Ghostbusters "Who ya gonna call? The Meh busters!"

[Tornado]

What year do the people in charge of the marketing think this is? Between the trailer and these posters, it's like a flashback to Y2K.

[Badnik Mechanic]

James Rolfe has announced he will not review the movie, nor will he pay to see it. 

Outlines his reasons in a 6min+ long video.

http://cinemassacre.com/2016/05/17/ghostbusters-2016-no-review-i-refuse/

[Badnik Mechanic]

Trailer 2. 

It went from a 1 out of 10 to 2 out of 10.

 

Also this more or less completely verifies the claims made by this reddit user (huge spoilers including details of an original cast member cameo)

[SBR2]

Well I thought it was funny. I think it looks pretty good honestly. It looks like Ghostbusters.

[QuantumEdge]

Still not laughing.  I admit it's better than the last one, but I just don't think this is going to be any good.  This is the sort of film I laugh at right from the first trailer.  We're at the second one and it still hasn't mined out a chuckle from me.  I don't think it'll be a down right despicable film, I just think it's going to land flat.

[Ryannumber1gamer]

It's better than the first trailer. It's screaming of a remake that thinks it's gonna get by just by making a few references to the original, and redoing a few of the original's ghosts in meh CGI.

Honestly, if you really want to celebrate the legacy of the Ghostbusters this year, do not watch this. Marathon the original two movies, and conclude with playing the PS3/Xbox 360 game, because that felt like a Ghostbusters sequel that was made with a lot of love for the series. Even go watch The Real Ghostbusters, or read the IDW series, but I don't think this is any way to celebrate such a legendary series.

[Mauro Fonseca]

On 17/05/2016 at 8:03 PM, Detective Hogfather said:

James Rolfe has announced he will not review the movie, nor will he pay to see it. 

Outlines his reasons in a 6min+ long video.

http://cinemassacre.com/2016/05/17/ghostbusters-2016-no-review-i-refuse/

And now he's being attacked in an absurd manner by everyone from Patton Oswalt to Guardian and New York Times people for daring to do this. Despite his reason not even being close to the usual warring of "female Ghostbusters". Fuck this culture.

[Marcello]

It's stupid to attack him. 

That said, his reasoning is dumb.

[Mauro Fonseca]

I don't know if it's entirely dumb, but then again I'm disillusioned with Hollywood overall. Regardless, it's certainly not worth attacking or even the mockery being aimed at him (that's not even aimed at what he said but at what people seem to be imagining he said).

[KHCast]

Better than the first trailer(the race joke was unfunny as hell though), but the film still looks nowhere near worth seeing, and still looks like a typical Hollywood film that cynically uses a beloved franchise to make its money. And considering the sleazy shit that went down regarding the creation of this, yeah, I won't be supporting it.

[Radiant Hero Ike]

Hm, I like the second trailer more than the first. I really like the remix of the theme they're using too.

I'm starting to like the new cast as well, they aren't as annoying to me as when I first saw them in the first trailer.

Certainly doesn't look like some breakthrough in film making, but I'll still give it a watch.

[Person]

The people who are attacking James Rolfe likely didn't watch the video and are blowing this out of proportion.

I very much understand that there are people who refuse to see this for sexist reasons, but James is not one of those people. Those who are shaming him probably have no history of his channel, nor any knowledge of his history with Ghostbusters. James is simply addressing his fans, who were probably fully expecting him to review the movie because of the "Ghostbusters 3" claims he made back in 2007. But this is not Ghostbusters 3, it is an uninspired cash-in on the name, and it's ok for him to not want to see it and support those who made it.

It's like what happens with any modern Adam Sandler movie. Trailer looks bad and the jokes aren't funny? No interest in seeing it.  This new Ghostbusters doesn't look like it has any life to it, the jokes made me cringe, and it really feels that the female aspect is being used as a gimmick rather than something meaningful. I'll pass.

The thing that bothers me the most is the completely immature and asinine way that James' critics are throwing personally charged insults at him. I've seen screencaps where people call James a "limp-dicked loser" and a "man baby" for his video. There are even a couple who insulted James' wife by saying that she "must be a gold digger", which is more sexist that any singular thing in James' video. I don't usually get heated about stuff like this, but it couldn't have happened to a nicer Internet personallity. These people need to fuck off.

[Mauro Fonseca]

That's what's disgusting me here, yeah. You know these are the same people who'll turn around and accuse others of sexism, lying, etc., but don't mind grabbing a video of a guy calmly explaining he doesn't want to see a reboot and spread it around as "look at this sexist misogyinist mra FAN RAGE women-hating etc etc video". And not just random people, like. Fucking Patton Oswalt. Devin Faraci. Dane Cook. Graham Lineham. These aren't random schmoes, they're writers for influential websites, for hollywood movies, for popular tv shows. Crucifying this one guy for daring to go against the grain, and not even in a way that really fits their attacks. Fucking hell.

I wish I could make it a point of support to refuse to go see the movie now because of this, but tbh, I already wasn't going to see it since I'd rather not give my money to this kind of easy Hollywood moneygrubbing anyways, so eh. All this attitude certainly isn't convincing me to give the film a chance, mind.

[DarkLight]

Typical "You don't like it cause it gotz women!" response to actual legit crticism towards this movie.

Sony's ploy is unfortunately working.

[Mauro Fonseca]

And it's not like there isn't actual sexist rhetoric against the film (although much like Mad Max I wouldn't be surprised it's completely minor in numbers and being broadcast exaggeratedly for convenience of narrative)

 

but rather they chose the video of the guy going "I won't watch it because I don't want to watch these reboots" to go nuts on

[Ryannumber1gamer]

James' part 2, discussing the history of the cancelled Ghostbusters 3.

 

[SBR2]

10 hours ago, Marcello said:

It's stupid to attack him. 

That said, his reasoning is dumb.

But when you Google it you're going to get two different versions of Ghostbusters and that's never happened to any other franchise before.

[skull902]

1 hour ago, SBR2 said:

But when you Google it you're going to get two different versions of Ghostbusters and that's never happened to any other franchise before.

I get what you mean, but there are plenty of remade movies that have the exact same title as the original. The Omen, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc. Kinda weird I could only think of horror examples but still.

But yeah, the criticism James has been getting is pretty ridiculous. He barely even mentioned the new Ghostbusters being female, let alone attacking the movie for it. Some people will go to any extreme to blame something for sexism when it's not actually there and this is far from the only instance. Rather sad that those same people are the ones being sided with in the mass media and elsewhere.

[KHCast]

Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the official critics and writers attacking James had some tie to Sony. I mean Sony DID do that sleazy shit awhile back regarding the first trailer(deleting the legit criticism, and only left the "baw females" comments.)

[Nepenthe]

The entire nerd reaction surrounding this film is really fucking stupid. 

There's nothing about this film that's notable or different in terms of being a potentially bad remake in a Hollywood culture currently founded on remaking things badly. Regardless, there's been a concerted effort on part of nerds across the Internet to let everyone around them know that this film is such a personal affront to them and needs to be fought against or something.

Does the film look bad? Yeah. But what does that matter when bad films are a dime a dozen? Why Ghostbusters and not also Transformers or TMNT or The Last Airbender or any other mediocre-to-shitty remake of a beloved fan property?

The fact is: the film definitely looks mediocre to bad. However, the like-to-dislike ratio on the film's trailers is ridiculously out of proportion. The constant need for people to assert that they did their civic duty to dislike the trailer is eye-roll worthy grandstanding. The habit of people to not just downplay the fact that there has been a misogynistic angle at play in regards to the film's negative reception but to continuously outright deny its existence, either by pointing to other things to explain why they don't like it or sarcastically declaring "herpaderp I guess I hate women for not liking it," even in situations where specific individuals are not being targeted or accused of being sexist, is dishonest and insecure as hell. The personal attacks and threats that have been leveled at cast and crew, as well as the lack of denouncement of such behavior on part of the angry nerds, are also disgusting. And finally, the fact that people like Rolfe need to martyr and victimize themselves in the context of being offended by this movie by making a 6-minute video to explain why they're not going to see it because it's so offensive to their precious childhoods without demonstrating a reasonable argument why Ghostbusters is in some way objectively different from other films to warrant the effort is just sad.

Note: This does not excuse the actual threats Rolfe has undoubtedly received. The people who did that are assholes and indefensible. However, receiving threats, and recognizing that this is indefensible, doesn't negate the fact that his original video is dumb because it's doing nothing but adding to an even dumber overreaction on part of slighted, insecure nerds lashing out at this film by making a big deal over what is ultimately a mundane, routine event in pop culture. The best and most normal thing to have done would've been to simply not see it and simultaneously not address the shitstorm surrounding it. I don't see tons of films in any given year, but I don't get on a soapbox to explain why, even with properties I actually am invested in. I guarantee you I will not make a video explaining why I won't see the Sonic film. It will be self-evident.

All in all, Ghostbusters doesn't look like it's gonna be all that good (although I actually laughed at the second trailer so that's an improvement), but the reaction and sustained and continuous nerd rage that's been going on, coupled with people trying to completely eliminate the social aspects of this whole conundrum from the conversation, is almost like Gamergate Lite. Just fucking stahp, nerds.

[Person]

I do agree that there is definitely a misogynistic element in play for the intense dislike for the film. It's receiving an unneccesary amount of hate, even for something that looks bad. Seriously, it's not even looking like the worst film ever, there's no reason it should have the highest dislike ratio of all time, especially compared to some of the other Hollywood crap that's much worse.

But in an attempt to justify James' decision to make a video about it, I think it's because he promised to see "a new ghostbusters" back in 2007.

In his Ghostbusters NES review, he said that "even if it was just the Ghostbusters sitting around taking a shit, he'd see it". People were probably hounding him with emails about "are you gonna see Ghostbusters?", so he had to respond. That being said, he did not have to make a 6 minute video about it, and could've just done a short statement. But really, I think he just wanted to talk about the history of Ghostbusters 3, and his disappointment that it'll never happen.

James is a personal hero of mine, so I'm sorry if I'm seeming overly defensive. There's a lot of bullshit hate for this film and the people who made it, but it still seems that James is respectful enough about it. But, yeah, something else it totally going on with the amount of hate the movie's getting. It's ridiculous. 

[Nepenthe]

You only emphasize the point. People were apparently hounding him over a nearly ten-year old declaration that he'd see a new Ghostbusters film, which was probably made in an environment where a more traditional Ghostbusters 3 was somewhat more likely to happen, and a subset of them were undoubtedly doing so under the pretense of the film being bad and thus dogging on him for making the most paltry promise possible.

Who does this? Really, who does this? And why did the answer have to be a whole video about it? I would've made a tweet about it, if that. Now if he wanted to spring off the fact that the film is in hot water and coming out soon in order to talk about the history of Ghostbusters 3, that's fair dues and would've been more interesting and informative, but that's not what this video's purpose is. He's explicitly addressing people who were bothering him about this while also elaborating on why the remake is such a personal affront to him and other fans, which is not only ironic given that his whole shtick is based around reviewing things that piss him off, but it's barely distinguishable from the ridiculously heightened sensitivity of fans the world over regardless of whether or not they have an issue with the all-female casting.

This is dumb. The whole thing is dumb. Nerds prove once again that they don't deserve good things.

[Person]

You're right, the whole ordeal with the fans is kinda ridiculous. There's no reason anybody has to make such a huge deal out of a typical Hollywood venture like a remake, especially before it even comes out.

James did do a part 2 about Ghostbusters 3's history, but he probably could've avoided this by combining the two parts, simply mentioning that he doesn't want to see it, and not adding to the out-of-proportion hatred of the film.

[Crazy_Diamond]

I actually don't think the backlash to Ghostbusters is because of sexism. Think about the state of the Ghostbusters franchise. The last Ghostbusters movie was released in 1989. In other words, the last Ghostbusters film was 26 years ago. Fans have been asking for a Ghostbusters 3 for DECADES. Instead, they get a poorly done remake of the original Ghostbusters. To people that are only casually interested in the series, this movie may not seem like a big deal, but for longtime fans, this must seem like a huge slap in the face. There are worse movies out there, and there are certainly worse licensed movies out there, but those movies were brushed aside because fans had been getting other good adaptations for a long time, and they continued to get those good adaptations. Ghostbusters, on the other hand, has only this. It is an understandable reaction, and chalking it up to sexism is incredibly unfair for those that have legitimate grips with this movie. Also, if so many people hate female characters in movies, then why is Alien such a popular and well-loved film, even to this day?

[Phos]

This movie got a lot more press in gaming centric sites due to the similar controversy going on within those circles.  It became part of a larger conversation.  Somehow, discourse and whatever passes for discourse never stopped about it.