Ghostbusters Review

"Who you gonna call? .... Ghostbusters!"


Ghostbusters is a reboot of the classic Ghostbusters franchise and was directed by Paul Feig and stars the likes of Melissa McCarthy as Abby Yates, Kristen Wiig as Erin Gilbert, Kate McKinnon as Jillian Holtzmann, Leslie Jones as Patty Tolan and Chris Hemsworth as Kevin. The film follows four women who join together to form the Ghostbusters to investigate paranormal encounters and end up saving New York from loads of ghosts being set free in the city. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding this film since the film was announced but I am not here to talk about the controversy surrounding the film I am here to give my honest opinion on what I thought of the film.

As a fan of the original Ghostbusters films I was really looking forward to this film and hoped that it would give some new life into the old franchise but I have to admit that I was disappointed with this film (I probably set my expectations way to high!) but we will get onto that later on. Now lets start off with what I enjoyed about this film, honestly I thought the film had a strong opening, it really created a creepy feel to the film, especially setting up the first ghostly encounter which set a really good tone to the start of the film (but this doesn't last long!). I also enjoyed some of the new characters that where introduced in this film one that really stood out for me was Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon). I really enjoyed seeing this mad scientist like character just having fun creating all these weird ghost hunting tools for the team and I personally found her to be one of the more interesting and funny characters in this film along with Chris Hemsworth who plays Kevin who literally is so stupid that it is funny and a lot of the jokes are played around Kevin and his appearance and intelligence. The film also has some good throwbacks to the original film including a certain special location and character appearances (I won't spoil them for you!).

On the other hand there was a lot that did disappoint me about this film, seeing as though there were a lot of comedic talent in this film, for example the likes of  Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, I just really did not find the film funny at all apart from the odd joke by Jillian or Kevin, but even then most of those jokes by those characters fell flat as well, as do most of the jokes in the film (that's saying something as those were the two of the funniest characters for me!). I also felt like this film was rushed as well so that the filmmakers could just show off the new Ghostbusters team together in action fighting ghosts, but for me I would of liked a lot more time developing these characters which would of allowed me to form a stronger connection with these new characters on screen. I also did not feel like the Ghostbusters where in any sense of danger as well, this is probably down to the fact that not enough time was actually spent developing these characters so I was not able to build any attachments to the characters. Even the final set piece of the film was rushed and personally felt it went by way to quickly and did not have the sense of danger that I expected, even when loads of ghosts are charging towards the Ghostbusters and the ghosts are being killed off (can they really be killed off again??) there really isn't a sense that these characters are in danger at all.

Overall I was really disappointed with this film, there are definitely some good areas of the film including some wacky characters and some really nice throwbacks for the fans of the original franchise, but I really did not find this film funny at all, sure there are some jokes that were funny and comedic characters such as Jillian and Kevin but nearly all of the jokes fell flat for me. Personally I don't think you will miss anything if you decide to skip this film but if you do decide to watch it don't expect anything like the original films.

Verdict: 2 out of 5 stars