The beloved original and not so beloved remake. (Unmarked Spoilers)
Ghostbusters is a 1984 film about an awesome Ray Parker Jr. song and nothing else. I’m kidding, of course. It’s about the antics of a team of ghost hunters as they try to save the city from a supernatural menace. The film was remade in 2016, with the same basic plot, but an all-woman team. While the team members of both versions have certain overlaps, they also contrast with one another.
For instance, the original film’s main character is Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), a sloppy, unprofessional scientist who’s both a hack and an unbeliever in the paranormal, at least at first. The main character of the remake is Erin Yates (Kristen Wiig), a very professional, scientific genius, and is a believer, despite how much she tries to deny it. However, they both are getting constantly slimed.
In the original film, which features a Sumerian god taking the form of a 100 ft tall marshmallow man to destroy the world, the most unbelievable thing is client Dana Barrett (Sigourney Weaver) getting together with someone as repulsive as Peter. The unprofessional manner he treats her and every other beautiful woman he interacts with is something I’m pretty sure constitutes harassment, like how she has to ask him to leave her apartment repeatedly during their first meeting.
If horndog Peter wasn’t enough, Dana also has to deal with her neighbor Louis Tully (Rick Moranis), who seems to do nothing all day but wait outside his door until Dana comes by. That’s not stalkerish. Of course, one of the many things making this an obviously ’80s movie is how Peter and Louis’ behavior is treated as harmless. Nowadays, people would probably view both more critically.
Of course, another thing Erin has in common with Peter, is that she can’t control her libido. Within minutes of seeing her interact with the Ghostbusters’ hunky new receptionist Kevin Beckman (Chris Hemsworth), fellow team member Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) declares her a lawsuit waiting to happen. But it’s funny because the sexual harasser is a woman.
2016’s Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) also spends a lot of time flirting with her teammates. The first thing she says is a cheesy pickup line directed at Erin. However, if you take all of that out, there’d be no way of knowing that Holtzmann is supposed to be a lesbian. According to Paul Feige, who directed the remake and co-wrote the script, he had to play coy about Holtzmann’s sexuality because of the studio, but that’s still disappointing.
Going back to the original, I just got to say, poor Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). He was initially intended to appear earlier and have a much larger role in the film. However, after Eddie Murphy dropped out of the part and the much less famous Hudson was hired, all of the character’s best bits were given to the more bankable actors. The one good thing to come out of Winston’s reduced role is that it leads to one of the funniest scenes in Stranger Things 2.
One of several criticisms of the remake is how, like in the original, the only Ghostbuster not to be a scientist is the black one. While Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) manages to be a vital team member due to her knowledge of New York history, she’s still the streetsmart, sassy black woman stereotype. With both those points in mind, I find the remake could have sidestepped the issue by having Jones switch characters with McCarthy, which still would have worked.
Both versions of the team have to deal with non-believers. There’s Walter Peck (William Atherton) in the original film, an example of The Rooney. Peck’s an EPA agent who demands to see the containment grid. Despite being a smug p***k from the get-go, he’s just trying to do his job. However, after Peter blows him off, Peck overreacts by shutting down the containment grid. Then after that literally blows up in his face, Peck puts all the blame on the Ghostbusters for something he did.
The remake treats the public’s skepticism in a more dramatic light. Erin’s backstory is that when she was young, she saw a ghost, and nobody believed her except Abby. So, as a result, she’s deeply insecure and self-conscious about others’ opinions of her. Something that she only grows out of at the very end of the movie.
The remake also seeks to add more heart than what’s in the original. Erin has a character arc, whereupon none of the characters in the original film do. Holtzmann makes a speech about how she’s finally found a family. At the same time, the 2016 version also cuts down on the horror elements of the original, to the point where it’s more an all-out comedy.
Now, while I’m not a massive fan of either Ghostbusters film, I find the remake is just as good as the original. They’re both amusing movies with a stellar cast. Which one is ultimately better, if only a little, is a matter of personal tastes. Though if I had to choose between watching the original or watching the remake, I’m always going to pick the original.
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