There may be no movie from the last several years that has been under a microscope as much as the new "Ghostbusters." Fewer people were worried about new "Star Wars" movies. Many believed that the "Ghostbusters" should never have been touched by another filmmaker, and the fact that the new version was such a radical departure from the old only re-enforced many of those opinions.
The new "Ghostbusters" isn't perfect. Almost nobody is saying it's better than the original. Except that the two films are so different it's honestly difficult to really compare the two. The new "Ghostbusters" is really impressive. As a movie in its own right, it works. In a few cases, there are even things that it does better than the original. The rest of the time, it makes a concerted effort simply to do things differently, so that it can walk its own, completely independent path, separate from its franchise predecessors.
A totally different tone
From practically the opening line of "Ghostbusters,” it's made clear that this is not your father's, or possibly your, "Ghostbusters.” Jokes about an anti-Irish security fence or P.T. Barnum's plan to enslave elephants would never have had a place in Ivan Reitman's movie. The original "Ghostbusters" is certainly a funny movie, but the style of humor is very different.
Paul Feig makes it evident that they're not making the same movie here, and they do it before a single female Ghostbuster ever shows up on the screen. The trope of the beautiful, but idiotic, secretary, is a trope of many films, but it wasn't in the first movie. Chris Hemsworth's entire performance is there to do something very different.
It's a real ensemble cast
While both teams of Ghostbusters have four members, the original was only barely an ensemble cast. What it really was, was a Bill Murray movie with Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as supporting characters, and then Ernie Hudson showed up midway into the film. The new "Ghostbusters" gives all of their players a chance to shine, and it does so from the beginning. The team comes together much earlier in the reboot and while Kristen Wiig's character is the one that brings us to the party, once we're there, we follow the entire team as a group. Four distinct characters gives us four kinds of comedy from beginning to end.
Kate McKinnon
While the movie does have a solid ensemble cast, there is one standout who needs to be addressed. We're not the first to sing the praises of Kate McKinnon's performance, and we won't be the last, but goddamn is she impressive. She's quirky, and funny, and she rocks out in the best "Rhythm of the Night" related dance scene since "The Last Dragon.” This is Jillian Holtzmann's world now, we're all just living in it. Men love her and women want to ... actually, women love her too, we're fairly certain. We're even going to let the fact that she doesn't know Debarge from Devo slide.
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