A
lot has been made about the new Ghostbusters, mostly in terms of its switching
genders of the lead roles. Those who
have disliked it have been called sexists, and those who do like it have been
said to be ruining their childhoods.
Both are absurd statements... well, mostly. There are chauvinistic trolls, but the
majority of people had a true gripe about this reboot. But why did this in particular get so much
extra attention?
I
have a very specific reason why the creation of this movie annoys me, and I
think it gets to the heart of why it stood out for a lot of other people,
too. There are a number of movies and TV
shows that have female protagonists that came out, and only the true assholes
complained that the star didn't have a dick.
The rest of us didn't mind because the story and the characters looked
really good. Even when something was
rebooted with a female lead, like Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica, most of us
didn't bat an eye. But when Ghostbusters
came out and said we're making this again with all female leads, those of us
who hadn't had a problem before were suddenly annoyed.
Why?
Because
that's ALL the studio said. They didn't
explain why they felt it warranted a remake, or what they could add. They didn't explain the story or who the
characters would be. They didn't even
try to make excuses. They just said,
"Look! It's Ghostbusters! And they're all women!"
The
problem with this is that they were using two things to manipulate audiences: The brand name, and feminism.
Rather
than doing what the original film did and coming up with an interesting,
original story with unique and enjoyable characters, they cynically took a
brand name with monetary value and threw it at us, pretending to be paying
homage to the original. And to hide the
fact that they really had nothing but a desire to profit off the brand name,
they threw a bunch of women up front and said, "See? We're progressive!"
This
goes to the point I'm making about them using feminism to their own greedy
ends. Feminists shouldn't be defending
this movie, they should be appalled by it.
There are few examples more blatant than this one of a company using
their cause for their own gain. For
months the studio kept saying, "Look!
We've got women in this!" without saying anything else about
it. There was nothing about the plot,
what the characters were like, what made them interesting or unique. Just a bunch of "you have to like this
movie or you're a sexist!" They're
still using that marketing campaign during this first weekend of release.
It's
sounding like the movie itself is okay, but not particularly good. The biggest problem I'm hearing is that it's
basically soulless and cliché, even from people who like the film. This is not a surprise at all considering the
fact that the film is so much more about making money on the brand than making
a good film.
The
studio is still tone deaf to the problem, also.
They heard the complaints and their solution was to make another movie
with all male leads. This shows their
absolute obliviousness. The problem has
nothing to do with the gender of the lead.
It has everything to do with them making a huge deal about that one
thing and not caring about the rest. If
they truly wanted to pay homage to the original Ghostbusters, they wouldn't do
these reboots, and they wouldn't even try to do a Ghostbusters 3. They would do what the original writers and
producers of Ghostbusters did; they would come up with a new, original idea
with interesting and enjoyable characters and they would take a chance on
it. Is it risky? Yes.
Does it have the definite value of a brand name? No.
It's what real artists and comedians do; like those who made the
original, and really only, Ghostbusters.
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