Ghostbusters: A Review

Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room. This movie doesn’t just pass the Bechdel test, it soars through it like an Andhra boy from Chaitanya, Narayana and Kota attacking the JEE. It is the collective orgasm of every pop culture-related feminist fantasy.  It is the cumulative, screaming release of every article written by ‘The Mary Sue’ and every actress who protested wage gaps and terribly 1 dimensional roles. It is a movie, ladies and gentlemen, that stars women, plural, with actual personalities, goals, background stories and lots of ghostbusting skills and that is beautiful to watch.

Progressiveness apart, the movie, in the end, needs to live or die on its own merits and I’m happy to report that it has many. Dr Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig), Dr Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy), Dr Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon) and Patty Jones (played by Leslie Jones and clearly the Howard of the group) are four women who set up a ghostbusting agency complete with protective overalls and cool, advanced tech that looks retro and acts futuristic.

The movie gets them there very quickly while still doing enough exposition to get people on board. It neatly sidesteps the slow starts and yawn-inducing build-up of other reboots and origin movies and wastes no time at all in jumping into the story. The lack of time wasting is a constant throughout the movie making it a slick, action-packed ride that pauses only for hilarious zingers, small doses of meta-humour (which seems par for the course these days), and plenty of references to the original.

You don’t expect a plot beyond evil ghosts, good ghostbusters in this movie and you don’t get one. But the plot that is there is very well executed with a good mix of action and humour with touch of horror movie style shock factor. The balance of tension and comedy in the fight scenes is especially well done. The background music is on-point and plays a large role in setting the mood.

The movie also turns a couple of stereotypes on their head by giving the four ghostbusters a ditzy but attractive bimbo receptionist in the form of Kevin Beckman (Chris Hemsworth). While objectifying men instead solves exactly zero problems, if you’re going to do it to make a statement, there really could be no better eye candy than Chris Hemsworth who does a brilliant job with the role.

Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig also do fantastically in portraying the wacky and lovable protagonists.  Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones felt a touch over-the-top in their respective roles but it’s a forgivable amount and overall the four women have great chemistry. Neil Casey, on the other hand, is unimpressive in his role of evil mastermind and just about manages to play a decent stereotypical villain.

The special effects are cheesy enough to be fun and nostalgic but won’t wow you with their beauty. The cheesiness escalates in the second half of the movie while the comedic timing simultaneously falters a little but overall Ghostbusters is a fun, action-filled and enjoyable answer to the age old question, “Who you gonna call?”