Seth Rex wrote: 1. Reboot. Why reboot Ghostbusters?
My understanding is that Sony's studio departments haven't been making much money of late. Instead of gambling on something new, they decided to revisit an old property and I guess it was easier to get Ghostbusters going rather than a new MiB and they recently failed with Spider-Man.
Seth Rex wrote: 2. The disappointment that fans were not getting a proper Ghostbusters 3 (Coincides with #1)
I understand from interviews with Reitman and Aykroyd that they felt, after Mr Ramis' passing, doing a direct sequel without a key creative component either wouldn't work or wouldn't feel right. I get it.
Seth Rex wrote: 3. Woman Ghostbusters. Yes, I'm pretty sure this was not just Sony being idiots, there were some people who hated the idea of Woman Ghostbusters...or for that matter, an ALL woman team.
I, for one, have absolutely no issues with women Ghostbusters. I just wish they had been better-written characters. I'm happy to see the influence the movie has had on a generating a new generation of fans, especially with such a high percentage of girls among them. We gotta keep our Ghosthead ranks filled somehow, don't we? I also can't wait to hear 20 years down the road when they reboot the franchise again that one of those girls ended up in a STEAM field because of this movie.
Seth Rex wrote: 4. Once the trailer hit, yes, the group of people who openly thought the movie looked like shit.
After having seen the movie a few times, I agree, there could have been 3 or 4 other trailers cut from the film that would have landed better and been a more accurate view of the picture.
Overall, I'll say that I appreciate the swing of "hate" from the cast to the film itself. Don't get me wrong, there are still those who hate the cast, and that bugs me a lot. I don't necessarily agree with or appreciate the comic choices they made in the film, myself either; but I recognise that they are just that: choices. It doesn't mean that the cast are poor actors, or that they're terrible human beings, they just made choices I don't always agree with. I think some of those choice stem from characters that weren't as thoroughly thought-out or well-written enough. Some of them also stem from what "modern" comedies feel is funny these days.
Lastly, I think some of these choices come from the tone of the movie compared to the original. To me, the original featured a quartet of comedians (joined by other actors) playing characters relatively straight (emotionally/comically, not sexuality lol) in a fun horror flick. I feel that's what audiences were hoping for and instead received an orchestra of comedians playing "funny" characters in a comedy that had special effects.
I don't appreciate those who use their dissatisfaction with the choices made as personal attacks on those who made them. I may be opening a can of worms here, but as a relatively new father, I can tell you that there are women who follow "breast is best" and those who choose formula. Neither of them are bad mothers because of this choice. I feel that there are ghostheads who should learn the difference between the choices people make versus the people making them.
Also, to those who take this reboot as a personal attack, or that it somehow destroys the original or your childhood, I'll echo a statement that I've heard often with reboots: go look on your shelf, is the original movie still there? Yes? Then the original is still intact. Did the movie somehow go back in time and kill the family dog you had as a kid? No? Then your childhood isn't ruined.
I highly recommend to everyone that you go out and watch all the Highlander movies. Why? Because from those movies, I learned that it can be okay to have movies of conflicting cannon, varying styles, and varying production quality all under the same banner since they all follow the same core principle. Each movie is a different take on a core concept. They aren't all related to each other, and sometimes the content of one conflicts with the content of the others. Sure the latter is a bit annoying, but I find it's been a good lesson for me to learn as a movie watcher.