The Internet hate surrounding Ghostbusters is something both anyone who’s been on the Internet for more than a day could predict would happen. It’s also entirely infuriating that said Internet has no wishes to beat our expectations, but actually lower them.
While I’m proud to engage in all manner of nerdy activities, I will not hesitate to call out the nerd/geek communities as some of the worst people you could ever encounter. Whether it’s remaking classics or adapting comic books or simply criticizing an adaptation’s flawed characters and storytelling, there is a deeply-held, entirely misguided sense of entitlement I notice time and time again with anything attempting to be at all different. More than entitled, I think these fans legitimately feel a right of ownership of these properties, as though having some connection to any given source material automatically grants them entrance to an exclusive and elite club dubbed “the real fans.” And because they are “real fans” they should, in their mind, have more of a say over what goes into a movie or a more valid opinion regarding it than those responsible for its creation (for example, Captain America: Steve Rogers No. 1), because the evil studios and critics are outsiders and will never “truly” understand what these characters mean. With Ghostbusters, specifically, just the idea of replacing the iconic cast with women is a great betrayal to the 1984 classic’s values.
This is, of course, deluded.
Somehow these trolls have gotten it into their head that this movie is spitting on a legacy Ivan Reitman’s classic left behind. This branch of the Internet expects, and perhaps even wants this movie to go down in history in the lowest echelon of film. Sharing a place on the Wall of Shame alongside The Room and Batman & Robin. The “why” is no secret. Paul Feig’s latest has become the singular face of “SJWs” and “feminazis,” making movies featuring women in leading roles and Hollywood’s remake culture recycling recognizable brands rather than promoting originality. So if these “real fans” can will this movie to bomb, they can hope to derail this train entirely and just stick to the assembly line of serialized shoot-em-up action films with rugged-male-heroes-with-nothing-left-to-lose we see year after year.
Of course not all of this movie’s detractors are this simple-minded. Many of them would be happy to see more female-led movies, and some of them might even be on board with a Ghostbusters of the 21st century. But Ghostbusters is such an iconic film that virtually everyone has seen growing up, it’s impossible to tell them apart from these misogynistic rage machines.
Personally, I believe Ghostbusters is a truly great film (if you have 40 minutes to kill, here’s a great take why). But there is nothing Paul Feig or Melissa McCarthy or Sony or anyone can do that can possibly take the quality and enjoyment so many of us feel about the original away from us. There is no legacy that will be ruined and besmirched by simply attaching the Ghostbusters name to this. What’s more, I think all the people engaging in this all-too-common harassment fail to understand the characters they claim to defend, bullying and getting irate at a set of people who dare to be different. And while McCarthy may currently be the face of lowbrow, dumb humor, she’s an undeniably funny comedienne. I think there are some people who hated this movie from the second it was announced, and there are some more rational-minded individuals who look at what’s presented and not into the past. But as far as the actual movie goes, I think it looks like a very bad movie. But just that. A bad movie. Lord knows we’ve had more than enough of those this year and we’ve all come out the other side unscathed. And I’d be truly shocked if this one ends up being the worst thing I’ll see all year.
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I was not a fan of the first two trailers, but I have to say the trailers that have played on TV for the past month or two have really changed my mind about this movie. Checking it out on Saturday, hoping it’s going to be awesome.