#also did it whilst watching Ghostbusters (2016)

[slav-every-day]

[amplesalty]

Day 2 - Ghostbusters (2016)

Women were evolved for Etsy and men were evolved to be Ghostbusters

Just FYI, I'm am totally man crushing all over Chris Hemsworth in this movie. Like with SJP's character in Hocus Pocus last year, the ditziness just does something for me. Not to discount the good looks, Aussie accents and glasses of course. Plus, maybe I'm just used to seeing him with the long hair in all the Marvel movies and he looks much nicer with it short. Note to self: Still need to see Thor: Ragnarok.

See, I can get away with objectifying a man because herp-a-derp, REVERSE SEXISM! Hashtag left wing, liberal agendas stole my childhood and made an all ladies Ghostbusters! Yeah, I really am a good few years late on all the female Ghostbusters hot takes.

I never really had a horse in that race since, whilst I like the original and seem to be a rare breed that likes the 2nd one, I'm not massively attached to them. Probably didn't even see them for the first time until, honestly, probably somewhere in the last 5-10 years. The (mass) hysteria surrounding the movie seemed pretty ridiculous on both sides, with your "MY CHILDHOOD IS RUINED!" types pumping out YouTube reaction videos to the trailer, but also some legitimate criticisms being drowned out amongst accusations of being a rampaging misogynist.

On the idea of doing the reboot/remake, probably the timing doesn't pan out this way but the cynical side of me just thinks about all these delays they had ever doing a new Ghostbusters and then all of a sudden, Harold Ramis dies and suddenly things start moving along. Whilst you do get cameos from some of the original cast, they're playing new characters so it's not bogging itself in the original. You get little nods here and there with the music, art etc but on the whole they do try to put their own spin on things. Better to do that just be more of the same.

Whatever critical reaction this got at the time, it's not going to tarnish the original. It's not like that movie is going anywhere. With all the streaming services we have these days, all the re-releases on every new video format or to utilise another slight bump in visual quality, you're always going to be able to go back and watch it and new viewers are going to discover it and appreciate it in their own time. Maybe people are just worried that others don't have the attention span to look past the first result on Google and will just assume that the 2016 version is the only one? It's still the 1984 version's IMDB page, by the way.

Looking at it, it doesn't even have the worst reputation. I know a lot was made at the time of the trailers being the most downvoted thing in YouTube history but, at time of writing, you've got a 5.4 on IMDB, 74% critic rating on RT and 60% on Metacritic. Bang average.

My 100% not to do with the whole gender thing flaws are mostly with the dialogue. It just felt a little...forced? Like the humour seemed to be based around that whole forced awkwardness. Things seemed a bit unatural at times too, like you've got this college dean talking about finding their YouTube clip on Reddit. I dunno, just seemed off to me, like they're just name dropping things to be down with the kids. I was a little apprehensive about Kate McKinnon's character going into this as I imagine she would be very over-the-top 'whacky' but she was fine. A little one dimensional if anything, like she was quirky at the start but she just seemed to devolve into "HERE IS NEW GADGET I HAVE MADE!" every five minutes.

Editing seemed a little off at times too, like there were a couple of occasions where it would just cut to a few seconds of something insignificant happening, or you'd jump between scenes where things had progressed without any reasonable explanation as to why. Like, Bill Murray's cameo character gets hurled out of a window, presumably to his death, in the Ghostbuster's place but no one seems to care and we skip ahead like nothing happened?

Movie looked really nice at times, and I'm not just talking about my BAE Hemsworth. Effects for all the new gizmos are good and some of the action scenes like the concert and the finale felt grand on a scale not found in the original. Like, the finale here where they're fighting off a whole bunch of different ghosts, I don't recall getting anything on that scale before. For my picking on the writing, it did get some laughs out of me. Mostly Kevin and his inability to answer phones properly though, love you boo.

[thearchworks]

I Like Ghostbusters (2016)

This is going to be long and I almost didn’t post it because of that, but I spent hours on this, and I’m not letting that go to waste. So here you go.

Also Spoiler Warning.

And I understand that’s a point of contention because some vocal people in the world don’t agree with the idea that some other people in the world are born with vaginas...

My heart bleeds...

I’m going to clarify before I get into the meat of this and explain why I like the movie, I don’t think it’s the best movie, I don’t even think it’s a great movie.

It’s alright. It’s about as enjoyably flawed as most other movies and I don’t see anything really terrible about it.

And I’m not saying that so I can appear neutral on the topic, I feel it’s an honest criticism that the movie is just OK, but that’s not a damnable offense.

My favourite movie (Pokémon The First Movie) is flawed as hell, from Pokemon being referred to by the wrong name, staggeringly inconsistent world-mechanics, emotional scenes almost ruined by what looks like stock on-model clip-art Pokemon smiling in the background while Ash lies “dead”, laughable uses of early 2000′s CG and even a well-meaning but ham-fisted and easily misconstrued message about ignoring the things that make people different and instead celebrating that we’re all the same in a way (which in turn limits discussion about cultural differences and why they’re so fascinating and worth sharing)

And that’s not even touching on how Meowth is honestly the true hero of the movie.

But anyway, I could go on forever about that.

What I’m laboriously trying to get to is that even movies you love and maybe consider perfect, have things wrong with them. It’s a logical truth about not just all movies, but probably all things in the universe.

And I think a wonderful way to illustrate that, whilst also talking about the main focus of this thing I’m writing right now, would be to list off a select handful of things I liked about Ghostbusters 2016 and compare them to the original movie (And maybe even the second one).

So let’s get to it.

The Ghostbusters actually all believe in ghosts.

Yeah, So I’m going to address this point with the original movie first.

You have Ray, who believes in ghosts and Egon, who also believes, or at least is interested in the actual research that goes into proving the existence of ghosts. That’s fine, you need at least one person to be a believer for the premise to make any logical sense.

But then you have Venkman, He has PHDs in psychology and a para-psychoogy. So he at least has some kind of passing interest into, at the very least, the psychological component of why people might believe ghosts are real.

But as is proven within the opening moments of the film, he doesn’t really seem to believe anything he’s spouting. You see him in the midst of an experiment on negative reinforcement and it’s affect on ESP, but he’s not doing it because he’s interested, at least not when you see him. He’s doing it to impress a female student.

Because if anything is going to get a girl probably half your age raring to go it’s electrocuting a classmate for giggles.

Anyway, moving on to Winston. It’s worth mentioning that when Aykroyd and Ramis were writing Winston they wanted him to also be a scientist, or at least someone with a higher degree of education or a background in engineering, but it was agreed later on that having the cast comprised of all scientists leaves them no every-man for the audience to relate to, so we got the Winston that is in the movie.

I have nothing against that, that’s a fine judgement call in my opinion. And I don’t think it makes his role in the movie any less valid, if anything it makes him more essential for grounding the story, because he arrives in the story to get a job hunting ghosts, something he doesn’t discredit, but also doesn’t openly believe in straight away. And remarks that as long as he gets paid he’ll believe whatever they ask him to.

So two of the four original Ghostbusters don’t believe in ghosts or at the very least don’t have a strong opinion about it either way.

In the 2016 version, all of them believe in ghosts.

Erin, believed in ghosts due to repeated encounters with an old woman who died next door when she was a little girl, prompting her parents to put her into therapy and her peers at school to ridicule her. Which is when she met Abby and they became fast friends over their mutual interest in the paranormal.

They grew up and co-wrote a book about their hypothesis about potentially encountering, interacting with and containing ghosts. Fast forward to the start of the movie, Erin has forced herself to repress her interest in ghosts and convinced herself that she doesn’t believe anymore as a means to succeed in mainstream academia.

Abby however continued to believe and eventually meets Holtzmann, who as it would seem also believed in ghosts and feels she’s capable of constructing the mechanisms necessary to fulfil Abby and Erin’s previous dreams.

Then as a result of encountering a real ghost, Erin believes again and Abby and Holtzmann have their evidence to validate their research.

Later on in the movie we are introduced to Patty, Who admittedly doesn’t indicate any previous belief in ghosts, but she is inspired to join the Ghostbusters because she encounters one, so realistically, that makes her a believer before she joins.

All four Ghostbusters are believers in the thing they set out to do in the 2016 movie for individual reasons.

Erin, because of past experiences, Abby because she bonded with her closest friend over the paranormal, Holtzmann because it’s later revealed she has a hard time fully understanding how people work and was looking for companionship from Abby and ghost hunting sounded like a cool enough reason to hang out*. And Patty actually sees a ghost before finding the right people to ask about it.

(*That isn’t to say that Holtzmann only believed because Abby did, Holtzmann clearly thinks ghosts exist, look at her reaction to the first ghost in the movie, she’s not surprised to find that Abby was right, she’s hyped as hell to see a ghost, it validated her and her friends work together.)

To move further onto this point, and introduce the next section...

The people in positions of power believe in ghosts as well.

In Ghostbusters 2016, the Mayor of New York has his people make contact with the Ghostbusters to congratulate them on their discovery, but to ultimately stop making such a big deal about it for fear of public hysteria. Because unlike in the original movie (And a little bit in two) Ghosts were happening even when the Ghostbusters weren’t around. I know it’s crazy to think about.

The original movie, somehow expected it’s audience to buy into a premise of scientists fighting against paranormal activity in a major metropolitan area where seemingly no one believed in or had ever encountered a ghost before the start of the film... It goes double for the second movie, because in the intervening time between the end of one and the beginning of two, the Ghostbusters were court ordered to stop any paranormal investigations of any kind.

So in that time, I guess nobody saw a ghost? You never hear anyone saying how they want the Ghostbusters back because they were actually providing a service? It’s ridiculous. And the men in charge of the city are still skeptics, despite everyone witnessing a giant marshmallow man about a year prior?

So yeah, the portrayal of authority in the 2016 movie is more forgiving, You probably won’t see anyone insulting the man who played the Mayor in the 2016 role for how much of a shit his character was, unlike what unfortunately happened to the actor who played Walter Peck.

And the attitudes presented by these characters (in the 2016 movie) are a constant throughout, sure there’s one scene where they publicly don’t believe Erin when she’s screaming about the impending crisis, but their role in the movie is that of a mediator between what’s actually happening and the public, it’s a facade and probably a little closer to what would actually happen in this scenario.

The Ghostbusters tech is iterative (in the 2016 version).

So everyone is familiar with the Proton packs, anyone who was a child during the 80′s and 90′s probably wanted a Proton pack or grew into an adult that eventually owned a screen-accurate one. I wager almost no one will argue that the Proton pack isn’t one of the coolest and most iconic pieces of Sci-Fi tech in film.

But it wasn’t until watching the 2016 version, that I realised I’ve always wanted to see how they made them... In the original movie they just have Proton packs, traps and a containment grid ready to go on their first mission to hunt for Slimer.

You never see the process of how they designed or constructed the tech in the original movies. The closest you get to this is in the second movie where you see Ray tinkering with the slime launcher, but even then, it’s more-or-less fully built even before they reveal what it is.

You could claim that this is a “modern cinema” way of thinking, because back in the late 80′s to early 90′s it was less important* to show how everything worked in a film like it is today.

(*There are doubtless movies from the same time that DID do it, it just wasn’t as necessary as it is today)

That’s a fine point and I honestly can’t argue against it, it is more telling about the times in which the movies were made. 

But I still feel like I would have rather have seen them even just doing a montage of putting their business together.

They buy an old firehouse and a hearse, then suddenly it’s got everything they need in it?

I will also concede that, in the 2016 movie, they seem to have access to basically all of the stuff they need despite never showing any indication of having any kind of budget.

(Also, I’m not sure why they actually needed a receptionist... Let alone budgeted in the wages for one...)

I don’t know much, but I reckon it’s not easy to make four portable nuclear accelerators on the cheap, even if they’re made of salvaged scrap. But you do have to allow for a little suspension of disbelief with Sci-Fi comedies. 

So yeah, both have a some inconsistencies on where exactly their tech comes from or how they can afford to make them, but whatever.

I also really enjoyed the variances of the tech in the 2016 version, you have a ghost vacuum crossed with a paper shredder, a hand mounted, punch activated proton gauntlet, the... I’ll be honest I can’t tell what it is that Erin uses during the final scenes is it a proton grenade launcher or a shotgun or what? Speaking of grenades they also have those and then the show piece, Holtzmann’s duel Proton whips.

These variations of the same basic tech are brilliant and I love them. Why would you just have one catch-all (Pun some-what intended) device that all ghosts are susceptible to? I mean there’s going to be instances where a ghost is too large or small for a proton pack right? Or what if a ghost presents itself to be too dangerous to risk the time it’d take to capture?

The original movie never really touched on the idea of killing ghosts (Despite doing so at least twice), probably because on paper it sounds nonsensical, but when you give ghosts a physical presence that can be interacted with and through proton manipulation, moved around and held indefinitely, killing them becomes less absurd. The movies can easily work around it by simply saying “we didn’t kill a ghost, we just destabilised it.”

Which honestly works for me. You don’t really need to explain further, you shot lasers at a thing until it turned to mist, righteo!

And that is a thing that actually happens in the 2016 film, during the final scenes the team squares off against an entire street of different kinds of human-shaped ghosts. And they don’t capture any of them, there are no prisoners in the 2016 film.

They successfully capture one ghost and then set it free to spite one of their biggest and most vocal naysayers. But the actual reason they don’t catch any ghosts in this one, is because they don’t have a containment grid until the END of the movie when the government has finally recognised their efforts and provides them funding.

Giving yet another reason why the authority figures in the 2016 version are better than the originals.

OK, that’s probably going to do it, because this became really long, really fast. But I would like to just very quickly speak directly about some criticisms the movie received.

“Women can’t be Ghostbusters”.

This is the most common one and it baffles me to no end. I don’t remember that being firmly established within the first two movies. I mean looking at the evidence you can at least say that until recently all Ghostbusters were male, but that in itself still doesn’t state that women CAN’T be Ghostbusters... 

I’ve also heard a variation of the argument, saying that it isn’t that they’re women it’s because they’re all women, and fair enough. I can’t say that the movie would or wouldn’t have been better or at least more favourably received if there were at least one male Ghostbuster, but that’s not the direction they took, so we’ll never know.

But ultimately there is nothing stopping women from putting on a back pack and shooting lasers at ghosts. Nothing at all. I could do it from my chair, it doesn’t take much effort. So any out-dated argument about it being a physically demanding, manly job for strong, manly men, just remember, the first movie was about three nerds shooting lasers at ghosts.

“There was a Queef joke within five minutes of the movie starting!”

That’s your metric for whether a movie is bad? are you fucking five? I’ve watched movies in the past where the central joke was that people fart. If a movie with a female cast want to make something their bodies do into a joke, then let them... in the grand scheme of things, one queef joke is nothing compared to the near endless stream of farts, poops, puke, burps and erections I’ve seen in movies. Fuck in Super Bad a girl has her period on a dudes leg. Now let me just go see... Nope I checked there isn’t mass hysteria in the streets over this...

Fucking grow up.

And it’s not even like it carries on that way throughout the movie. as I said, I’ve seen whole films about the core conceit that farts are funny.

But no, if the Ghostbusters want to make one throw away gag about yet another kind of gaseous expulsion, then that’s too far!

“All the men in the movie are stupid!”

Yeah, OK. Name a comedy that hasn’t included at least one stupid male character.

Also, only two of them are stupid in the typical sense. The rest are skeptical.

And I wouldn’t mind this argument if some of those characters weren’t justifiably stupid.

Let’s look at the classic example, Kevin the receptionist. So this is a man who is textbook handsome but absolutely stupid to the point of possibly being a danger to himself and others. But he kind of has to be that way.

You’re probably confused so let me validate that claim. He at some point saw a job listing to be a receptionist for a new private business, the name of the business is a bunch of long words he can’t even remember half the time but it’s something about paranormal whats-its and it’s located above a Chinese restaurant.

Would you, go for that job? I know money is tight for everyone, but still. imagine that job listing and then imagine the kind of person who would go for it.

And I bet you’re imagining the kind of person who takes the lenses out of their glasses to stop them from getting dirty.

“We don’t need to reboot Ghostbusters!”

Actually, I fully agree. This is my one major problem with the film. We didn’t need to reboot it.

I know it’s been 30 years since we had a Ghostbusters movie and reboot is the new original IP in the current movie business. But there is one line in the original move that validates spin-off movies over flat out reboots or remakes.

“The franchise rights alone will make us rich beyond our wildest dreams.”

This is a line that Venkman says to Ray when they gather the funding for their business.

The full intention was to make Ghostbusting a FRANCHISE, not a single business.

So there is in no uncertain terms more than enough wiggle room to create Ghostbuster movies set in different places. I mean what if it became an international franchise? the possibilities are now endless.

But they went with a reboot. Because.

And that is honestly the only major criticism I can think of.

[fourlynchclover]

1-60

1. selfie

ill post one from my phone in a sec

2. what would you name your future kids?

victoria lynn and patrick michael or michael patrick

3. do you miss anyone?

does it count if youre talking to the people you miss? whilst simultaneously missing them?

4. what are you looking forward to?

VIDCON. CALI. LA. STACY. FUCK YEAH

5. is there anyone who can always make you smile?

a couple of people, yes

6. is it hard for you to get over someone?

yeah bitch wtf

7. what was your life like last year?

i was dating someone who i’m not dating and i was employed 

8. have you ever cried because you were so annoyed?

yeah wtf

9. who did you last see in person?

my dog

10. are you good at hiding your feelings?

i dont know tbh 

11. are you listening to music right now?

no. spomngebob

12. what is something you want right now?

pepsi fuck

13. how do you feel right now?

my back hurts and im a lil sleepy

14. when was the last time someone of the opposite sex hugged you?

my brother probably earlier today 

15. personality description

lame shy awkward sad and always makin jokes 

16. have you ever wanted to tell someone something but you didn’t?

all the damn time bimnch

17. opinion on insecurities.

they valid. all of em

18. do you miss how things were a year ago?

kinda but at the same time not at all

19. have you ever been to New York?

not yet b

20. what is your favourite song at the moment?

idk but im obsessed w jason aldean again i love the song ‘this i gotta see’

21. age and birthday?

20, march 27th

22. description of crush.

:o scandalous 

23. fear(s)

dolls the dark ghosts sharks and dinosaurs

24. height

5′2 i am teeny tiny 

25. role model

stacy honestly??

26. idol(s)

melissa adele n stacy prob

27. things i hate

EVERYTHING jk i hate a lot of shit tho i dont have time for that 

28. i’ll love you if…

you can make me laugh, will watch youtube and spongebob and loud house with me, will play minecraft with me, and are stacy .

29. favourite film(s)

ghostbusters (2016) monsters inc finding nemo the lorax frozen the heat 

30. favourite tv show(s)

mike and molly, king of queens, bobs burgers

31. 3 random facts

im the same height as melissa, i have 3 pets, i have like 1 friend irl 

32. are your friends mainly girls or guys?

girls. wtf is a guy 

33. something you want to learn

italian

34. most embarrassing moment

i dont think i have one tbh 

35. favourite subject

english

36. 3 dreams you want to fulfill?

idk idk and idk 

37. favourite actor/actress

melissa godcarthy

38. favourite comedian(s)

melissa godcarthy

39. favourite sport(s)

hockey n wrestling

40. favourite memory

IDK i have a terible memory

41. relationship status

confusing binch!!! 

42. favourite book(s)

go ask alice n the unwind series

43. favourite song ever

skyfall by adele

44. age you get mistaken for

idk like 18 probably

45. how you found out about your idol

which one?????????

46. what my last text message says

‘ok that works’

47. turn ons

literally everything

48. turn offs

also literally everything 

49. where i want to be right now

cuddlin w a cute girl !!!!

50. favourite picture of your idol

WHICH ONE 

51. starsign

aries

52. something i’m talented at 

idk writing

53. 5 things that make me happy

melissa stacy jenna marbles spongebob n the loud house

54. something thats worrying me at the moment

money bitch!!!!

55. tumblr friends

am i supposed to tag them all………… kayla vanessa olive there r hella more but im tired n lazy

56. favourite food(s)

chicken. i fuckigngn love chuikcne

57. favourite animal(s)

polar bear n flamingo

58. description of my best friend

she cool

59. why i joined tumblr

i dont fuckign remmber 

60. ask me anything you want

what a missed opportunity