• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Ghostbusters Review Thread [Certified Fresh - 75%]

Status
Not open for further replies.
eh, the majority of those are from Monster Madness. Every year, he makes a video for every day in October talking about old horror movies to celebrate Halloween. And he's been doing it for like nine years now.

So he's been doing film crit for 9 years.

Film criticism doesn't begin and end with doing weekly reviews of new releases. Plenty of critics work within particular genres, or focus on classic films over new releases.
 
I like Devin more than I don't and generally agree with his opinions, but this part of his review sent my eyes a-rollin':



Come on already. Somebody's progressive/feminist values in life are not defined by whether or not they go to see this movie.




Clearly you were just a big racist and couldn't accept the idea of a black Johnny Storm!

His choice of words are important: "give this film a fair shake". He's not saying you have to like it, you may even hate it, but not giving the film at least an opportunity is going to be considered a problem by some.

Like I said though, I don't give a lot of films an opportunity simply based on their trailer. I'm sure everyone on GAF has not given films a fair shake based on a trailer. The thing with Ghostbusters is that there is a hell of a lot of judgement around whether or not you're giving the film a chance. My feeling on that is that if you don't want to see the film because the trailer didn't do it for you, great, but when you keep coming back to remind us and give detailed essay like reasons for why this new Ghostbusters film bothers you by its existence, well don't be surprised when someone calls you out on it.

When people keep coming in here saying that anyone who doesn't like the film is being called a misogynist, I find that really odd since most people haven't seen the film. I don't see any backlash against critics who have seen the film and gave it a negative review either. People are just looking at the level of vitriol for the trailers and saying it's beyond the normal level of hate you see for this sort of thing. I have to agree.
 
His choice of words are important: "give this film a fair shake". He's not saying you have to like it, you may even hate it, but not giving the film at least an opportunity is going to be considered a problem by some.

Like I said though, I don't give a lot of films an opportunity simply based on their trailer. I'm sure everyone on GAF has not given films a fair shake based on a trailer. The thing with Ghostbusters is that there is a hell of a lot of judgement around whether or not you're giving the film a chance. My feeling on that is that if you don't want to see the film because the trailer didn't do it for you, great, but when you keep coming back to remind us and give detailed essay like reasons for why this new Ghostbusters film bothers you by its existence, well don't be surprised when someone calls you out on it.

When people keep coming in here saying that anyone who doesn't like the film is being called a misogynist, I find that really odd since most people haven't seen the film. I don't see any backlash against critics who have seen the film and gave it a negative review either. People are just looking at the level of vitriol for the trailers and saying it's beyond the normal level of hate you see for this sort of thing. I have to agree.

This is exactly it. For example, David Ehrlich is a critic who's work I enjoy quite a bit. He hated the film. His review was fair and level-headed though and engaged with the film on it's own terms. None of this: "Not muh Ghostbusters" shit. No one's been upset with him.
 

Lothars

Member
The Rolfe thing is so weird.

I am a big Marvel and Fantastic Four fan but the trailers for the latest FF film were terrible so I didn't go and see it in theater. I don't think my reasoning is that far off from Rolfe's in that respect.

I do think going online and making a thing out of it does make him look like a bit of a tool though. Sexist, I'm not sure, but I think it was a bad idea to take such a hard vocal stance against seeing it.
I don't see why anyone was bothered by him not reviewing it and making a video on it. but it seemed like people wanted to strike at him because of it. I don't get it because it feels like it's the same thing as the people attacking anyone who was interested in the movie. People wanted to attach their agenda's to this movie.
 

MrBadger

Member
I like Devin more than I don't and generally agree with his opinions, but this part of his review sent my eyes a-rollin':

Come on already. Somebody's progressive/feminist values in life are not defined by whether or not they go to see this movie.

I think there's a difference between not bothering with this movie, and calling it a SJW man hating movie and actively rooting for it to fail while making excuses for every positive review. That seems to be the point that he's making.
 

bachikarn

Member
Wait, people actually thought there was a chance this would be a direct sequel? That possibility went away when Ramis died. We basically got the sequel with the Ghostbuster game.
 

Trokil

Banned
Negative word of mouth will give this film a boost at the box office.

Either the naysayers will go to feel vindicated or the doubters and diehards will go because of all the hot air being spewed around.

I don't think people will spend 20 bucks just to prove they were right or the others were wrong. That is not enough motivation to watch a movie.
 
Wait, people actually thought there was a chance this would be a direct sequel? That possibility went away when Ramis died. We basically got the sequel with the Ghostbuster game.

Even with Ramis' death, it could have been done that way. A film passing the torch to the new women. It's probably better Feig did his own thing though.
 

ExVicis

Member
Negative word of mouth will give this film a boost at the box office.

Either the naysayers will go to feel vindicated or the doubters and diehards will go because of all the hot air being spewed around.

Really? I don't see why they HAVE to see it right away. A person with doubts like my girlfriend can easily just wait for it to get to our local drafthouse theater for $2 so they can watch it there while drinking. Or can wait until it's on Redbox.
 

Lothar

Banned
Does it say that?



Oh.

Yes.

Faraci said:
but there’s a weird sense that something is being unsaid. Or maybe it’s just not being consciously considered but rather is bubbling just under the surface. Casual, unthinking sexism.

I don't know why people who defend AVGN do so by belittling his work. He absolutely is a movie reviewer and to suggest he isn't is an insult to him. He has over 300 film reviews cataloged on his website.

His reviews aren't to be taken seriously. They're just what he wants to see vs what he doesn't want to see. He may spend a video ranting about a movie just because it doesn't have Shredder or something. He's not really a movie reviewer.
 

Sanjuro

Member
Even with Ramis' death, it could have been done that way. A film passing the torch to the new women. It's probably better Feig did his own thing though.

Stanz - Alright you crazy women. Here is our NES Advantage. You use this to control the Statue of Liberty. Good luck!

*blank stares*
 

jstripes

Banned
This movie's tested my patience with a few people I know.

I can't remember the last time people really loudly wanted you to know how much they don't plan on seeing this movie and their thoughts on the leads of the movie they have NO intentions of seeing.

You can't remember the last time because this is pretty much the first time it's gotten to this level for a movie.

The last two years of the internet have been an unending manchild temper tantrum. Like, there used to be regular and isolated outbursts over various things, but this one is like the red spot on Jupiter, a gigantic storm that spun up a a long time ago and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon. A persistent culture of geek outrage.
 

Bluth54

Member
I've looked through some of the reviews and haven't changed my mind on this. I'll see it eventually when it comes out on Blu Ray but I'm not going to bother seeing it in the theater despite Ghostbusters being my favorite movie of all time. Much like I suspected from the trailers it seems like the type of humor isn't anything like the type of humor in Ghostbusters for the most part, which is too bad because I'm not automatically opposed to Hollywood doing remakes after enough time has passed from the original. Seems like Fieg made a movie with the same type of humor that he has for his other movies which is not something I'm interested in, after a few decades since the last movie I wanted another movie with Ghostbusters style humor not something with a different style of humor.
 
Really? I don't see why they HAVE to see it right away. A person with doubts like my girlfriend can easily just wait for it to get to our local drafthouse theater for $2 so they can watch it there while drinking. Or can wait until it's on Redbox.

Because you are level-headed and probably don't have a dog in this fight. Some people have more money than sense and a point to prove.

This has been the problem with the movie all along, it's become a battle of attrition over peoples opinions from both sides, it's hard to know where the motivations come from though on both sides of the debate, some people genuinely like the movie, some genuinely dislike it but then you also have people who are being sexist and also people who are incapable of seperating a small minority of idiots from a majority of individuals.

I mean the best way to approach this movie is based on if you enjoyed watching it or not, anything else is truly pointless in my opinion, I think if people took that approach to it then they would be more relaxed about the whole thing but now you basically have people wanting to say "I told you so" from both sides which is not only childish but basically tells me this movie means very little to them in the first place and it's little more than a political tool or a device to vindicate their own views.

Yep, people from both sides have ingrained themselves so deep into their own opinion of a movie that they haven't seen yet, that no one is a winner.
 
I don't envy anyone tasked with doing a reboot or remake for a beloved franchise. If they veer too far from the path, then people eviscerate them for not getting every bit of minutae right - from mimicking the tone of the original ("The original wasn't really a comedy at all!") to details of the weapons ("While the proton packs shot beams that interacted with the ghosts, they NEVER could whip them around the way they do in the new one!"). And, alternatively, if they try to placate the fans of the original by acknowledging in its own way some of the "founding fathers" so to speak, they're playing it too safe and behaving too derivatively.


A reboot for a beloved franchise will never appease everyone, so I'm okay with the reviews its gotten thus far.
 
This has been the problem with the movie all along, it's become a battle of attrition over peoples opinions from both sides, it's hard to know where the motivations come from though on both sides of the debate, some people genuinely like the movie, some genuinely dislike it but then you also have people who are being sexist and also people who are incapable of seperating a small minority of idiots from a majority of individuals.

I mean the best way to approach this movie is based on if you enjoyed watching it or not, anything else is truly pointless in my opinion, I think if people took that approach to it then they would be more relaxed about the whole thing but now you basically have people wanting to say "I told you so" from both sides which is not only childish but basically tells me this movie means very little to them in the first place and it's little more than a political tool or a device to vindicate their own views.

Nailed it. There's no pride in being *right* in this case, and you can't REALLY be right in because well, it's VERY hard to declare a movie *factually* bad or good unless it's VERY BAD or VERY GOOD. Anything in between will always have its quality up for debate.

Which is part of why the shenanigans online, including sometimes in this thread, have been annoying. Posts like "movie is just what I expected, mediocre" are silly because you have people writing this without watching it. An example of a more reasonable post would be "reviews are just what I expected", but there's some desire for people to line up results with the narrative they've had forming for months or years.

It's fine if people don't want to watch it, but they also need to understand that limits their ability to discuss the movie's quality as a whole. And the same goes for people blindly defending it.

As for the 'sexism' thing - don't be afraid to say you think it looks dumb, or after you watch it that it's bad. That's fine. Most well adjusted people will respect that, if someone calls you out for hating women or something because you don't like Feig movies then that's their problem.
 

Protome

Member
I'm glad this seems to have ended up working out well and the trailers weren't indicative of the quality of the film.

Will probably go see it after work some point this week!
 

Goodstyle

Member
I don't understand why anyone would be mad at Feig or this movie for killing a GB3 or same universe continuity, when that's 100% Bill Murray's fault. He absolutely did not want to continue the GB canon for whatever reason, people should acknowledge that more.
 

Blader

Member
His choice of words are important: "give this film a fair shake". He's not saying you have to like it, you may even hate it, but not giving the film at least an opportunity is going to be considered a problem by some.

His choice of words is exactly what I'm talking about, though. If I don't want to see it, why is that a blow to my personal progressive/feminist values?

I don't know if I'm going to see the movie in theaters -- I'm more likely to catch it at home some time down the road -- but if I don't, it's because the trailers didn't look great and because I generally haven't liked Paul Feig's movies all that much, not because this movie stars four women. That's why I find the suggestion that anyone's personal feminism and progressivism hinges on whether or not they buy a ticket to this movie absurd.

I'm not ignorant to the fact that many people are outright boycotting the film for no reason other than casting four women as the leads, but I kind of resent the implication of being lumped in with those people if I decide not to see the movie for reasons that have nothing to do with misogyny and everything to do with the marketing and/or the director's track record.

("Resent" is a bit of an overstatement, btw, I'm not that up in arms about it. :lol I just thought it was kind of a dumb statement on Devin's part.)
 
I don't understand why anyone would be mad at Feig or this movie for killing a GB3 or same universe continuity, when that's 100% Bill Murray's fault. He absolutely did not want to continue the GB canon for whatever reason,people should acknowledge that more.

GB3 would have sucked anyway. At least with this, even if it may not be your particular cup of tea, there's a younger generation of kids who might embrace it as their own. And that is a good thing no matter how you look at it.
 
Yes.





His reviews aren't to be taken seriously. They're just what he wants to see vs what he doesn't want to see. He may spend a video ranting about a movie just because it doesn't have Shredder or something. He's not really a movie reviewer.

Film criticism doesn't begin and end with doing weekly reviews of new releases. Plenty of critics work within particular genres, or focus on classic films over new releases.

Additionally, dude's making money from publishing film reviews. That makes him a professional critic, and it means his work is open to criticism just as much as any other author publishing criticism professionally is. "His reviews aren't to be taken seriously" is a cop-out.
 

Nudull

Banned
I don't understand why anyone would be mad at Feig or this movie for killing a GB3 or same universe continuity, when that's 100% Bill Murray's fault. He absolutely did not want to continue the GB canon for whatever reason, people should acknowledge that more.

Blaming women and SJWs is so much easier, though.
 

TheBowen

Sat alone in a boggy marsh
The absolute salt im hearing from people on twitter and youtube comments

Accusing sony of paying off people to write good reviews

Its not sonys fault people started hating on a movie before it even came out, and want it to fail because its 'feminist propaganda'
 

Sephzilla

Member
I think keeping the movie in the same universe would have been better. You don't need Murray there to pass the torch. Have Akroyd be the Spock Prime of the movie. Also, we already got a solid Ghostbusters 3 in the video game
 

Sanjuro

Member
It's 80%

Let the salt flow (will see this week)

YytrBrf.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom