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March 3, 2016 6:36 AM Subscribe

Ghostbusters trailer (Original film trailer) (MLYT)
posted by fearfulsymmetry (298 comments total) 11 users marked this as a favorite

This looks bad. Like, try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light bad.
posted by entropicamericana at 6:41 AM on March 3, 2016 [20 favorites]

I was really, really excited for this. After this trailer not so much.

Edit: Did they pillage the Haunted Mansion ride for their special effects?
posted by echocollate at 6:43 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Looks right up my alley, but I'm not part of the generation that is weirdly tied to the apparently inviolable original formula of this franchise.
posted by Think_Long at 6:44 AM on March 3, 2016 [10 favorites]

Eh, I'm still up for it.
posted by sotonohito at 6:45 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

Still excited, over here. More so, possibly.
posted by angeline at 6:46 AM on March 3, 2016 [15 favorites]

I'm there. (pleasedon'tsuckpleasedon'tsuck) mostly for Kate McKinnon who is the lady Egon I never knew I wanted.
posted by emjaybee at 6:47 AM on March 3, 2016 [28 favorites]

The original is one of my favorite movies. Easily top 5 of all time. I was very dubious and nervous about this remake.

I think this trailer was great, the movie looks amazing, the cast is wonderful and I'm now very very excited for this.
posted by Roommate at 6:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [19 favorites]

Let me get this straight, the three white characters are science smart, but the black character isn't, but ooh, she's street smart.

That's a helluva dud to be proudly displaying right outta the gate. What the fuck were they thinking? What if the black woman was street AND science smart, eh? How's that for character.

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [219 favorites]

Yeah, the pacing was not as tight as I would expect from a mega comedy trailer, and the lack of attention paid to McKinnon was criminal, but still funny to me.
posted by Think_Long at 6:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

huh. this looked uncharacteristically sllooowww for a ghostbusters trailer. yes, i know you are going to slap her again - get on with it!!!
posted by sapagan at 6:49 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

This looks good! I was never particularly invested in the films, being just on the young side of things when they came out, but I adored the cartoon, and I love all four of the leads here. I will be queuing up on the date to give this movie my money.
posted by northernish at 6:50 AM on March 3, 2016

Ugh, sigh. I would have thought the writing would be a lot better than this trailer suggests.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 6:52 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Previously
posted by cashman at 6:52 AM on March 3, 2016

She knows the science of the steet, man! She's got degrees in sociology and urban planning!
posted by Artw at 6:58 AM on March 3, 2016 [27 favorites]

I wasn't thrilled by the trailer, but watching the trailer for the original, well, that wouldn't have thrilled me either. So I'm in wait and see. The actors are fantastic and I do like Paul Feig. I'm not happy with the sassy black character, but that's not enough to really put me off this.
posted by Hactar at 6:59 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Well that was cringey and unfunny.
posted by Sternmeyer at 6:59 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

i am a huge ghostbusters fan - i even like ghostbusters II - i was undecided about this project but as more comes out, the more excited i am. that trailer should have been at least 1/3 shorter though - they gave away way too much.

although i agree with some of y'all, i'm pretty disappointed with the brash street smart black lady writing...hopefully that comes off better in the actual film?
posted by nadawi at 7:00 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

This doesn't just look good, this looks Ghostbusters 2 good.
posted by logicpunk at 7:01 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

What other people have said re: stereotyping. I'm still in it for Kate McKinnon and the suggestion that it's in continuity with the previous films.
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:02 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

For some reason, I think these new characters were going to be the children of the old ones, so yeah, they'd all be into science and carrying on the Ghostbusters name. I was excited for this, as all the women are funny and the tweaking of male and female roles sounded like it would be fun.

But this doesn't look that funny and screams racist from people I wouldn't have thought would be down with that crap.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:04 AM on March 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

No, MetaFilter. Not today. That looks fantastic. Yes, I wish they had made Leslie Jones a scientist -- the schtick of one of the Ghostbusters being a "normal" person is a good one, but it's crazy that they didn't just give that to one of the other characters and have a POC woman scientist, a group I assure you exists in real life -- but it looks fantastic. This is damn near a best case scenario vis a vis a remake of a movie I am pretty defensive of.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:05 AM on March 3, 2016 [23 favorites]

Y'know, it could be a shot for shot remake of the original and it'll still be progress. The trailer alone passes the Bechdel test, FFS. There was no reveal of A Man coming to save the day. Chris Hemsworth is playing Janine. Chill.
posted by disconnect at 7:05 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Brandon Blatcher: Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?

Greg Nog: they're just replicating the race politics of the original

Sadly, yes. Then amplifying some stereotypes that weren't present with Winston (loud, religious)

Brandon Blatcher: For some reason, I think these new characters were going to be the children of the old ones, so yeah, they'd all be into science and carrying on the Ghostbusters name.

That would have been much better. Can I fund your version of the movie now?
posted by filthy light thief at 7:06 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

Oh, and Winston Zeddemore wasn't a scientist either, he was a workingman who got caught up in the hijinx.
posted by disconnect at 7:06 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Agreed that Jones' street-smart character landed with a dull thud. My reaction was "Really? That's all you got for comedy? Come on, man."

That said, I liked the rest of what I saw.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:08 AM on March 3, 2016

Oh, and Winston Zeddemore wasn't a scientist either, he was a workingman who got caught up in the hijinx.

yes, and the fact that they went with "the black one is the one who isn't a scientist" again is kind of the problem, see
posted by mightygodking at 7:08 AM on March 3, 2016 [49 favorites]

Hopefully the next trailer will feature some of the jokes from the movie?
posted by mittens at 7:08 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

That was not a good trailer.
posted by kbanas at 7:09 AM on March 3, 2016

And the wubstep theme remix? Uuugh ... I look forward to fan edits to this, where the original theme is used in the new movie.

Still, I'm game.
posted by filthy light thief at 7:09 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh dear, this seemed way off to me.... almost laughed once

Seems to be going for the 'girls night out' comedy crowd, ie v bridesmaids, nothing wrong with that but I was expecting something more general with a broader appeal

Was waiting for the cool remix of the orig song sting but it never came.

Also does the black character really have to be the 'street', added after the fact, one and not a scientist?
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:10 AM on March 3, 2016

No, MetaFilter. Not today.

And what is *THAT* supposed to mean?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:10 AM on March 3, 2016 [14 favorites]

Ditto what folks have said re: the racial stereotyping. Are the writers trying to be meta, somehow attempting to deconstruct the racial stereotyping/otherness at the heart of so many 80's "Reagan" movies? If so, that could be dope (fingers crossed). Here, in this trailer, in 2016, it looks racist and stupid. Uh, maybe it plays better in the movie?
posted by Bob Regular at 7:10 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, one other thing: at the beginning of the trailer they seem to have used the soundtrack of Nolan's Batman movies and dub-stepped it up a bit. So at first I got the impression that this is going to be a gritty "realist" Ghostbusters where the characters struggle with the idea if they really should bust ghosts or does busting make them as bad as their enemies.
posted by sapagan at 7:11 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Wait, the trailer for the original Ghostbusters was basically a condensed version of the movie in chronological order? Wow, trailers sure haven't come a long way.
posted by I-baLL at 7:12 AM on March 3, 2016

Given that studios tend put some of the best bits in the trailer, and this is the trailer we got.... yikes.
posted by schoolgirl report at 7:12 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

The sky looks right, at least. That's some good sky.
posted by Artw at 7:12 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I kind of hoped they might do something different with the white scientists, black working stiff dynamic, but I guess not.

Also, really, really lousy cg. That's not helping things.
posted by Ghidorah at 7:14 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I do, however, like the semi-cartoony look of the ghosts
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:14 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

someone please recut this trailer with the solsbury hill music from the finding nemo 2 trailer
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:14 AM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

1. If I go see this I may be supporting something with racist casting decisions
2. If I go see this, I will be putting money in Leslie Jones' pocket.

Huh.
posted by emjaybee at 7:15 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm wondering if this set in the same world, thirty years later, why would they need to rebuild everything's done make all new equipment, other than to make the proton packs look cool and edgy (as seen by the dueling pistols that showed up)?
posted by Ghidorah at 7:17 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Totally agree that the white/black dynamic lands with a sad thud. I groaned inwardly.

To say one positive thing: I think this is the most dignity I've ever seen Melissa McCarthy be allowed in a movie trailer.
posted by the phlegmatic king at 7:17 AM on March 3, 2016 [36 favorites]

fearfulsymmetry, they look like Disney's from the Haunted Mansion.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:19 AM on March 3, 2016

2. If I go see this, I will be putting money in Leslie Jones' pocket.

Only in the most oblique manner, because there's no way she's getting points off the front end, and Hollywood accounting hoovers up the rest.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 7:20 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

And what is *THAT* supposed to mean?

Well, normally I'm very excited when we all get together to act like the two old guys on The Muppets whenever a new thing is released, but this actually looks...much better to me than I would have expected?
posted by kittens for breakfast at 7:20 AM on March 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

I had thought that this movie was going to be "Four new Ghostbusters, who are women!" That movie sounded great!

This trailer looks a lot more like "Four new Ghostbusters... and get this, *they're women!* Plus, we handle race badly!"

I hope that this is just an exceptionally bad trailer.
posted by gurple at 7:21 AM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

Yeah BB, the racial dynamics of this trailer are pretty bad. Overall it's not a great trailer by modern standards. But I will probably still see the movie and am looking forward to it. Heck, it even looks like most of the ghosts are women.
posted by GuyZero at 7:21 AM on March 3, 2016

There is so much talent in the cast, I hope the writing is up to their level. from the looks of the trailer it might not be. still, we'll likely go see it.
posted by OHenryPacey at 7:22 AM on March 3, 2016

Still at least no record-scratch turn in the trailer... although I kinda miss those
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 7:22 AM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

Just noticed that the minstrelsy will be available in IMAX 3-D. What. The. Fuck?
posted by Bob Regular at 7:22 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ugh. I'm still going to watch it, but at least my expectations have been down-shifted to the point where it'll be hard not to enjoy it more than I currently expect. Even if half the pleasure comes from walking out an hour in.
posted by not the fingers, not the fingers at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2016

I have some concerns. The token black character bothers me, and the "ghosts can possess people" thing is basically just advertising that they ran out of money.

I think this is the most dignity I've ever seen Melissa McCarthy be allowed in a movie trailer.

Yep. I hated the trailer for Spy, and it turned out to be a really fun movie. I hate the trailer for this, but I'm willing to give it a try because I've been wrong before.
posted by yeolcoatl at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, and Winston Zeddemore wasn't a scientist either, he was a workingman who got caught up in the hijinx.

That's not true anymore, actually - part of the deal that the original actors made to come back for the game a few years back was that Winston would have gotten his doctorate. It comes up when you're going through the American Museum of Natural History - Winston mentions spending a good amount of time there doing research for his dissertation (not surprising, as the AMNH has a good research library.)
posted by NoxAeternum at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2016 [30 favorites]

Was that scene with Melissa McCarthy's head turning around filmed in the Hong Kong in Cambridge? Because I swear to god, I know that floor from my comedy days.

This looks...just so sad. It's really got some great actors in it, but it doesn't seem to do anything except say, "Women in the same exact roles as the guys! And the black character is now SASSY!"
posted by xingcat at 7:23 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Missed a good opportunity here to have the "ghosts" represent increasing misogyny/racism coming from an aging majority culture in a country going through a demographic shift. The three Ghostbusters are women of said dominant culture and through their technology they start to see the ghosts but it's the fourth Ghostbuster, the woman of color, who has always seen the ghosts, she's just seeing more of them now. She knows that you can't put the Ghosts in a box somewhere, they'll just get out again. You have to blow the fuckers away. Her secret technology that she has been working on (with help of her family) doesn't just seal them in some vault, what it does is it makes proto-ghosts visible to everyone, little growing ghosts that are in a weak state, and that's when you kill them. The four Ghostbusters work on this technology and then drop it in New York and then everybody is like kung fu fighting the ghosts, it's really rad. Also there are a lot of jokes throughout and people laugh at the jokes and it's all very fun.

Or something, I don't know.
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 7:27 AM on March 3, 2016 [48 favorites]

"Every crack." Seriously? Maybe when it come to DVD.
posted by Splunge at 7:28 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

2. If I go see this, I will be putting money in Leslie Jones' pocket.

Only in the most oblique manner, because there's no way she's getting points off the front end, and Hollywood accounting hoovers up the rest.

Unless you are her agent, how the heck would you know? And it's not just whatever profits the movie makes, but getting cast in more movies later, which I assume would benefit her.

I mean, it's possible that helping a black actor get paid/further her career doesn't justify seeing a movie with a racist setup. Thus my "Huh." I don't think it actually matters what the amounts are; from Jones' POV all that would matter is that it's an amount acceptable to her.
posted by emjaybee at 7:28 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Now that's what I'm talkin' about, (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates!
posted by Bob Regular at 7:29 AM on March 3, 2016

And yeah, also surprised that they're just replicating the race politics of the original, where Winston was just some random guy.

Originally originally, Winston was a badass, more capable than the three schmucky scientists, but that disappeared between the page and the screen.
posted by Etrigan at 7:31 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

I am more cautiously optimistic than the super-hyped I was pre-trailer.
48% thumbs-down on the youtube video though, ouch.

I need Kate McKinnon winking as a gif.
posted by Gordafarin at 7:31 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I still love the cast, but the writing did not impress.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:32 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

It speaks volumes that Kate McKinnon only had one line in this trailer and yet she was still easily the funniest person throughout.
posted by nushustu at 7:34 AM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

I'm just glad to live in a time where there's a big tent pole movie with all-female leads that I can decide whether or not to take my daughters to, honestly. It doesn't happen often enough for me.
posted by padraigin at 7:35 AM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

Wait,which question was Ghostbusters 3 the answer to?

Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
Ghostbusters 3
posted by sfenders at 7:36 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I've pretty much stepped down expectations to "Rental/streaming release or theatre if it does really good on Rotten Tomatoes".
posted by Artw at 7:38 AM on March 3, 2016

I know I shouldn't let the misogynist minority of the geek world color my opinion so much but this trailer really makes me worry that the "Nerdy movies featuring women suck" crowd are going to score a point with this one.

I love the original movie (the lobotomizing of Winston's character aside), and I truly believe that there's no reason why it couldn't have been just as good with a female cast...but I'm honestly not seeing much here that makes me think this will live up to the original.

I really hope I'm wrong.
posted by sparklemotion at 7:41 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

i'm still totally excited for it and the wig or hat line killed me.
posted by nadawi at 7:41 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

Seems to have all the edgy creativity of a remake; giant ghost strutting through the city, but this time it's skinny!
posted by sammyo at 7:44 AM on March 3, 2016

Spy was so good that I will give New Ghostbusters all kinds of benefit of the doubt.

I agree that this trailer is weak, but a weak trailer may just indicate that it's not the kind of comedy that the trailer-cutting hacks know how to market.
posted by zjacreman at 7:44 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not gonna lie, I'll still see it in the theater for the same reason that I saw Fury Road last year: because the MRA asshats are losing their minds over the very fact that it exists. But I'm not as excited as I was.
posted by skycrashesdown at 7:51 AM on March 3, 2016 [15 favorites]

This movie is a reboot, not a sequel, per Paul Feig. Although supposedly all of the living original ghostbusters are supposed to have cameos in it.
posted by Badgermann at 7:52 AM on March 3, 2016

I need Kate McKinnon winking as a gif.

here ya go
posted by nadawi at 7:52 AM on March 3, 2016 [13 favorites]

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?
Agreed that Jones' street-smart character landed with a dull thud.
Ditto what folks have said re: the racial stereotyping.
Totally agree that the white/black dynamic lands with a sad thud.
Plus, we handle race badly!"
the racial dynamics of this trailer are pretty bad.
the minstrelsy
And the black character is now SASSY!"
It seems like kind of a crappy minstrelly move to replace his role with another black character, but this time one who "knows New York" and hollers about the devil and shouts OH HELL NO about the white characters getting possessed.

Tried to tell you it would happen.
posted by cashman at 7:52 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Kate McKinnon is a fucking national treasure.
posted by Sophie1 at 7:53 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

Honestly, I was just looking for some sign that there will be something genuinely scary in the movie, on the theory that the more scared the characters are, the funnier it is. The library ghost and the zombie cabbie in the original were a couple of decent scares.

Since horror movies are mostly not scary any more, I'm rooting for scarier comedies.
posted by Flexagon at 7:55 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I wish Leslie Jones had played Neil Degrasse Tyson in a skirt.
posted by pxe2000 at 7:56 AM on March 3, 2016 [16 favorites]

I wish Leslie Jones had played Neil Degrasse Tyson in a skirt.

"Actually, the legs of a 200 foot tall man made entirely of marshmallow would not be able to support the man's body weight. A man like that would not be able to walk at all, much less destroy New York City."
posted by bondcliff at 8:01 AM on March 3, 2016 [63 favorites]

"Someone is creating a device that amplifies paranormal activity."

So is Dan Aykroyd going to be the villain in this?
posted by Tenuki at 8:02 AM on March 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

Well, this is exactly what I expected it would turn out to be. flavor of the month remix of the original song, bland jokes, sassy Winston replacement and passable CGI. A modern remake, with added half-assed gender-reversal.

I need Kate McKinnon winking as a gif.
Hey.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:02 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Kate and Leslie=yay!
New Car=yay!
Proton Pistols=wha?
F/X=hrm

I wish they'd come up with a new plot instead of sight gags that reference the first two films
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 8:05 AM on March 3, 2016

Just a data point, but it seems to be Paul Feig films never seem to have particularly good trailers, though the movies tend to be pretty freaking hilarious, Spy the most recent example.
posted by tittergrrl at 8:06 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

I thought the lousy cg looked really fun. I'm in it for the fun not to be grossed out. I liked everything about it and even got little tears thinking yay women as goofy heros with science super skillz in a dorky show like this!!

Except the really really sad dynamic with the white women being the only scientists. There is no shame is having street smarts and instead of science smarts, but that should have been white character.
posted by xarnop at 8:07 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Proton Pistols=wha?

Seems like a pretty good reveal to save for the movie, but hey, trailers.
posted by Artw at 8:08 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Kate McKinnon is a fucking national treasure.

Seconded. I don't really watch SNL anymore for reasons, but she's become one of my favorite all-around voice talents on the last couple of seasons of The Venture Bros. Hopefully they'll be able to keep her in the mix when her film career takes off in a bit.
posted by Strange Interlude at 8:08 AM on March 3, 2016

/Running joke where sociology isn't considered a real science but in the end the sociologist saved the day. Everybody bonds making slams on economists.
posted by Artw at 8:09 AM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

I wish they'd come up with a new plot instead of sight gags that reference the first two films

The line Tenuki quotes ("Someone is creating a device that amplifies paranormal activity") seems to point to a plot completely unrelated to the original. This was a 2 minute trailer, and the first one for the movie, it doesn't surprise me that they'd play up the references to the original. I'm sure there will be some similarities, and also a lot of differences.
posted by Roommate at 8:09 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I would have LOVED Leslie as Neil DeGrasse Tyson in a skirt!

And then Melissa McCarthy could have been the cliché, a scam artist "medium" who travels the boroughs on the subway, bilking people out of money for a chance to talk to their beloved departed, only for one of her séances to go tremendously wrong all of a sudden...

And when she joins the squad she's the only one the ghosts will actually talk to because of all the amusement they've had watching her over the years...

Sigh.
posted by angeline at 8:11 AM on March 3, 2016 [39 favorites]

Cheesy SFX are more from Ghostbusters II than I, but they're definitely part of the feel of the series, I think.

I could wish for a punchier trailer and am pretty sure that the echo of Everyman Winston is the Bad Decision Dinosaur behind the white people are the only scientists thing, but overall I remain optimistic and excited.

The "wig or hat?" line was good, but my personal favorite moment was actually "Let's g-" "Let's go." "Oh, sorry." "No, I'm sorry. I mean, next time... you... yeah."
posted by Scattercat at 8:16 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Well, normally I'm very excited when we all get together to act like the two old guys on The Muppets whenever a new thing is released, but this actually looks...much better to me than I would have expected?

That's for the clarification, it read to me as dismissing those who had problems with the trailer. Which didn't sit right once you consider the racial angle.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:17 AM on March 3, 2016

What if the black woman was street AND science smart, eh? How's that for character.

You don't think a sassy black woman who loves Cadillacs is pushing back the frontiers of social progress?

This movie looks boring, cliched, and embarrassing.
posted by Tanizaki at 8:18 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

THAT would be amazing, angeline.
posted by lmfsilva at 8:19 AM on March 3, 2016

Still looks better than Ghostbusters 2
posted by radiosilents at 8:21 AM on March 3, 2016

I suppose it's a small consolation that most really exciting trailers end up being for mediocre movies. And that original Ghostbusters trailer was really bad.
posted by GuyZero at 8:21 AM on March 3, 2016

I suppose it's a small consolation that most really exciting trailers end up being for mediocre movies. And that original Ghostbusters trailer was really bad.

It's a different, trailers are much more important now, so to have put out this dud is worrisome for the film.

I'll still probably go see it, but I'll definitely be checking reviews first as opposed to being there opening night.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:25 AM on March 3, 2016

here's a great leslie jones piece that was mostly done on the set of ghostbusters.
posted by nadawi at 8:29 AM on March 3, 2016 [12 favorites]

The worst part of Street Smart Leslie Jones is that I'm sure they congratulated themselves for giving her an area of expertise as opposed to Winston being in it strictly for the paycheck.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 8:31 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm getting a really desperate vibe from my fellow liberals who like that this movie will exist, but can't admit yet that it's gonna be crap. It reminds me of the other side and their psychic need for the Atlas Shrugged films to be incredible.

I LOVE THIS ITS GREAT ITS GROUNDBREAKING THIS IS GONNA CHANGE THINGS OOHHHH GOD NO
posted by ELF Radio at 8:33 AM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Ya'll need to read that piece nadawi linked.
posted by emjaybee at 8:34 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I'm getting a really desperate vibe from my fellow liberals who like that this movie will exist, but can't admit yet that it's gonna be crap. It reminds me of the other side and their psychic need for the Atlas Shrugged films to be incredible.
posted by ELF Radio at 11:33 AM on March 3

This a million times
posted by glaucon at 8:35 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm getting a really desperate vibe from my fellow liberals who like that this movie will exist, but can't admit yet that it's gonna be crap.

Maybe they're waiting to actually see the movie, or read reviews from people who have actually seen the movie, before deciding if it's crap.
posted by bondcliff at 8:40 AM on March 3, 2016 [19 favorites]

Hmmm.

This looks like it's not very good based on the trailer, but then trailers can easily make a bad film look great and vice versa. Just this once, I'm going to firmly wait and reserve judgement until I've personally seen it.
posted by Faintdreams at 8:40 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

assuming that people like something because they're trying to signal something else isn't giving very much good faith to people who say they like something. i think this looks fun. i don't need it to prove anything to a loud minority of idiot boys who are scared that women exist. i just think it looks fun.
posted by nadawi at 8:40 AM on March 3, 2016 [14 favorites]

I don't need it to be great. I need it to be enjoyable and amusing and silly like the original movies were. I'm not looking for freakin', I don't know, serious Oscar bait over here. I want to be entertained. And ideally I would also like the racial angle acknowledged and maybe improved on in future installments. But I'm not looking for the next Best Picture winner.
posted by angeline at 8:42 AM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

Oh my god from that article:

At one point, the reactionary pundit Ann Coulter stopped by their table. Wilmore was courteous, but Jones leaned across the table and stage-whispered, “What the fuck is this frightening bitch doing here?” Coulter’s face froze in a rictus, and she soon backed away from the table.
posted by emjaybee at 8:43 AM on March 3, 2016 [45 favorites]

I mean for god's sake it IS a movie franchise about slime vomiting ghosts after all
posted by angeline at 8:48 AM on March 3, 2016

For me, this was a poorly-edited trailer for what may-or-may-not be a good movie.

And thanks for the link, nadawi, will definitely be reading that later today.
posted by Narrative Priorities at 8:48 AM on March 3, 2016

I mean for god's sake it IS a movie franchise about slime vomiting ghosts after all

So comedies have no responsibility to be socially acceptable?
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:49 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

it read to me as dismissing those who had problems with the trailer. Which didn't sit right once you consider the racial angle.

Honestly, the racial angle is sitting worse and worse for me the more I think about it. I love the original movie the way most nerds love Star Wars, and I was so relieved to see a trailer for a remake that actually looks good that I was really irritated to see reflexive snark about it -- not snark specifically related to Leslie Jones's character, but snark in general. Criticism of the effects seems point-missing, criticism of the writing overlooks that (a) this is not enough material to really judge the writing and (b) half the material here is from the original film...

But criticism of the Leslie Jones character -- yeah. That's the thing that sticks with me, because I feel it, too. When they revived The X-Files, I started seeing all these memes about how Scully inspired girls to become law enforcement officers, doctors and scientists. Making the Leslie Jones character a non-scientist is a missed opportunity for this film just as a film, but there's no way the filmmakers didn't consider the larger feminist implications of an all-woman cast, and frankly I wish they'd also considered what it would mean to show a black woman as a scientist. And maybe more to the point that they'd considered what it would mean to show her as not a scientist. They fucked up here. It sucks, because I think this will be a good movie, but there will always be some regret associated with it. It didn't have to be like that. I cannot imagine that no one ever thought about this as the film was being produced. I guess they didn't. I don't know how that's possible.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 8:50 AM on March 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

That is a bad trailer. I will give the movie a chance to redeem itself, though, as trailers are often bad.
posted by minsies at 8:51 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

The original ghostbusters had stupid jokes, shitty cg and was not created to be politically correct. Now there's women as leads, it looks stupid and fun with crappy unscary ghosts (COME ON THE ORIGINAL HAD A PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY and you're looking for ...what in the monsters of this?)

By what standards can women goof off and be dorky comedian scientists, people didn't have the same standards when it was men---

I AM however really glad that white people find it a lot harder to overlook racist stereotypes, so on that point I am glad for people to hold that up and look at it and expect better in our films but other than that I really truly don't understand what people are expecting from a film that is supposed to be letting women get to have the fun goofy time the men had with the original ghostbusters.
posted by xarnop at 8:52 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

So comedies have no responsibility to be socially acceptable?

At no point have I said that. My comment was in response to the smug "I Told You Sos" who seem to think we should be expecting Oscar bait rather than a silly piece of summer entertainment.

You might note that in my previous comment I did in fact say I'd like the team behind this to acknowledge and correct the racial issue in future installments.
posted by angeline at 8:55 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

i don't need it to prove anything to a loud minority of idiot boys who are scared that women exist.

You know, it is possible for someone to think this looks prima facie bad without it having anything to do with the cast's gender. And to imply that disliking it is sexist is almost as dismissive as panning it because it features a female cast would be.

If black women wind up objecting to the film (which doesn't seem unlikely), would that make them misogynists too?
posted by JaredSeth at 8:58 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

I really truly don't understand what people are expecting from a film that is supposed to be letting women get to have the fun goofy time the men had with the original ghostbusters.

Not to be using the most worn and tired cliches for the black character. Doesn't seem a lot to ask.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:00 AM on March 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

The original ghostbusters had stupid jokes, shitty cg and was not created to be politically correct. Now there's women as leads, it looks stupid and fun with crappy unscary ghosts (COME ON THE ORIGINAL HAD A PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY and you're looking for ...what in the monsters of this?)

One of the aspects I liked of the original is Winston and AKroyd's character musing about the return of the dead. It lent a bit of weight to the movie, while also being a downbeat between the comedy.

Sure, the CGI wasn't up to today's standards, but it worked, especially the scene where the containment box blows. There's a some awe and wonder there at seeing that energy spew everywhere while soundtrack croons "it's magic, magic...". Those little touches really enhanced the film for me.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:01 AM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Just noticed that the minstrelsy will be available in IMAX 3-D.

What ?
posted by Pendragon at 9:07 AM on March 3, 2016

You know, it is possible for someone to think this looks prima facie bad without it having anything to do with the cast's gender. And to imply that disliking it is sexist is almost as dismissive as panning it because it features a female cast would be.

i didn't say any of that. i was responding to comments like : "I know I shouldn't let the misogynist minority of the geek world color my opinion so much but this trailer really makes me worry that the "Nerdy movies featuring women suck" crowd are going to score a point with this one." and "I'm getting a really desperate vibe from my fellow liberals who like that this movie will exist, but can't admit yet that it's gonna be crap."

i was saying i think it looks fun because i think it looks fun, not because i'm using it as a stand-in in some culture fight. i'm sure people will dislike the movie for all sorts of reasons and i might be one of those people but right this second, i think the trailer is as lacking as most blockbuster trailers but that the core product could be fun.

as for your dig about how i'd called black women misogynists for not liking aspects of the film - aspects i have already said i'm leery about? be better than that.
posted by nadawi at 9:09 AM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

pedantry tangent: CG / CGI = computer-generated imagery, which existed in primitive form in 1984 but was not used in Ghostbusters. Energy beams were rotoscoping, ghosts were mostly puppets, leaping dog-monsters were stop-motion, Stay-Puft was a guy in a suit, etc.
posted by dephlogisticated at 9:17 AM on March 3, 2016 [27 favorites]

The effects for the first ghostbusters were nominated for the Academy Award For Best Visual Effects. The effects may be shitty now, but they were pretty state of the art for 1984
posted by tittergrrl at 9:27 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

I won tickets in a radio contest to see the premiere of Search for Spock. So did my friend. Then the radio station called me back to say, whoops, we overbooked the theatre so we have to give you tickets to another movie instead. My friend took me to the premiere of STIII, and I took him to some comedy from the Animal House guys, or something, apparently about ghost hunters. That was literally all we knew before walking into the theatre.

I miss those days.
posted by GhostintheMachine at 9:29 AM on March 3, 2016 [13 favorites]

Looks meh. Since the original cast were making cameos I was kind of hoping that they'd be selling a Ghostbusters franchise to four very different women who have to learn to work with each other and overcome whatever. It's just three white scientist carictures and a loud black woman caricature. I'll probably watch it on a Halloween marathon some time within the next 5-10 years.
posted by stavrogin at 9:29 AM on March 3, 2016

I get the negativity towards the Lesly Jones character. But c'mon... that's the ONLY kind of comedy/character she EVER plays. It's like casting Gilbert Gottfried in a movie and expecting him to not play Gibert Gottfried.

A) She could play Super-Smart Scientist Who Happens To Be Angry Black Woman, and it would be hilarious.

B) They didn't have to cast her. I'm sure Sasheer Zamata was available. Or Kerry Washington. Or basically any other black woman in Hollywood would have lined up for this role.
posted by Etrigan at 9:35 AM on March 3, 2016 [13 favorites]

Not editing to amend:

Or basically any other black woman in Hollywood would have lined up for this role if it were written as a bad-ass scientist Ghostbuster.
posted by Etrigan at 9:37 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

@Etrigan: I agree. They should have either played against her usual schtick—though I am not personally a fan of hers as she has yet to reveal ANY kind of depth beyond what she does over and over on SNL — or cast someone else.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 9:40 AM on March 3, 2016

C) or they could have cast her in this role, AND cast another black woman as one of the scientists. No reason there has to be exactly one minority lead.
posted by Roommate at 9:40 AM on March 3, 2016 [24 favorites]

Winston Zeddemore was a great character. It wasn't that, as a black man, he couldn't be a scientist (and let's be honest, Peter Venkman's claim to that title was precarious at best), it's that the movie needed him to not be. Between Ray's lovable but clueless eccentric, Peter's preening egotistical lothario, and Egon's... well... Egon, Winston was the realist, the pragmatist, the guy invested in the job as far as it was a steady paycheck. But he also showed up in the end when it mattered most, even though he had an out.

He was the heart and the spine of that movie. The black man was the most relatable character, period.

Maybe the trailer poorly represents Jones' actual character/arc pretty severely and the movie will end up subverting all that. But man, really, why even put that out there minus any context if that's the case?
posted by echocollate at 9:41 AM on March 3, 2016 [16 favorites]

The main difference I see is that to me the original was a science-fantasy film where the characters were real and dealing with some weird stuff and the comedy was a side-effect of those characters.

This seems like a comedy film trading off the Ghostbusters good name for lack of a decent plot.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 9:44 AM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

nadawi, I didn't mean that you were calling people misogynists but even a cursory web search will reveal dozens of articles blaming misogyny for negative reactions to the trailer, as if there could be no other reason for someone to think this looks disappointing (and I used black women potentially disliking the movie for the obvious reasons as an example). I quoted your sentence not to call you out, but because absent the context it reflects the tone of a lot of those stories, and for that I apologize.
posted by JaredSeth at 9:46 AM on March 3, 2016

Ya'll need to read that piece nadawi linked.

Ok, could describe why it needs to be read? I'm out a quarter way through, and it's just reading as "yes, she's a capable comic and black female comics have to put up with a lot of bs". Which isn't news.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

i mean, the context is the thread. if you want to gripe about articles you've seen, do that. "misogynists hate this" is not the same sentence as "if you hate this you're a misogynist" and i wish people would quit confusing the two.
posted by nadawi at 9:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

The article makes it sound as if her character was originally going to be very different from the character Jones made it, largely because of her collaboration with Feig. I mean, that may still be a bad call for both of them, and the trailer is still playing into some ugly tropes, but calling it "minstrelsy" seems to strip Jones of all her own agency as a performer. A lot of the article nadawi linked is about how her entire career is built on her exploration of media stereotypes about black women. Embodying them performatively in order to deflate and critique them seems to be really important to her act/career.

Plus, a lot of the article is also about how many years of her life were spent being told how talented she was, but how no one wanted to pay for her talent, so her male colleagues got famous while she got nothing. It made this part particularly poignant:

Before meeting Feig, Jones had appeared in about a dozen movies, often as an unnamed character (Night Nurse; Boss Lady). Many went straight to video. Her first starring role will be in “Ghostbusters 2016,” whose budget is rumored to exceed a hundred and fifty million dollars.

I hadn’t seen Jones in several weeks, and when I found her in her trailer she greeted me with “You can tell I lost weight, right?” She cheerfully humble-bragged about stunts she had been asked to do: “These motherfuckers don’t understand I’m a comedian. They’ve got me doing all this Van Damme shit.” The previous day, she told me, she had used one of her “Ghostbusters” checks to pay off the last of her credit-card loans. For the first time in her adult life, she was debt-free.

posted by a fiendish thingy at 9:51 AM on March 3, 2016 [24 favorites]

I really truly don't understand what people are expecting from a film that is supposed to be letting women get to have the fun goofy time the men had with the original ghostbusters.

What I would expect is for the major Hollywood studios to stop cranking out remakes, reboots, reimaginings, and rehashes. It has nothing to do with this Ghostbusters being a Rule 63 version. We didn't need a Robocop remake, or a Point Break remake, or a Poltergeist remake, or a Footloose remake, about 27 other movies I might name. I don't care who is having a goofy fun time. Come up with something new.

A Fright Night remake? wtf
posted by Tanizaki at 9:51 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm getting a really desperate vibe from my fellow liberals who like that this movie will exist, but can't admit yet that it's gonna be crap.

So apparently, an Ayn Rand novel is to Objectivists and some peculiar flavours of libertarians what the Ghostbusters franchise is to liberals, feminists, and progressives. I'm going to take this as surprisingly good news for American politics.
posted by sfenders at 9:52 AM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

I think it's interesting that they're explicitly timelining this movie by referencing the original, when I thought this was a reboot?

Anyway, the trailer was shitty, but trailers are generally shitty nowadays, so that doesn't really concern me.

It seems obvious that Leslie Jones is playing the wise New Yorker character, but yeah, the optics of it don't come across as great. I do wonder if the other three ghostbusters are supposed to not be from New York, in which case, okay, maybe that makes a little sense.
posted by Automocar at 9:55 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm really hoping this doesn't suck. I already have a crush on the Egon-analog because of *course* I do. And I'm hoping that Sassy Black Lady isn't quite as One-Note Sassy Black Lady for the whole film. (My head canon already is that she has an advanced degree in history or something and is working for the transit dpt because better money/benefits/unionization)

Will this reboot also have an inexplicably odd "dreams of getting head" sequence?
posted by rmd1023 at 9:57 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Except the really really sad dynamic with the white women being the only scientists. There is no shame is having street smarts and instead of science smarts, but that should have been white character.

C) or they could have cast her in this role, AND cast another black woman as one of the scientists. No reason there has to be exactly one minority lead.

I've never been to New York City, but my understanding is that the Big Apple has (pardon the technical term) umpteenkerspillion non-white ethnicities to choose from.
posted by Celsius1414 at 10:05 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but there was an URL on the whiteboard of quantum mechanics.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:08 AM on March 3, 2016 [9 favorites]

I think it's interesting that they're explicitly timelining this movie by referencing the original, when I thought this was a reboot?

I'm 99% sure the movie is a complete reboot, and not in the same timeline/universe as the original. That opening "30 years ago..." narration in the trailer seems to be throwing people off, but keep in mind filmmakers often have no input in the creation of trailers. It wouldn't be the first time a movie trailer sold a movie as something it's not. Nothing in the actual scenes or dialog shown references the original.
posted by Roommate at 10:10 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

This feminism does not look intersectional to me.
There's a word for that.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 10:12 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I thought the FX looked pretty good, in a not-trying-for-realism kind of way. Otherwise, a very underwhelming trailer.
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:14 AM on March 3, 2016

Since the original cast were making cameos I was kind of hoping that they'd be selling Ghostbuster franchises to four very different women...

I'd start with Peter and Ray trying to catch a ghost, and failing because running up and down stairs with all that equipment isn't for them anymore and without Egon, not the same. Winston drops by for a drink with his old friends, and when he hears them thinking about retirement, he mentions he knows a couple of former students of him who were looking into starting their own ghostbusting business, but couldn't get a foot in. They meet, agree a sale (or lease, to keep an opening for more cameos from the original cast), and the third joins in because she was supposed to intern, but everyone forgot, and well, now that you're here. Then, picking up angeline's idea, the fourth is a fake medium they meet in the first job.

It even might be like this. Dunno.
posted by lmfsilva at 10:18 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

Wait, do you read that as a dream sequence? I've always interpreted it as an actual ghost, actually sucking him off!

A ghost can go through walls but can somehow apply pleasure to a penis through physical contact? I mean, what, are we to believe this is some magic ghost, or something?
posted by bondcliff at 10:22 AM on March 3, 2016 [15 favorites]

I'm not going to look up the clip at work, but isn't Ray wearing a weird military style costume during the fellatio scene, and then it cuts to a different shot of him lying in bed in his pajamas with his eyes closed, which would indicate he is dreaming? (To be honest, I've never been able to quite make out exactly what's going on when it cuts back to the bedroom. For example, who falls off the bed in the foreground?)
posted by Atom Eyes at 10:23 AM on March 3, 2016

Aw, I think the ghosts look kinda cool. "The power of pain compels you" got a snort, but frankly the biggest laugh for me was seeing:

Who you gonna call?

SUMMER

posted by lucidium at 10:25 AM on March 3, 2016

Guys, I explained this to the kid, a ghost lady is stealing Dan Acroyds underpants.
posted by Artw at 10:25 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

I always thought it was a succubus.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 10:26 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?

Is it Ghostbusters 2?
posted by flabdablet at 10:33 AM on March 3, 2016 [10 favorites]

Nothing in the trailer seemed funny to me at all, and I really disliked the role given to the only black actor, as has been discussed above. I think I like sharp comedy more than what I'm going to call, for lack of a better term, trailing-off comedy. The scene where two of them say "Let's Go!" and then have a little awkward, "Did you wanna—OK, well—I was—Right—next time" thing, and the "It's the hat isn't it? Is it the wig or the hat?" is a kind of comedy that doesn't work well for me. I'm not sure why. Two of them saying "Let's go!" as part of a joke about leadership being unclear or something? Could be funny. Scanning down a shelf of creepy things and one of them is your friend in a wig and hat? Old, old joke, but could be funny. But somehow that uncertain, trailing-off, series-of-questions thing is, for the most part, not funny to me. As if it's trying too hard, or the tone feels uncertain, or as if it's shining a light on a joke that ought to be let stand on its own.

I agree, though, that trailers can be misleading, and I'll be interested to hear more about the movie when people have had a chance to see the whole thing. I'm not sure how "loud, sassy, street-smart black woman who exorcises people by smacking them real hard" can be redeemed when positioned as the only person of color in the movie, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Also could not help thinking of Ghostfacers.

Also, here's a Ghostbusters story:

My mother and I had a difficult relationship. She disapproved of pretty much everything I did from the moment I was born in 1965 until she died a few years ago. She was a very negative and judgmental person, and rarely did anything spontaneous. She did not, for the most part, like anybody, or have fun.

Still, in 1984, she and I went to see Ghostbusters. Multiplexes were just becoming a thing, and one had opened up just outside Flint, our nearest good-sized town or city, so we went there. We loved Ghostbusters. We had so much fun at Ghostbusters that when it was over, we turned right around and bought tickets for the next showing of Gremlins. I don't remember any other time my mom was willing to do something so extravagant (TWO MOVIES IN ONE DAY) or unproductive or just-for-the-hell-of-it. It was a great day, and one of my happiest memories of time with my mother.

Thank you, Ghostbusters, for temporarily unlocking my mother's wild side.
posted by not that girl at 10:40 AM on March 3, 2016 [20 favorites]

Anyway, the trailer was shitty, but trailers are generally shitty nowadays, so that doesn't really concern me.

Oh man, the teaser for 10 Cloverfield Lane is probably the best teaser/trailer/preview thing I've seen in a decade. Even if the movie sucks, I'll always be happy that this trailer came from it.
posted by nushustu at 10:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Cashman - I don't think the problem is Leslie Jones acting, which is what you seem to be referencing in your "I told you so" link. If there is a problem it would seem to be of the writing and not Jones' acting.

(I haven't seen the trailer yet so I can't say if there's a problem or not)
posted by hepta at 10:56 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh man, the teaser for 10 Cloverfield Lane is probably the best teaser/trailer/preview thing I've seen in a decade. Even if the movie sucks, I'll always be happy that this trailer came from it.

Oh, wow, that's great! Thanks.
posted by not that girl at 10:59 AM on March 3, 2016

People on twitter are noticing that this looks more like the Ghostbusters cartoon from the late 80's including the blonde Egon and really colourful ghosts.
posted by PenDevil at 11:02 AM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

I am jazzed about this movie, despite this trailer. I feel like trailers are like pilots - they're either really good or ehh. The job of a trailer is to get as many people as possible to buy tickets for the movie. That can mean going for the lowest common denominator, making a drama look like a comedy, playing up the roles of celebrities who actually have minor roles, etc. I still think it's going to be good.
posted by kat518 at 11:09 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Will this reboot also have an inexplicably odd "dreams of getting head" sequence?

Despite being a child of the 80s, I didn't get around to seeing the original Ghostbusters until recently, and I was very confused by how it seemed to be mostly a goofy kids movie with some kinda weird and uncomfortable sex stuff mixed in. I was hoping for the reboot to be more my speed, but I am noping away from this trailer.
posted by naoko at 11:20 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

2 things about the original stuck with me (saw it recently for the first time in over 20 years)

Lots of smoking. Like a distracting amount of smoking.

Remembering my dad laughing in the movie theater at Bill Murray's "Yes, it's true. This man has no dick." line. First and last dick joke I ever saw my dad laugh at.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:23 AM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

Sadly, yes. Then amplifying some stereotypes that weren't present with Winston (loud, religious)

Tell me about the religion that conducts exorcisms by saying “The power of pain compels you!”
posted by Going To Maine at 11:34 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm interested in the comments above re: trailers for Paul Feig movies. A thing I've noticed with his movies is that they're not particularly strong with one-liners. Which makes sense, I feel like one-liners are kind of lazy. But that makes it harder to create a compelling trailer.

Also, I'm guessing this will probably get a PG-13 rating to help ticket sales but another thing with jokes in Paul Feig movies is that they can be filthy and/or profane, making them inappropriate for trailers.

I had the same feels re: Leslie Jones' character but I don't think she would join the cast if she wasn't jazzed about the role and it wasn't a great part. I could be wrong though.
posted by kat518 at 11:35 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

"I had the same feels re: Leslie Jones' character but I don't think she would join the cast if she wasn't jazzed about the role and it wasn't a great part. I could be wrong though."

Far too many SNL alumni went for terrible, bad parts and movies.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 11:36 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

“The power of pain compels you!”

It's 'the power of Patty compels you'
posted by PenDevil at 11:37 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh, who would have thought that a remake of a classic movie would be underwhelming?
posted by cosmic.osmo at 11:40 AM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I wish they'd gone the uncomfortably zany route and had the street-smart character be a Newsies-esque street urchin played by Amy Poehler.
posted by knuckle tattoos at 11:48 AM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

dephlogisticated: "pedantry tangent: CG / CGI = computer-generated imagery, which existed in primitive form in 1984 but was not used in Ghostbusters. Energy beams were rotoscoping, ghosts were mostly puppets, leaping dog-monsters were stop-motion, Stay-Puft was a guy in a suit, etc."

Thank you. Maybe it's just personal taste but I'll take the practical and/or optical effects from the '80s over the shiny CGI on display in this trailer.
posted by octothorpe at 12:00 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

This whole topic is sort of depressing to me. The project was doomed to fail. This is a cheesy elevator pitch that took on a life of its own.

Someone mentioned up thread... hey it could have been a fake psychic on the subway who discovers real ghosts/paranormal stuff. Or ANYTHING else along those lines. Maybe they were an undercover extermination service secretly employed by real estate firms to get rid of ghosts so the buildings could sell. I could probably spitball a few more given an hour or so.

But no. At worst, this is going to be seen as some "feminist" revisionism of the original, or a tacky cash-grab based on nostalgia. Meanwhile 50% of viewers will be comparing it to the classic film they cherished as a kid. It's set up as a failure and will be touted by the worst among us as an example of how "wimminz ruin everything"
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:00 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

I will undoubtedly see this movie, and as such will withhold final judgment until I'm sitting in the dark with a bucket of popcorn on my lap, but:

I was under the impression that this was going to be a sequel, but from what I can see by this trailer it looks like a reboot; Sony cashing in on a revered (at least by me) brand. The characters seem trope-y, stereotypical, and cookie cutter at best, and misogynist and racist at worst.

The original Ghostbusters had Dan Aykroyd as the writer who as a student of the supernatural and occult took those aspects seriously, even as he was writing an action comedy. He was joined in this filmic endeavor by others who were his close friends—Bill Murray, Harold Ramis, Ivan Reitman—in real life, and the relationships on screen and in the direction reflect that.

And speaking of acting, the fact that these guys came out of Second City and cut their teeth on improv comedy comes across in the original, too. I like Wiig, but McCarthy seems like a one trick pony.

The original was directed by a master craftsman—Reitman—who knew precisely how to balance the serious, human, and comic aspects of a quirky story and deliver compelling product that has held up for more than three decades (see also Groundhog Day). I like Paul Feig, but I'm not sure he's got the chops; he's no Ivan Reitman.

YMMV.
posted by spacely_sprocket at 12:07 PM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

I haven't watched the trailer yet but I thought I'd just read a few of the first comments, and then I ended up reading the whole thread without watching the trailer. And all of you have convinced me to not watch the trailer, because apparently it's both fun and crappy, racist and feminist, and relatable and idiotic. So I'm just gonna not worry about the trailer and watch the movie when it comes out, because all I ever really needed to know was that there's a new Ghostbusters thing and those four specific women are starring it it.
posted by numaner at 12:11 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

...adding to that. Sigourney Weaver was appearing in the original Ghostbusters after starring (as an unheard-of actor) as arguably the most ass-kicking female, non-sexualized, and natural leader/fighter figures ever in cinema... as Ripley in Alien. Ghostbusters wasn't a feminist screed, but the character she played was intelligent, strong and independent, and her possession and transforming was played to humorous ends by the fact that the audience saw her as a powerful woman.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 12:23 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

One thing that might mitigate the framing of the trailer a bit is this image from the movie's Instagram account, in which Jones' character, Patty Tolan, is described as "ghost tracker, municipal historian, metaphysical commando." Which is a bit better. (Here are the corresponding pics for McCarthy, Wiig, and McKinnon.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 12:38 PM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

One thing that might mitigate the framing of the trailer a bit is this image from the movie's Instagram account, in which Jones' character, Patty Tolan, is described as "ghost tracker, municipal historian, metaphysical commando." Which is a bit better.

Not really. The other three are scientist, engineer, physicist. Jones's character has none of those descriptors.

It's just different words to describe the black character as being 'street'.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 12:42 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Ghostbusters wasn't a feminist screed, but the character [Sigourney Weaver] played was intelligent, strong and independent, and her possession and transforming was played to humorous ends by the fact that the audience saw her as a powerful woman.

Huh, I really didn't like how Sigourney Weaver's character was treated in the original - it creeped me out in an un-fun way and made me feel like the intended audience was not-me.
posted by naoko at 12:46 PM on March 3, 2016 [10 favorites]

xarnop: "The original ghostbusters had stupid jokes, shitty cg and was not created to be politically correct. Now there's women as leads, it looks stupid and fun with crappy unscary ghosts (COME ON THE ORIGINAL HAD A PILLSBURY DOUGHBOY and you're looking for ...what in the monsters of this?)

By what standards can women goof off and be dorky comedian scientists, people didn't have the same standards when it was men---

I AM however really glad that white people find it a lot harder to overlook racist stereotypes, so on that point I am glad for people to hold that up and look at it and expect better in our films but other than that I really truly don't understand what people are expecting from a film that is supposed to be letting women get to have the fun goofy time the men had with the original ghostbusters."

The original Ghostbusters had no CG. It was all practical effects. The streams were hand animated into the scenes.
posted by Samizdata at 12:46 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

One thing that might mitigate the framing of the trailer a bit is this image from the movie's Instagram account

Oh, great, now there's militarization of Ghostbusters, too.

*sigh*
posted by lmfsilva at 12:51 PM on March 3, 2016

/Running joke where sociology isn't considered a real science but in the end the sociologist saved the day. Everybody bonds making slams on economists.

That's dismal. /highhat
posted by phearlez at 12:52 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Let me get this straight, the three white characters are science smart, but the black character isn't, but ooh, she's street smart.

That's a helluva dud to be proudly displaying right outta the gate. What the fuck were they thinking? What if the black woman was street AND science smart, eh? How's that for character.

Seriously, what the fuck is this shit?

It's almost as if they took a previous movie, and just changed the men to women.
posted by sideshow at 12:55 PM on March 3, 2016

Trailer sucked.

Going to watch the movie and judge it then.

That is all.
posted by Samizdata at 12:57 PM on March 3, 2016

It's almost as if they took a previous movie, and just changed the men to women.

You could maybe see the one black guy being the nonscientist being a unfirtunate/ subtextual note to the fest movie, this trailer seems to just go ahead and make that text.
posted by Artw at 12:58 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

ghost tracker, municipal historian, metaphysical commando.

History is a humanities subject, isn't it? No wonder she's working at the MTA.
posted by Artw at 1:01 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Brandon Blatcher: "The other three are scientist, engineer, physicist. Jones's character has none of those descriptors.

It's just different words to describe the black character as being 'street'."

If she is actually a historian; whether formally or self taught; it puts a whole different face on her character than "street smart".
posted by Mitheral at 1:01 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Unless it's like, knows the alleyway where Ratface Jimmy got shanked over a dimebag at in the 80s and his ghost haunts that spot till this very daaaaaaay.

Because that makes her a ghost walk tour guide - those guys are all drama students, that's fucking Arts.
posted by Artw at 1:04 PM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

Cashman - I don't think the problem is Leslie Jones acting, which is what you seem to be referencing in your "I told you so" link. If there is a problem it would seem to be of the writing and not Jones' acting.

Nope. It's her acting. And reading that New Yorker article where it details exactly how she acted out a few different scenes, turning standard lines into stereotypes. It's a mess. Just a mess.
posted by cashman at 1:08 PM on March 3, 2016

If she is actually a historian; whether formally or self taught; it puts a whole different face on her character than "street smart".

Not really, it's still playing to the trope.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:08 PM on March 3, 2016

This doesn't look that promising, but trailers are often a disaster. Black girl as street-smart non-scientist is a stupid move. I didn't think I'd like McCarthy's Spy based on the trailer, but it was hilarious, so who knows. I'm really digging the ProTools reboot of the Ghostbuster's theme.
posted by dis_integration at 1:11 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also "engineering" isn't a real field of science like "Ghost Physics". We'll be pretending psychology is real next.
posted by Artw at 1:11 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Mind you, it's totally possible that Jones' character will have more depth and this first trailer just isn't showing that. But it is the first trailer and the apparently complete tone deafness to what you're showing has me disappointed and worried. Before, this film was on my "SHIT YEAH, OPENING WEEKEND" list. Now it's on the "well, let's see what else we find out about it and maybe we'll see it" list.

It's also possible that Jones' character will be tropey and the film will be still be good and funny. But my hope are dim.

Upthread, folks mentioned that part of Jones' schtick is playing to and deconstructing the media stereotypes of black women. Great, would love to see it in the final film! But Jones' isn't in control here, the studio is. She's not on stage by herself, doing her thing. She's been assigned a role and whether she can push that will be up to the studio and the director. Any sort of nuanced performance might be left on the cutting room floor. I hope not though.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:28 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

" part of Jones' schtick is playing to and deconstructing the media stereotypes of black women."

If playing racial stereotypes over and over and over is deconstructing... then... whatever. She does the same thing in every appearance. Angry, semi-unhinged scary black woman.

How brave.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 1:31 PM on March 3, 2016

It's almost as if they took a previous movie, and just changed the men to women.

The original is 32 years old. Change the men to women, sure. But they couldn't come up with a better joke than, "But I know New York!"
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 1:32 PM on March 3, 2016

In the scenes described in the New Yorker the performance actually was nuanced, but then Jones turned it into that same mess.
posted by cashman at 1:35 PM on March 3, 2016

ghost tracker, municipal historian, metaphysical commando.

They may as well have gone all in with 'magical negro'
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 1:44 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

So there's a not-bad marketing site:
http://www.paranormalstudieslab.com and some of the footage there seems better.

Re watching the trailer after a few hours, it seems less bad. Aside from Leslie Jones.
posted by GuyZero at 1:53 PM on March 3, 2016

the funniest parts of Ghostbusters are the scenes with Rick Moranis. you could sum up the whole movie as "rick moranis, after sticking his finger in an electrical socket, talks to a horse about the occult." everything else is filler.
posted by ennui.bz at 1:59 PM on March 3, 2016 [7 favorites]

I'm getting totally confused by people's reactions to this movie.

1) I love Ghostbusters. LOVE Ghostbusters. It is one of the most finely crafted comedies of all time and I will always deeply love the original. The first time I watched it I was five; it was recorded on a VHS tape my grandma made after The Wizard of Oz, my first favorite movie. I was afraid to watch it because it was about ghosts until one day when my grandpa promised to watch it with me. The rest is history!

2) I was pretty loathe to hear news of any remake, whether female-centric or not. But I came around and thought it would be fun when I heard McCarthy was in it, because I'm obsessed with her.

3) The trailer looks totally unfunny and I have no freaking clue how to conceive of this movie now, so I'll just have to see it I guess!

4) Making Leslie Jones' character into the only non-scientist is ridiculous, but if the "joke" in the movie is that she's "street smart" because she's literally a municipal historian, that's kind of funny on its face. It could be that that is the running gag, but the trailer sure doesn't make it look that way. (And it's still playing into the trope that the black street smart person musses up the word of the tight-laced white ladies WHO DON'T LOVE CADILLACS.)

5) I am so tired of hearing the sexist crap about this movie.

6) Bridesmaids totally missed the mark for me (and again, I love McCarthy). I think it was because I was supposed to identify with a bunch of super thin, white, classy ladies as the ultimate definition of "adult womanhood." However, I did love The Heat. So hopefully it's further toward that end of the spectrum.
posted by stoneandstar at 2:18 PM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

6) Bridesmaids totally missed the mark for me (and again, I love McCarthy). I think it was because I was supposed to identify with a bunch of super thin, white, classy ladies as the ultimate definition of "adult womanhood."

I think you might have seriously misunderstood the intent of that film.
posted by Soulfather at 2:39 PM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

Should have hired the writers of Brooklyn 99/Parks and Rec., you know, people with a demonstrated track record of writing good, funny, parts for women.

Jones' character should have been a PhD candidate who makes her living as a real estate agent. That way she can know all about the city and her first contact with the other ladies can be because all the apartments she's trying to sell are haunted.
posted by wabbittwax at 2:57 PM on March 3, 2016 [5 favorites]

On the one hand, hmm. On the other hand, ehh.
posted by turbid dahlia at 3:02 PM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Er, Katie Dippold: She was a writer and producer on the NBC comedy series Parks and Recreation.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 3:02 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Oh. I guess I'd know that if I'd bothered to like look it up or whatever
posted by wabbittwax at 3:10 PM on March 3, 2016

Should have hired the writers of Brooklyn 99/Parks and Rec., you know, people with a demonstrated track record of writing good, funny, parts for women.

They did. It's written by both Paul Feig and Katie Dippold, of Parks and Rec fame.

Feig and Dippold did a play-by-play analysis of the trailer which gives some more tidbits about the characters including Patty.

KD: Melissa’s character has been at it her whole life. She’s never stopped, she’s never wavered. She doesn’t care. In today’s world, scientists don’t believe in ghosts. There are no parapsychology departments anymore in colleges, so we just thought that was interesting. What would that mean today, to form a Ghostbusters unit?

So to others, [Melissa's character] looks like the crazy lady, but she’s just been dead set at pursuing this. And she’s working with Kate McKinnon’s character, Holtzmann, who works with her in a lab. She’s a mysterious lady that knows a lot of stuff. She builds the equipment and she doesn’t care about social norms. If she sees everyone freaking out about something, she would just kind of smile: "Oh, isn’t that fun?"

And then Leslie Jones plays Patty, who works at the MTA. She sees a ghost, and so she joins them. Patty knows a lot about the city. She reads a lot of non-fiction books while she’s sitting alone in that booth all day, and so she brings a lot of that knowledge.

I know in the article from the New Yorker they talk about how she's reading...

...When her makeup and hair were in place, Jones walked through the warehouse to a replica of a New York subway station, with working turnstiles and dirt-streaked tile walls. She entered a fake ticket booth and inspected the props on the desk, which included a paperback about the Constitutional Convention. The cover depicted several Founding Fathers in tricornes. “Paul, does this look like some shit I would read?” she said. “Do you see any black people on this cover, Paul?”

Feig chuckled, sat behind a monitor, and called, “Action!” ...

Sure sounds like it's a lot more than being "street smart," and instead means the character is incredibly book smart. There is undoubtedly a lot more going on than we can see in a two-minute trailer. It could be she could be a lot more Egon knowledge-wise than, say, McKinnon’s character.
posted by tittergrrl at 3:46 PM on March 3, 2016 [12 favorites]

Bridesmaids totally missed the mark for me (and again, I love McCarthy). I think it was because I was supposed to identify with a bunch of super thin, white, classy ladies as the ultimate definition of "adult womanhood."

Not to pick apart your statement, because everyone has a right to their own opinions about art, but of the six main female characters, those three combined adjectives really only apply to Rose Byrne's character, and she is the unlikeable antagonist for most of the film.
posted by Atom Eyes at 4:05 PM on March 3, 2016

From this trailer analysis with Feig:

Q:How do they end up with that same logo?

PF: I don’t want to give anything away, but there’s an evolution of the logo, I’ll say that. Everything’s got an origin story. The proton pack’s got an origin story, the logo’s got an origin story. Yeah. Everything.

I'm assuming that has something to do with this which... look, The Stay-Puft Marshmallow man would have looked silly out of context but the fact that they're expilaning the logo just feels a little...dumb?

That said - despite this being a bad trailer its still got me a little keen for it. For McKinnon mainly. McCarthy looks like she's playing a softer role which I like too.
posted by AzzaMcKazza at 4:07 PM on March 3, 2016

Sure sounds like it's a lot more than being "street smart," and instead means the character is incredibly book smart.

What? I don't think so at all. Reading the rest after the "sat behind a monitor, and called, "Action!" part, and it seems to be a description of her doing the most stereotypical thing black women get written to do when they are clerks and service people. Keep reading and she does it again, and again.

I'm just going to focus on McKinnon, enjoy Wiig and McCarthy, and try like hell to not convulse through all of Leslie's nonsense. If her acting in the trailer is all the nonsense she's got going on in the film, I'll be shocked. I know it isn't. I just hope there is nothing truly egregious in there.
posted by cashman at 4:09 PM on March 3, 2016

cashman, your laser focus on the physicality of the specific black woman in this role rather than the shitty, problematic context she's been placed in is kind of gross. And the context is not her fault, so it's even more gross that you keep trying to blame her for it.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:29 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

On the physicality? What are you talking about?
posted by cashman at 4:31 PM on March 3, 2016

I just don't see much chemistry happening here. It looks like they all said their lines and then that was it. Hard Pass on this in the theater for me.
posted by 922257033c4a0f3cecdbd819a46d626999d1af4a at 5:15 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

And then Leslie Jones plays Patty, who works at the MTA. She sees a ghost, and so she joins them. Patty knows a lot about the city. She reads a lot of non-fiction books while she’s sitting alone in that booth all day, and so she brings a lot of that knowledge.

How hard would it have been to have the character be a grad or PhD student majoring in New York history who works at the MTA?

Or if we really want to up our game, maybe she's going to school full time for PhD, living off the money she made as real estate agent or stock market and happens to be a friend of one of the other lady scientists, so she's reeled in because of her knowledge?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:38 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Just saw this comment, which echoes many here: "Sometimes I feel like female characters are making tons of cool progress in terms of feature film portrayals! And then I realize that in this instance ‘female characters’ means ‘white female characters’, and ‘progress’ means ‘displaying that women are capable of each being recognized as individuals with different scientific qualifications unless you’re a black female–who is a legit cadillac lovin’, devil-fearing, ignorant to “this science-stuff” mta worker’. If your token black character is somehow more racist than it’s 30 year ago iteration then you fucked up somewhere."

And another that echoes Brandon Blatcher:

"Don’t get me wrong, I am very excited for the new Ghostbusters, but I can’t help but feel like the writers completely wasted the potential of Leslie Jones’ character. From what I’ve seen in the trailer the character is reduced to the typical “angry black female” stereotype that is only there as a sidekick for when muscle is needed. It’s so typical of white feminist Hollywood to put all their effort into boosting up white female characters but still using the same outdated and racist tropes for black female characters.

And that whole “I don’t understand this science stuff but I know new york” comment is such an overdone and unnecessary trope. Like “lol I’m not as smart as you guys but I have street smarts!” Why couldn’t the writers make her character both? Maybe she’s studying for a degree while working full time in NYC? Maybe she already has a degree and they could use her character to highlight how difficult it can be for a WOC to break into the science fields? That would be far more inspirational to young black women than the bullshit tropes they are abusing now. Is it too late for reshoots or nah?"
posted by cashman at 5:58 PM on March 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

It really doesn't make sense to me that they would go in this hyper stereotypical direction for Jones' character unless there were some subversion of those tropes going on. I don't know, I'm hoping against hope there's some sophisticated comedy chess happening here that we're just not seeing in the trailer. Like, among all the other problems, these choices are so boring, why? Did anyone involved with the production really think that Cadillac joke is funny?

The best I can do is: McCarthy's thing (as far as I've seen?) is to do a kind of "big dumb lunk" physical comedy that's more usually reserved for men (stunts that look like they would really hurt, undignified, physical oofs), and I think there's something really good about her kind of taking that space and running with it. A female Jack Black or something like that. So maybe they're giving Jones a similar thing, those really broad physical-comedy moments? But it doesn't work the same for a black woman as for a white woman, instead it ends up just slotting her into this other set of existing crappy pigeonholes.

Maybe even that's overthinking it too much... I hope things change with this movie from the trailer to the screen; it could be so much more.
posted by LobsterMitten at 6:21 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

It really doesn't make sense to me that they would go in this hyper stereotypical direction for Jones' character unless there were some subversion of those tropes going on.

Which could totally work and I'm hoping will ultimately happen, but why not hint at that in the trailer?

Because everything I've seen in the trailer and read from the writers as mentioned above, the creators don't see a single problem with making the black character somehow separate from the three white gal pal scientists who works at the MTA, but hey she reads books in her spare time at the job.

I totally get that it's possible to miss a particular angle (boy do I get that), and we have all have blindspots, groups especially can have some huge blindspots. And part of my despite and anger over this may be a miss interpretation of what Feig was going for here. I thought it was a positive female centered movie.

Instead it's just a complete reboot of the franchise, the original never happened, but this new version seemingly wants to duplicate the general gist of the original. Which, ok fine, not what I prefer, but still worth considering. But this seemingly huge blindspot in a supposedly pro woman film just fills me with despair over people every being able to understand one another.

I need to build a cabin on a mountain somewhere...
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:54 PM on March 3, 2016 [4 favorites]

Jones seems ok with the character, according to this tweet.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:06 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not to pick apart your statement, because everyone has a right to their own opinions about art, but of the six main female characters, those three combined adjectives really only apply to Rose Byrne's character, and she is the unlikeable antagonist for most of the film.

OK, no offense, but two men are telling me my reaction to Bridesmaids was "wrong" so this is kind of on my nerves now. Kristin Wiig and Rose Byrne were for all intents and purposes the two main characters, both thin, white, and relatively classy (I mean, Wiig owned a cupcake shop, she apparently had capital, she wears delicate jewelry, etc.). It was clearly engineered to appeal to relatively wealthy (mostly white) 20- and 30-somethings and McCarthy's character was the only one that really rang true to me, and hers was the goofiest.

I think you might have seriously misunderstood the intent of that film.

Is this even possible? What, exactly, was the intent? To blow my mind? To me it was kind of an empty shell, like they tried too hard to genderflip the Apatow thing and went too far and made a movie about a bunch of Katherine Heigls with a few funny lines. It felt like a waste of very funny actresses. (Byrne especially in Neighbors was hilarious, and felt much more genuine as a real female person.) I was entertained, but I prefer comedies that don't hit a bunch of tacky romantic comedy beats and try to convince to care about the friendship of two actresses which is barely caught on screen.

I've seen more woman-positive and definitely much funnier comedies elsewhere, this one from what I remember had a Hitler joke on a plane and a bunch of diarrhea jokes and a plot about how sometimes women have a midlife crisis where they "push people away" and need to be won over by the love of a gentle policeman, or something. So basically, a romantic comedy. And what Feig and Apatow think adult women are like, which I already knew from their male-centric movies with boring female characters. I would have preferred a movie that actually cared about the psychology/sociology of female friendship, as much as Apatow's other movies care about the manbaby psychology.
posted by stoneandstar at 7:08 PM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

Jones seems ok with the character, according to this tweet.

Sure. Of course she is.
posted by cashman at 7:09 PM on March 3, 2016

The part in Neighbors where Byrne is like "what the fuck, why can't I be irresponsible sometimes? Why do I always have to take care of your shit and be the adult?" was so much more insightful and relatable to me as a woman than the "ha ha Jon Hamm wants a blow job" stuff from Bridesmaids. Like the only type of boorish man writes "BOOR" on his head and puts his dick in your face. But OK, that is all.
posted by stoneandstar at 7:11 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

it seemed to be mostly a goofy kids movie with some kinda weird and uncomfortable sex stuff mixed in

This is also how I remember the 80s.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 8:03 PM on March 3, 2016 [11 favorites]

Brandon. Buddy. You've been deliberately trolled. The very FIRST sentence of the preview referred to FOUR scientists saving New York. Yes, she's "sassy", she's also a scientist by the very rules of the world laid down in the very first sentence of the preview. It's pretty awesome that an urban black woman is an ass-kicking scientist who saves the world with her scientist friends and their hot receptionist sidekick.

If the movie fails me in the Four Scientists premise, I WILL BE UPSET... but these are very smart people making this movie. The trailer was deliberately bad, as in OG Ghostbusters Bad. I liked it. It made me smirk.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:30 PM on March 3, 2016

(OK Here's the twist: Melissa Mac is Winston, Leslie is Ray. Who comes up with the Caddy Ecto-1 that the others don't like?)
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:39 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

Brandon Blatcher: How hard would it have been to have the character be a grad or PhD student majoring in New York history who works at the MTA?

How on Earth do you know she's not? Or something equally impressive. You know literally a handful of things about her character, and most didn't even come from the trailer but other articles.

What a lot of people are having trouble with is this line: "But I know about New York" thinking that this is some sort of street smarts thing, which seems a bit presumptive when you think of it, especially in light of the fact that in the poster she is called a "municipal historian." Did you know that according to a 1919 New York law, every municipality and borough must have an official historian. And according to a huuuuuuuuge spoiler in this link, that could be very, very useful.

Maybe she says "I know about New York!" because... she's an actual (brace for it) historian. ZOUNDS!

Maybe she works for the MTA but is also a borough historian. Maybe she is an MTA attendant because she lost the job as a historian because she claimed to see a ghost. Maybe, just maybe, that library we see them at in the beginning of the trailer maybe somewhere she used to work at and they are investigating it after she reported it. We don't know if the other three women are even FROM New York. We don't know if they've always been there, just moved there, or what. Who the hell knows, because none of us have seen the movie. We're all just making freaking guesses and creating our own narrative, picking and choosing the evidence we want.

This is one thing I do know... Paul Feig has made a career of movies and tv shows where stereotypes are undermined or twisted. Why on earth would he do something so bald-facedly hamfisted? I mean I guess it's possible that this one thing he was like "You know what... good enough." And I could be wrong, she could just be a huge stereotype.

Or maybe... there's approximately 118 minutes more to the film which fleshes Patty and the other Ghostbusters out. Crazy talk, but hey. I'm willing to give the benefit of the doubt here.
posted by tittergrrl at 8:46 PM on March 3, 2016 [8 favorites]

ALSO! In the original, Ray is immediately conversant with scripture, and more to the point, is genuine, emotional, and lovable. Leslie is the new Ray. I am sure Dan Ackroyd is still giggling and rubbing his hands together with glee over the notion.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:51 PM on March 3, 2016

Let me get this straight, the three white characters are science smart, but the black character isn't, but ooh, she's street smart.

Yeah this sums up my first reaction. Bummer that the trailer signals such tired tropes. That's an awful lot of slapstick to rely on too. It's a first trailer though so count me in for the "wait and see" crowd.
posted by Start with Dessert at 8:54 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]

I'm hopeful that these way better alternatives / theories are true and the trailer was just cut to be as "omg it's Ghoooostbusters" as possible. Which, erg? Regardless I'm also annoyed about the Tim Burton ghosts, ugh I hate them
posted by stoneandstar at 9:29 PM on March 3, 2016

Also I know that YouTube comments are a morass but I lolled when I read:

"Not sexist, just think it would be better if there were men instead like the original"

and someone commented below that

"That isn't sexist at all. It's just anti-pc."

It is so weird when people literally don't know what the definition of sexism is.
posted by stoneandstar at 9:31 PM on March 3, 2016 [6 favorites]

"Every crack"... women apologising for stepping on each other's lines... an angry black woman... a woman getting slapped/"That's going to leave a mark".

Right now, given the evidence, I'm not that excited for this film. I really wish I was. I want to be. But I'm just not.
posted by crossoverman at 2:38 AM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

My expectation level is: Green Lantern.

Aside from Female Cartoon Egon (I have no idea who the actress is, but she's the blonde), because she was just adorable and basically Real Ghostbusters writ large, I'm struggling to see why they decided to remake this.

OTOH, it's nice they used the original Slimer prop.
posted by Mezentian at 3:23 AM on March 4, 2016

Am I the only one who thinks the ghost effects look cool? Trailers always have unpolished CG, but I like the direction they're going with the bright, neon ghost colors.
posted by tobascodagama at 4:51 AM on March 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Am I the only one who thinks

No

the ghost effects look cool?

Probably not, but they do look... eh.
posted by Mezentian at 4:58 AM on March 4, 2016

What a lot of people are having trouble with is this line: "But I know about New York" thinking that this is some sort of street smarts thing, which seems a bit presumptive when you think of it, especially in light of the fact that in the poster she is called a "municipal historian."

I can't talk to you if you're going to pointedly ignore what people have repeatedly and specifically said bothers them about the trailer then proceed to whateverthefuck'plainin' you're doing about Paul Feig and his career.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:32 AM on March 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

tobascodagama: "Am I the only one who thinks the ghost effects look cool? "

Yes, it would seem that way. They look like the sort of ghosts you would see in shitty theme park videos shown on the screens you shuffle past/stand by while waiting to get on a ride.

I can't really think of a recent movie where the trailer was a significant departure from what I saw in the theatre, and that makes me sad. I really wanted to like this movie, but christ, that's bad.
posted by barnacles at 7:14 AM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

i like the ghosts. they're cheesy, but ghostbusters have always had cheesy ghosts. of course i would have preferred practical effects, but that wasn't going to happen, so if we have to have these 3d-optimized cg ghosts, these are fine, i think.
posted by nadawi at 7:25 AM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I can't really think of a recent movie where the trailer was a significant departure from what I saw in the theatre

Really?

Of course I can't think of any recent examples where that has been a happy surprise.
posted by Artw at 7:30 AM on March 4, 2016

Am I missing something?
posted by Mezentian at 7:36 AM on March 4, 2016

Recut
posted by lucidium at 7:41 AM on March 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

Recut, with even less melanin!
posted by phearlez at 7:46 AM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

Ha, that bothered me too. I don't mind gross out humor but it has to make physical sense!
posted by stoneandstar at 9:05 AM on March 4, 2016

Recut, with even less melanin!

I'd rather see less of the character if it means avoiding what looks (in the original trailer) like lazy stereotyping.

This recut was a much better trailer.
posted by sparklemotion at 9:30 AM on March 4, 2016

OK, no offense, but two men are telling me my reaction to Bridesmaids was "wrong" so this is kind of on my nerves now.

Sorry about that, stoneandstar. And thanks for your well-considered response. Truthfully, I hadn't even noticed some of those not so good aspects about the film until you pointed them out.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:40 AM on March 4, 2016

No prob, Atom Eyes. I don't think it's a *bad* film, I just didn't like that it was touted as a supposed triumph of women's comedy when the branding was like "Apatow, but for chicks who own bakeries" or whatnot. I know it was a commercial success so it was definitely important in that regard (if only to prove female-driven comedies aren't budget suicide).
posted by stoneandstar at 11:37 AM on March 4, 2016

That recut is a lot better - better paced, leaves us with just the promise of "this will be a Ghostbusters movie" but without the cringey bits. Hm.

(OK Here's the twist: Melissa Mac is Winston, Leslie is Ray. Who comes up with the Caddy Ecto-1 that the others don't like?)

I want to believe. Had forgotten the ghostmobile in the original was a Cadillac, that makes me feel a little better about that joke at least.

Suppose this is right. In terms of their personalities anyway - Ray is kind of a sweet earnest manchild true believer, which, I don't know - if they give that to Jones, does that play well for a black woman or does it just fall into another set of shitty tropes? I think if you want to give her a non-stereotypey role you make her Egon or Venkman (assuming they really want to stick close to the original formula).

If McCarthy is Winston, wouldn't she have to be the audience-surrogate character that comes into the team late and gets stuff explained to her? I don't think that's what we're seeing in the trailer.

Another question is, is there going to be a Sigourney Weaver character/romantic subplot?
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:07 PM on March 4, 2016

Leslie Jones On Playing a MTA Worker: 'Why Can't a Regular Person Be a Ghostbuster?'
posted by Artw at 12:52 PM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

1. Scientists are regular people too.
2. Why can't the lone black person on the team also be a scientist, why do they have to the regular person who knows the street?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:23 PM on March 4, 2016 [5 favorites]

From Leslie Jones's Twitter:

Regular People save the world everyday so if I'm the sterotype!! Then so be it!! We walk among Heroes and take them for granted.

The rest of the conversation is worth following, since it starts out with someone telling her how said it is that she's "just a sidekick" in this movie... watching Ms. Jones hand that fool their ass is quite pleasing, I wish she could do it to all the folks in-thread who are taking the agency of her performance away from her based on their narrow interpretation of a scant few minutes of film clips.
posted by palomar at 3:05 PM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

If you're on the fence about whether this is racially problematic, remember that this is from the same writer/director team as The Heat, a film that thought it would be hilarious for Melissa McCarthy to play a cop who subdues a fleeing black suspect by throwing a watermelon at him.
posted by Parasite Unseen at 3:20 PM on March 4, 2016 [3 favorites]

I wish she could do it to all the folks in-thread who are taking the agency of her performance away from her based on their narrow interpretation of a scant few minutes of film clips.

Please. Most actors in film have little agency, as it comes down to how the director edits the film together.

As to Jones' tweets, she's doing a fantastic job of completely missing the point, then moving the goalposts and belittling anyone who disagrees. If she's fine with her performance, great (though has she seen a complete film?). Doesn't mean anyone else has to be and the fact that so many are uncomfortable with racial elements of the trailer indicates this isn't some one off event.

No is hating on non-scientists and thinks they can't be heroes. Literally no one has said that. What's bugging people is the three white female friends, who are all scientists and then an outsider black character, who despite whatever awesome qualities she might have, isn't part of their circle and seems to be playing to the urban, magic negro stereotype who "knows the street".

So yeah, you go ahead and cheer the "beatdown" of the fools who've expressed issues with the trailer. Go you.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 4:03 PM on March 4, 2016 [6 favorites]

Operative word in there is "seems". Y'all are basing this on a trailer, is no one going to wait until the actual movie comes out so they can see it before they vilify and demonize it?
posted by palomar at 4:26 PM on March 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

(also curious about your quotes around beatdown... since i didn't use that word, i know you're not trying to pretend that's a quote from me, right?)
posted by palomar at 4:26 PM on March 4, 2016

If the trailer doesn't represent the film, we'll discover that in time. Trailers aren't the movie, but they do represent the movie. Trailers are made to be seen and discussed. On the one hand, I hate the internet's rush to judgement. On the other, this trailer is what we have been given to entice us to see the film. Some of us don't like what we see. Some of us wish is was cut differently. Some are overjoyed to have women playing Ghostbusters.

Being a trailer doesn't mean we can't discuss what it's saying or what it's suggesting or what it represents. If the film is better than this trailer, good. Great. But that still makes it a terrible trailer and what it's saying about Leslie Jones' character still sucks.
posted by crossoverman at 6:53 PM on March 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

If you're on the fence about whether this is racially problematic, remember that this is from the same writer/director team as The Heat, a film that thought it would be hilarious for Melissa McCarthy to play a cop who subdues a fleeing black suspect by throwing a watermelon at him.

IIRC with the watermelon throwing in The Heat, the character being chased immediately looked over and saw that she had thrown a watermelon and called her a racist. This came after a scene before the chase where the same character called her a racist. So I saw it as continuing a joke. And hilarious.

I enjoy that people keep saying things like "from what I've seen in the trailer, this movie ..." The trailer was less than three minutes long. The movie will probably be 120 minutes give or take. So from what you've seen in the trailer is probably less than 3% of the movie. Don't see it if you don't want to see it. I've seen better trailers but I'm still looking forward to the movie.
posted by kat518 at 8:53 PM on March 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Operative word in there is "seems". Y'all are basing this on a trailer, is no one going to wait until the actual movie comes out so they can see it before they vilify and demonize it?

Look, a trailer isn't some sacrosanct piece of media that people must merely watch and not comment about. The whole point of a trailer is to get people excited and interested in an upcoming film. This particular trailer failed to do for some people and the reasons why have been repeatedly and specifically articulated.

Trying to shut people and be dismissive about their concerns with hyperbolic statements like "is no one going to wait until the actual movie comes out so they can see it before they vilify and demonize it" serves no purpose.

(also curious about your quotes around beatdown... since i didn't use that word, i know you're not trying to pretend that's a quote from me, right?)

Goof on my part, I apologize.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:19 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Sometimes I see a trailer and know I won't like the movie. The Fantastic Four remake was like that for me. I was not wrong.
posted by Splunge at 7:01 AM on March 5, 2016

"It's just a trailer!" Ignores the fact that trailers are huge these days, probably the third most covered form of media in American culture today (yeah, they're over music). There are ads for trailers now. They aren't just slapped together by one dude in an editing suite anymore -- they are as market-driven and focus-grouped and obsessed over by the studios as the movies they tease.
posted by Etrigan at 7:32 AM on March 5, 2016 [4 favorites]

I think there is a case to be made for Jones character as a character, in the abstract. The first Ghostbusters addressed the secret, occult history of New York, which Dan Ackroyd believable knew about, because he is a conspiracy freak in real life.

But two characters in the films are two failed authors (one who has gone on to a teaching position at Columbia) and a nuclear engineer, none of whom necessarily have the sort of deep background in underground New York history that dealing with ghosts requires.

I can see the usefulness of having a character who is in touch with that underground history, thanks, in part, to an obsessive reading habit and thanks in part to actually being underground and having a job that would put her in touch with the map of New York in a regular way. It's a better use of a fourth character than Winston in the original, who was just a guy who wanted a job and was sort of religious sometimes.

That being said, I may be assuming too much about the character, and I can certainly understand criticisms that this role would be given to the black actress.

One question: McCarthy character is referred to as an author in almost everything I have read, who wrote failed books about ghosts. I don't see any evidence that she or Kristen Wiig are supposed to be "science smart," as compared to Jones. From what I can tell, McKinnon is the only scientist in the group, and only one of the other white women ever was in academia, and was laughed out of it due to her interests in the occult.

I have liked Fieg's work in the past, and don't trust trailers to really communicate what a movie is about, and this has been a pretty locked down film in general, so it's hard for me to know how to feel. But, if Jones' character is more complicated than she seems, man, they sure could have handled that better in the trailer.
posted by maxsparber at 11:36 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

We see Wiig in front of a chalkboard covered with mathy notation and someone says "you're the best at quantum mechanics" or something similar.
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:39 AM on March 5, 2016 [2 favorites]

Oh, I mean that Wiig's character went on to academia, but I'm not sure what McCarthy went on to. I misidentified the actresses.
posted by maxsparber at 11:40 AM on March 5, 2016

You're gonna make me watch this thing again to figure it out, aren't you?
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:41 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Reading more, it sounds like Wiig is a particle physicist, so there are two scientists in the group. But everything I have read about McCarthy is that she's a true believer in the supernatural stuff and never gave up on it, and Fieg has said that it's set in a more modern world where academia has completely abandoned parapsychology and will not tolerate discussions of the supernatural, so if she's an academic, I will be surprised.
posted by maxsparber at 11:43 AM on March 5, 2016

Ok - the only clues I get from the trailer:
Wiig introduces herself as a PhD in particle physics

McCarthy says "we've dedicated our entire lives to studying the paranormal" - says this to Wiig and McKinnon, so she's been friends with at least one of them for a long time?

Says McKinnon is "a brilliant engineer" - I wonder offhand if she's going to play Val Kilmer's role from Real Genius
posted by LobsterMitten at 11:49 AM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Yeah, from what I have read, McCarthy and Wiig wrote a book on the supernatural decades ago that resurfaces and causes Wiig to be kicked out of academia.
posted by maxsparber at 11:51 AM on March 5, 2016

Ah, gotcha.

I can see the usefulness of having a character who is in touch with that underground history, thanks, in part, to an obsessive reading habit and thanks in part to actually being underground and having a job that would put her in touch with the map of New York in a regular way.

Agree that this is hopefully a way for her to be a key mover of the plot, yeah.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:16 PM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Well I for one am now properly shamed for drawing conclusions about what I thought were problematic race elements based on the things I saw in the released trailer. Thank you to everyone who has refuted my concerns by pointing out the things that might maybe be in the final movie that we have no idea about.

Why no, I see no similarities between this and what happens when someone points out all the ways that an event maybe wasn't a racist or sexist thing, why do you ask?
posted by phearlez at 1:03 PM on March 5, 2016 [3 favorites]

Another thing to speculate about - if Ackroyd comes back, in what capacity? If he's Jones's co-worker at MTA, then I think the Patty=Ray theory gets a boost. If McCarthy goes up to him at a book-signing or something, or he pops out of a closet with a grizzled beard but wearing the same outfit as McCarthy, less so.
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:17 PM on March 5, 2016

According to a this article, McCarthy's character Abby Yates works in the basement of a non-stellar college, so it sounds like she at least moves in academia circles.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:44 PM on March 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

Possible plot leak on Reddit.
posted by I-baLL at 9:14 AM on March 6, 2016

TBH even if the movie turned out to be completely non-shitty and racist we're still left with a trailer that is.
posted by Artw at 9:26 AM on March 6, 2016

TBH even if the movie turned out to be completely non-shitty and racist we're still left with a trailer that is.

Yes, but once the movie comes out the trailer becomes “the advertisement before the substance” rather than “the substance”. Trailers might be a big deal, but they are also pretty darn ephemeral; who’s still watching the trailer for The Force Awakens now that the movie is here?
posted by Going To Maine at 9:44 AM on March 6, 2016

Right, but right now we're having this dumb conversation, not getting hyped for the film, and Village Roadshow is pumping out the messgae that you can be black or a scientist but not both. It's bad.
posted by Artw at 10:01 AM on March 6, 2016 [4 favorites]

Ghostbusters' Leslie Jones defends 'street smart' black female character
posted by Artw at 10:03 AM on March 6, 2016

Ant-Man had a subpar first trailer, but luckily managed to put out a better one later and turned out to be a pretty fun movie, though it wasn't in Ghostbuster league good. But still enjoyable

But this Ghostbuster movie situation is different, for me at least, because I learned the basic premise, which is completely from the idea I had in my head and now I'm disappointed.

I had thought this version of GB was going to be some sort of sequel. But it turns out that it's a complete reboot, where the first GB never occurred. Think about that for a minute, there's this great classic movie that's widely loved and the new writer/director made the conscious decision to say "Nope, we're just going ignore that and do something sorta new". Which is could work out, but it turns out that Feig didn't want to do sequel because wanted to explore these new characters developing the tech to fight the ghosts.

Which, ok? That's an odd reason, especially since Harold Ramis died, so his character couldn't even be in the movie, so the new characters could have developed new tech or rediscovered the tech. Plus you know that what made the original Ghostbusters great had little to do with the tech, right?

Throw in this terrible first trailer and it doesn't sound promising at all. But we'll see. This could just be an example of a new generation grooving on the new version while older people grumble kids these days.

Possible plot leak on Reddit.

That sounds terrible. Hopefully the movie is not terrible.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 1:25 PM on March 6, 2016

I wouldn't be too terribly surprised if the reddit leak is accurate, but considering that there's a substantial reddit-based movement that has expressed their specific hatred for this movie, I'm going to take any leak from there with a grain of salt for now.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:09 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Not to mention that it's pretty easy to paraphrase a good movie in a way that makes it sound shitty.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:09 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

After all, the original Ghostbusters was about a guy who tries to use his expertise in the paranormal to score, and his friend who dreams of ghost sex.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:16 PM on March 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

Yes, but the movie was funny as hell.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:29 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

… I think that was my point.
posted by Going To Maine at 3:42 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

a guy who tries to use his expertise in the paranormal to score

He's surprisingly respectful of the possessed though.
posted by Artw at 3:47 PM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

The memes have started. I know some of the criticism comes simply because women have been cast in a film remake where the original film had male actors. I have to wonder if at some point there is enough legitimate concern about her character that they remove or reshoot those scenes we saw in the trailer. I'm fully open to the film having Jones' character be a broad portrayal and thus somewhat evening out the absolute nonsense we saw in the trailer. Given Jones' shtick though, and the snippets of Feig's direction of a few moments from the New Yorker article, it seems much more likely that the bulk of her character's acting and lines is the same problematic material seen in the trailer.
posted by cashman at 6:24 PM on March 6, 2016

Leslie Jones: "I think today will be the day I get rid of Twitter. Gonna really be thinking on it. Not sure I want to need it anymore. Know what I mean?"
posted by cashman at 6:28 AM on March 8, 2016

Whoa, what a difference two days makes:
"Hey I just want everyone to know that I really am not taking anything to heart what's being said by haters. There will always be haters." 10:19 PM - 6 Mar 2016

I guess the Slimergate trolls finally just got to be too much. Twitter can be the fucking worst.
posted by Atom Eyes at 9:53 AM on March 8, 2016

Weird, why attack Jones, she's just playing a character? I disgree with her defense of her character in the trailer, but sheesh, she doesn't deserve attacks.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:07 PM on March 8, 2016 [3 favorites]

On an unrelated note, a Ghostbusters game was released in 2009. The graphics were terrible, the gameplay overcomplicated and kludgy, the voices of your NPC teammates were the original Ghostbusters - Bill Murray, Howard Raimis, Ernie Hudson, Dan Ackroyd (who was also your in-game tutorial mentor).

The visuals were revolutionary for 1998, let me tell you, in 2009, it was very, very painful.

Peter Venkman gets slimed. Again. And isn't happy about it, in a fatalistic and homicidal way. It was awesome, unless you couldn't block out the horrible guy-on-the-floor-waggling-unnervingly-with-unrelated-sparks uncanny-valley animation.

They just need to remake this game with good or even somewhat acceptable graphics and gameplay, and who cares about movies?
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:43 PM on March 8, 2016 [2 favorites]

It also ran like shit when my laptop was new. I think it was the first time I was actually disappointed a game that wasn't one of those tech showcases was almost unplayable.
posted by lmfsilva at 2:29 AM on March 9, 2016

Ugh, the PC version was garbage. Highly recommended on XBox or PS3, but otherwise just find videos on YouTube.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 3:59 AM on March 9, 2016

The graphics were terrible, the gameplay overcomplicated and kludgy, the voices of your NPC teammates were the original Ghostbusters - Bill Murray, Howard Raimis, Ernie Hudson, Dan Ackroyd (who was also your in-game tutorial mentor).

Also! Dr. Zeddemore got a PhD.
posted by tobascodagama at 5:05 AM on March 9, 2016

The International Trailer. Why didn't they just run this one!!? Leslie's character seems great, her lines are funny without being stereotypical and ridiculous and reminiscent of nonsense, and it actually makes me want to see the film. And not because thor's in it, but because there's nothing to distract from the plot and the characters and the idea that it'll be a fun, funny film.
posted by cashman at 7:53 AM on March 9, 2016 [7 favorites]

Yes, that trailer is much more fun to my eyes, lots more humor that lands.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:05 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I want to be clear. Are you asking why the American version contains more obnoxious visuals of a PoC behaving in stereotypical and ridiculous ways? Because I think I know the answer to that.
posted by phearlez at 8:24 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

That should have been the trailer. Especially in light of this one, that first trailer was legit bad.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:29 AM on March 9, 2016 [3 favorites]

FOUR FRIENDS
posted by Artw at 8:31 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Youtube link to the international trailer for those of use without twitter.
posted by Mitheral at 9:51 AM on March 9, 2016

"The uploader has not made this video available in your country."
posted by cashman at 10:02 AM on March 9, 2016

That International trailer is so, so, so much better. It's like it's from a completely different movie, one that resembles some of the story outlines found in this thread. Jones' character seems like a normal human being, unlike in the domestic trailer -- I swear to dog, if I never hear a black character yelling "Aw hell naw!" in a film again, it'll be soon.
posted by lord_wolf at 10:03 AM on March 9, 2016 [2 favorites]

cashman: ""The uploader has not made this video available in your country.""

Wow they blocked it only in the US. I wonder if that is something SonyUK does by default or if this is part of an intentional marketing plan.
posted by Mitheral at 10:09 AM on March 9, 2016

Why do the Ghostbusters hate America?!
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:17 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't think the Twitter version requires a login, and it does play even if you're in the US. So, there's that.

Anyway, yeah, that's just a better trailer. Less of the "three lady scientists plus their black friend" vibe, because it really only mentions the credentials of Holtzmann and Wiig's character. Patty's gag in this trailer was actually funny. too, which is a plus.

I want to be clear. Are you asking why the American version contains more obnoxious visuals of a PoC behaving in stereotypical and ridiculous ways? Because I think I know the answer to that.

Yeah, it's pretty telling about what Sony's marketing thinks will appeal to American audiences.
posted by tobascodagama at 10:38 AM on March 9, 2016

intentional marketing plan

I don't see any method at all, sir.
posted by flabdablet at 10:42 AM on March 9, 2016

It looks a lot like a do-over based on feedback to me, especially the four friends bit.
posted by Artw at 10:58 AM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

I don't see any method at all, sir.

The domestic trailer was made by an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect a bill.

Obviously
posted by wabbittwax at 11:51 AM on March 9, 2016

I swear to dog, if I never hear a black character yelling "Aw hell naw!" in a film again, it'll be soon.

Too soon? Because it’ll definitely not be soon.
posted by Going To Maine at 4:40 PM on March 9, 2016

I don't know, I don't really like the international trailer either. I think that I just don't like 21st century comedy films.
posted by octothorpe at 5:07 PM on March 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

Leslie Jones' Ghostbusters Role Was Originally Written For Melissa McCarthy

Genuinely surprised about this.
posted by tobascodagama at 2:48 PM on March 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

That makes perfect sense to me, and seems both true to McCarthy and Jones's performing personas (I gather?). But it sounds like he didn't anticipate that some of the big loud physical stuff would read differently or have a different social meaning when a black woman does it than when a white woman does it. (Which sucks and is yet another limit on black female comedians - so there's a kind of double bind here for performers like Jones.)
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:25 PM on March 10, 2016 [4 favorites]

And obviously some of it was rewritten for Jones -- as lord_wolf says, that "aw hell naw" isn't something they'd put in the script for McCarthy.
posted by LobsterMitten at 4:26 PM on March 10, 2016

And obviously some of it was rewritten for Jones -- as lord_wolf says, that "aw hell naw" isn't something they'd put in the script for McCarthy.

Film scripts can change quite dynamically during production - heck, Bill Murray ad-libbed a lot of the original film. Regardless of who played the part, the script would be getting re-edited to lean more towards their character-type. If McCarthy had been left, it might well gone heavily in the direction of her character in The Heat.
posted by Going To Maine at 5:38 PM on March 10, 2016

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