One of the saddest and most pathetic examples of the negative aspect of the internet came from the ‘’controversy’’ surrounding the 2016 remake of Ghostbusters. Based on a highly popular original film made in 1984, Ghostbuster was a film that logically shouldn’t have worked with a heavily mixed tone and pretty goofy scenario, but with great comedic talent, imaginative effects, and a bunch of entertaining and creepy imagery, it lasted the test of time and is still loved today, However it was lightning in a bottle as it could never be replicated as its own sequel proved to be quite underwhelming and not nearly worthy a follow-up. When this movie was announced to be an all-female based version of the film, the reactions were about as obvious as expected, yet somehow even more sad. If someone wanted to see it, they were betraying the original and knew nothing about movies, if someone did not want to see it, they were a sexist pig. There was no right with this movie and with horrible advertising, the film did not do well upon release. Set in a separate universe to the original ghostbusters, Paranormal researcher Abby (played by Melissa McCarthy) and neuroscientist Erin (played by Kristen Wiig) find themselves the proof they need when they encounter a physical spectre. Along with fellow engineer Jillian (played by Kate McKinnon), railway booth operator Patty (played by Leslie Jones) and all looks no brains Kevin (played by Chris Hemsworth), the group form the ghostbusters to find and contain any ghosts that pop up around the city, unaware that they are being summoned by a person who seeks to release them upon the world. Never before has a movie with such hate surrounding it been the perfect epitome of ‘’meh’’. The film does have a good amount of dumb unfunny material, wastes a lot of its celebrity cameos, and tries way too hard to repeat the first film instead of being its own thing, but the film also has some creative spooks, some good funny actors, and enough positive aspects to make it a perfectly fine film.

This movie struggles with a very serious repetitive problem; for every good funny creative element that is featured in this movie, it’s always followed by something generic, dumb, and unfunny element. Its like the film featured two teams; one that wanted to create something different with this idea and take it to the next level, and another who through fan aggression and Sony pandering, had no other option but to play it safe and try not to aggravate to many people. Due to this mindset, way too many of the film’s elements that seem to be drifting away from the first film’s status quo get trimmed down or forgotten about altogether instead paving way for a ton of call-backs and cameos that feel like unneeded training wheels for the film. The director of the movie, Paul Feig who also worked on films like Spy and The Heat has a very specific form of writing his films and it’s a style of comedy that can work in the Ghostbusters universe, yet it is a very acquired taste as it can often be very immature and dragged-out. While the pacing is pretty decent, a lot of jokes either miss their mark or take way too long for something that is not even that funny to begin with. If the film as allowed to explore more of the concepts that it created for itself as opposed to having to squeeze in so many needless references that drag the film down rather than give it goodwill. The film is also pretty kid friendly and really lacking a sense of fear and adultness that the previous film did so well at balancing; with the only reason that the film gets a PG is because of some swear words and choice phrasing. To go from a film with a legitimately creepy and cool tone to one that feels way too watered down to appeal to the younger audiences is pretty noticeable.

The characters for the film are pretty one-note and feel like rushed out basic cartoon characters. They have their one personality trait and instead of coming across like real people, they feel more like constructed characters. Most of the plotlines they set-up go nowhere and other times it feels like they have no idea what to do with them outside of a few running jokes, but what makes most of the film tolerable is the choice of the actresses. All four of these women have very good comedic timing and handle most of their terrible material pretty well, even if what is being said is pretty unfunny, it can be made better because of how effort the four are putting into it. Chris Hemsworth has some fun moments as the secretary although they do sometimes go a bit too overboard with how stupid they make his character; its exactly like the rest of the movie, half his stuff is legitimately funny and the other stuff is going too far. The cameos from the original ghostbusters in different roles are just wasted; Sigourney Weaver, Annie Potts and Ernie Hudson are barely utilised, Dan Aykroyd’s bit could have been good but it went on too long, and Bill Murray as a sceptic to the Ghostbusters sounds really funny, yet he never says anything funny in his bit part. Outside of a very nice Harold Ramis tribute, they are pretty much wasted throughout. The villain of the movie is extremely forgettable and lazy; no character, no personality, no good lines, no backstory, no interesting plan or motive, played by a pretty bad actor, not even any sense of threat or humor, just some guy who does bad stuff, easily the worst part of the film.

Going against the first film’s effects are pretty tricky as the first film’s effects are really good and work on creative, scary, and funny way which is not easy to accomplish. Even if not all of them hold up very well, they are distinctly their own and not so easily replicated. Thankfully, this film took a different approach and decided to create their ghosts in a different way, with designs that feel very reminiscent to the cartoon show made in 1986 called The Real Ghostbusters. Each having their own fun gimmick and visual look, they are not as cool as the previous examples, but they work enough in this film. While the CG has its own problems as each ghost gets a little more fake as the film goes on, the climax at the end uses this in a positive and negative way. The negative is that it gets so overused and fills the area with so much CGI that it gets suffocating almost, along with the standard clichés of a portal in the sky, a discount giant monster in the city, and even a 90s crotch shot. But with that said, it takes it time to show off some of the cool action. The action for the film is surprisingly done better here than it was in the original; as opposed to just pointing sticks to attack, this film features a lot of cool new contraptions, a lot of flips and stunts, and weapons that can punch ghosts and shred them up, it’s a nice variety and leads to some fun moments during the climax. The new music for the film is either forgettable or trashy with how modern it sounds.

For something that was build up as destroying the franchise, this is the most harmless underwhelming creation made under that title. At the end of the day, Ghostbuster 2016 is a flawed product; it has so much paranoia about what to put in that it leaves the film feeling unfinished and somewhat lazy, for every good joke it has, its immediately followed up by an unfunny one, and it wastes a lot of its good potential by being too much like a the original film which can never be replicated. But when all is said and done removing every bit of background history or advertising problems; is this movie as good as the original, nowhere near, does it have a lot of bad things in it, definitely, is this one of the worst films ever made, of course not. The reactions this film got from both sides of the extreme are ridiculous and incredibly toxic, to the point where it was impossible to just have a unique opinion like a normal human being. For all it does bad, the film still has some very good main actress, a creative visual and idea and at least tried to do something different, which is something even the original Ghostbusters couldn’t do with their sequel basically repeating the same thing they already did. If you want to see it, see it, if you do not want to see it, don’t see it, just let it be your own opinion as opposed to what others tell you to do. Ghostbusters is an icon that will never be forgotten, and whether or not the fanbase has ruined the way people view the franchise nowadays, always remember there is never anyway to remove what we always loved.