Would you believe me if I told you that the best version of a Ghostbusters (2016) trailer just dropped online? Would you even care at this point? Paul Feig’s summer blockbuster, an attempt to retell the classic Ghostbusters story with an all-female team, is facing an unprecedented uphill battle. Certain moviegoers have adopted this harmless comedy as the hill on which they’re ready to battle against remakes, gender-swaps, and all sorts of ills dogging the studio system. At this point, it doesn’t even seem relevant that the movie could be funny, as this new international trailer actually suggests:
This is the second Ghostbusters trailer to drop this week. It’s the funnier of the two, and in my honest opinion, it’s the best representation of what we think Paul Feig’s film is going to do when it arrives in July: Mix humor and cutting-edge special effects into a familiar Ghostbusters story that just happens to center on a female team. The jokes in this version of the trailer are paced better than they even were in the domestic clip that dropped a few days ago. (Watch it here.) Kate McKinnon continues to steal scenes. Chris Hemsworth chimes in, but isn’t a distracting focus. The ghosts look more intimidating than they ever did in the previous two Ghostbusters films. Sure, the Patty-Dragon concert bit is still too silly, but this looks like it could be a good time at the movies!
Unfortunately, I’m afraid the Ghostbusters marketing team might be too late in terms of picking the right lane in which to appeal to the Ghostbusters fan base. Internet outrage regarding this remake has been bubbling over this week, chiefly due to an unexpected video message filmed by Cinemassacre refusing to "review" the movie – not because of the female cast, but because he’s opposed to any type of Ghostbusters reboot. It’s a spectacularly close-minded response to cinema, and unprofessional for anyone pretending to do this type of work to dismiss a movie, sight unseen. And yet, The Angry Video Game Nerd’s opinion on Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters was shared by many on the Internet, and debates raged on.
In the midst of this online outrage, Sony tried to sell its movie with the aforementioned trailers. And as I said, I think this newest one – posted above – is legitimately good. Maybe even great. Is it too late, though, for Sony’s marketing team to win over on-the-fence fans? I’m afraid that might be the case. Ghostbusters isn’t just a movie anymore. It’s a cause. It’s a line drawn in the sand, a catalyst for online discussion that, sadly, turns aggressive and accusatory quicker than you can say "proton pack."
Which is unfortunate. Because I don’t believe that Paul Feig and his cast of undoubtedly hilarious women set out to make a lightning rod of social justice with Ghostbusters. I believe they set out to make an entertaining, funny, goofy and scary update of a story that they love as much as we do, a Ghostbusters for a new generation. And this new trailer suggests that they succeeded. But I also fear it might be too late for people to receive that message over the static noise being generated on social media.
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