience.

Sony wants this to be a huge hit that will give birth to sequels and spin-offs and all that. Four girl ghostbusters is not going to excite little boys very much. I doubt that they’ll want to buy or play with the girl action figures. And I guess if they want to play Ghostbusters they’ll still have to pretend to be the original guys.

That’s the way it is. My nephews love Ghostbusters, but when they heard the new movie was going to be all girls they were disappointed and now don’t have much interest in it. I don’t understand why they wouldn’t make it two girls and two guys, or three girls and one guy, but hey, ok. Maybe Sony marketing knows something I don’t or aren’t concerned about that aspect of the movie. It could be the majority of little kids will dig it. What do I know?

With the four leads Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones maybe this will still bring the laughs and the more open-minded older audience who aren’t afraid of cooties will enjoy it.

I like Wiig. I’ve liked her since first seeing her on The Joe Schmoe Show back in 2013, before she ever hit Saturday Night Live (I think I’m the only one who watched that show) and was happy to see her career take off. McCarthy has been funny on occasion. I can’t say I’m too familiar with McKinnon or Jones though.

Unfortunately, from this trailer I didn’t get any laughs from it. Not even a chuckle. It looked pretty bad and certainly didn’t change my thoughts and the question “Why?”, which came up way back when arose again.

This simply looked like a poor generic comedy with nothing special about it. I have to admit I’m enjoying reading and hearing the negative reactions it’s getting from fans. And not because it’s all girls or that it’s yet another remake – this time of one the most popular movies of all time – but because from this trailer it just looks like a bad movie.

Ending on that bad Exorcist joke – oof. Saturday Night Live was doing jokes about that movie in 1975. And that skit was much funnier! Maybe this Ghostbusters is saving all the good jokes for the movie.

What’s funny about the trailer is how confused it’s leaving people. It opens up with “30 Years Ago Four Scientists Saved New York” (even though as far as I know Winston wasn’t a scientist). They include a shot of the old Ghostbusters firehouse.

It gives the appearance that this is taking place in that same world and the story is picking up today – but it isn’t. All the characters that Murray, Aykroyd, Ramis, Weaver played don’t exist. Ghosts never haunted New York before and this is starting from scratch. It is a straight up remake. When the original cast shows up it will just be random cameos. Like, I’ve heard Aykryoyd plays a nameless cab driver.

I guess they included that opening title for a little fan service. They have to acknowledge the original film for fans, along with dropping references within the movie to it, like Slimer and a big Twinkee sign in Times Square. It’s become this unspoken mandatory rule when remaking a movie to be sure to reference the original movie.

There will most likely be constant nods to the original film bouncing around all over the place. So much for Feig doing a completely clean reboot, establishing his own Ghostbusters movie and not wanting to be tied to the earlier films like he has said. We’ll be constantly reminded of the originals I’m betting. But the inclusion of fan service within in the trailer kind of gives the false illusion this is a sequel and that has perplexed some people as to what this movie is going to be. Bad call on Sony’s part.

Once learning that it is indeed a remake has also upset and disappointed fans. The more casual fans who haven’t been following the evolution of this movie for decades are just getting clued in on this. Despite the original film coming out thirty-two years ago, a lot of fans wanted to see a continuation of that story and to be treated to seeing as much of the main cast back in their roles as Feig managed to shanghai. That ain’t happening.

So, this being a remake of the origins of a new Ghostbusting team isn’t flying too high. They’re repeating the same beats, the slime, the Ecto-1, the proton packs, the ghosts, so not only does it look like the same thing thing as before, more importantly it looks much less funny this time around.

The trailer doesn’t look like it’s bringing anything new to the story, other than making the four lead characters women. I guess the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man climax looks like it’s possibly going to be some kind of time travel thing within Times Square or something….maybe?

I have no idea if they have some better surprises to unveil and these four actresses play well off each other, but I’m not seeing that from this trailer.

Eh, maybe Sony and Feig just can’t win with this idea and whatever kind of Ghostbusters movie they made and trailer they released it was just a lose-lose situation. It was an impossible task to please everyone with a new Ghostbusters movie. It would have been nice had this looked funnier though.

I won’t be surprised if Sony coerces Aykroyd to help trumpet the movie and try to reassure fans that it’s worth their time, much the same way Paramount dragged James Cameron out to support Terminator Genisys. 

Murray won’t have anything to do with that and they’re just lucky he supposedly filmed a cameo in this, so Aykroyd is their best bet as a helpful spokesman, especially since he’s listed as an executive producer. The tradeoff for his shilling will probably be his Skull Vodka showing up in a scene in the movie.

One thing that kind of annoys me is how Sony is so confident with this new Ghostbusters and all the future plans they already have in store for the franchise. They went and built all these new ultra-cool looking offices that will be the headquarters for all future Ghostbuster projects. They’re calling it the Ghost Corps.

It’s modeled after the Ghostbusters firehouse, it’s got cool props and signs and memorabilia all over the place. Really nice looking. But what happens if audiences don’t respond too enthusiastically to Feig’s Ghostbusters? Will they be burning the midnight oil in meetings, cancelling plans and trying to figure out how to salvage the franchise in that nifty building? Or maybe they’ll just plow ahead with their plans no matter how the movie is received when it hits theaters and just try to gamble it will catch on.

They’re awfully confident banking on a future franchise with a movie that no one has seen yet. It just irks me how Hollywood believes they can take a recognizable title or logo, slap it on a movie and wait for the money to roll in. I’d like some quality to said project too. That would be a nice added bonus!

Plus, if the first movie sucks, why would I be interested in seeing more of it? Just focus on making one good movie then think about sequels, tv shows, cartoons later on.

Despite the huge negative response so far, I still think this Ghostbusters will make some decent money. Audiences will be lured in on the brand alone and even some of the jaded will go see it out of curiosity. Some might even go see it just to ‘hate watch’ it. Sony might be revamping their marketing strategy at this very moment and working on a better trailer that will attempt to restore faith with moviegoers. If I was them I sure would be! So the future of Ghostbusters will be assured.

I’ll admit I’ll eventually watch it. The odds are I won’t see it in the theater and likely will be watching it on DVD. Maybe the movie will be pretty good and it just had the misfortune of having a very lousy trailer. I’m not banking on that though.