Ghostbusters is important to me. In fact of all the things I've grown to love in the geek world, Ghostbusters is at the top. Yes, more important than the big 3 of Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, or any number of amazing comic book film franchises. Why? Because Ghostbusters was my gateway to geekdom and it's what started everything for me. I know most people got their start into geekdom by any of the latter choices I mentioned but Ghostbusters was the ticket for me. It's one of the first movies I can truly remember watching. At the time it was by VHS rental in the living room with Mom and Dad. I suppose I was probably too young to have been watching it, and I admit for years I couldn't watch that 1 minute window at the beginning of the movie when the librarian ghost jumps at the team. What held my attention through out the rest of the movie was the special effects, the costumes and those awesome looking proton packs. As soon as I saw the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and toys, I was all over it. I ran around the house all day with my proton pack zapping ghosts and watching the movie over and over again on VHS. I'm surprised the tape held out honestly.
Then comes Ghostbusters 2. It released on my birthday and what better birthday present than getting to see it in theaters. To this day I don't understand the hate for it because at the time it had all I needed from a sequel. More special effects and time busting ghosts. I understand it was more of the same but I loved it! I got to see it twice in theaters and the Ghostbusters craze stuck with me.
Over the years I continued to watch Ghostbusters over and over, and it grew with me. As I got older, I began understanding all the jokes and dialogue a bit better. Catching things that fly over the head of a 6 year old. The movies got funnier and funnier to me, all while still being completely absorbed into what hooked me from the beginning. Later on in life I was able to work on a proton pack project with a good friend of mine and we built out my first convention pack and costume. Ultimately it wasn't the greatest, but it was a close enough mock up I felt good about it. Finally I got to grow up to be a Ghostbuster, something I told my family at least a hundred times when I was a kid that I was going to do.
As a fan I always wanted more and I always got super excited whenever rumors would start up about Ghostbusters 3. Finally a chance to see everyone back together again! Then time and time again it falls through. It hits the point that, I understand the guys are getting up there a bit and probably couldn't pull off being Ghostbusters anymore. I understand it is time to pass on the torch. I read the rumors from Eliza Dushku to Emma Stone. Paul Rudd to Bill Hader. All people I would have loved to see in a team together. I didn't care about the gender. I just wanted a fresh team to carry on the torch after it was passed to them by the old guard. In fact from the majority of interviews that was the plan, and it had been mentioned so much it's what the fans expected and wanted. Which leads us to now.
Sony knew what the fans wanted. It's not hard to see what the demand was and in typical Hollywood fashion, Sony pulled the "we think we know better" card. We get the talentless hack Paul Feig. I throw the hate at him because he could have took the high road. The man does comedy, which is important for Ghostbusters obviously but then instead of doing the logical thing he has to be a one trick pony. He could have gave the fans what they wanted and had the old team pass the torch to a new team. It could have been a mixed team. There was no rule saying the Ghostbusters had to be all men. I liked prior female casting rumors when Ghostbusters 3 was a possibility. Instead he has to reboot it, attach his gimmick and make Bridesmaidsbusters. Which is all it is. He may try and convince everyone it's not a gimmick but it's exactly what it is. He's gone out of his way to make it that and it doesn't work for Ghostbusters. He's gone out of his way to mock fans and make commentary that basically screams I'm doing this with an agenda in mind. Ghostbusters was an established universe with plenty of opportunities for those "franchise rights" to explore well developed teams with a mix of the very best comedians Hollywood had to offer.
All this has left us with is a divided fan base. I wish I could say I'm sorry but I'm not. No true fan would support this parody of Ghostbusters cause that's all it really is at this point. In fact, I think I'll just start calling it Parodybusters. It's time to take a stand as fans. Hollywood knows what we want and it's not that hard to see what the people are saying and what they expect from a franchise. We have to put our foot down and stop supporting a product we don't want. Most any other industry if fan outrage is enough a company will listen. Whether it's Ghostbusters or Fantastic Four, we can't keep saying "Oh I'll give it a shot", when it's pretty obvious from Hollywood's track record it won't be up to par. Even in cases when something was "not that bad" or just "all right". I think the only company that understands this so far seems to be Marvel Studios. They seem to be listening to the fans and are in it for the fans. They've given us a product that's pretty darn close to the comic in most cases, if not ripped straight from the pages. It's why they are so successful. They give the people what they want! In the Marvel age, why should we give Sony or Fox any slack when it comes to franchises we love.
As a true die-hard Ghostbusters fan, I will not see this movie. I will not support it. We need to speak with our wallets on this one and take a stand as fans. Sony needs to give us the product we deserve.
As a final note, I do find it sad to hear certain celebrities giving their support for this. I'm finding a good portion of them to be questionable. Honestly, the way it's come out it seems more like a means to say play nice kids, instead of saying what needs to be said about this project.
