REVIEW: Ghostbusters (2016)

Back in the 80’s, almost everyone knew who to call when there was something strange in their neighborhood. Heck, even until now. The original Ghostbusters were composed of three scientists and their recruit who saved New York from the demon Zuul. Thirty-two years later, the Ghostbusters are now back with four new leads. Strapping on their proton packs, these ladies are ready to bust some ghosts.

The reboot shared some similar elements from the original movie. You have the group of scientist that no one believes that ghost are real until weird things start to happen. Guess who they called for that.  It was good to see that Ghostbusters went on its own way instead of trying to just reenact the first movie, a sin that some reboots commit. As Ghostbusters go, the explanation of the paranormal through science is still there. It was refreshing to have a ghost filled movie that is also a comedy. Fans of the original movie need not worry that their childhood will be destroyed. These are new characters and they are in no way related to the first two movies. Still, long time fans are in for a treat thanks to the cameos of the original cast and the references to the original source material. Yes, even the famous Slimer is bound to appear.

Now Ghostbusters has two strong suits: Their comedy and the visuals. We’ll get to the latter later. Having history in comedy, the four women easily delivered the laughs. Kristin Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones who work with SNL greatly contributed to their perfomance. It sometimes seemed that they were in an SNL skit for the most part. Melissa McCarthy was also no amateur when it comes to comedic films. Each of them was able to easily portray their characters quirks and personality. Chris Hemsworth also played his part well as a good for nothing eye candy which is an obvious take on the stereotype dumb blonde character but with a twist. It would have been better if they  made more of an apprentice type character to the leads.

If there is one thing that this reboot has over the classic one, it’s the visual effects. Thanks to the current CGI technology, the ghosts has never looked so alive. The streams also look much better now. Even Slimer looked more detailed which in turn, made him look a lot more disgusting. Ghosbusters is a movie that is better seen in 3D. Ghostbusting has never looked this good before.

Sadly, as the saying goes, nothing can beat the classics. The original movie became a classic for all the right reasons. Still, Ghostbusters does a decent job to not suck and to exceed the negative expectations that the majority had. I think Ghostbusters already knew that they can’t surpass the original, so they just gave as much nod to the first movie as possible. By the end of the day Ghostbusters can still stand on its own. In the age of countless reboots, Ghostbusters succeeds by being not that  bad and actually being entertaining and enjoyable.

“Ghostbusters” is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures PH._­ Watch out as this movie haunts a theater near you.