If you were born in the 80’s you’ve probably seen Ghostbusters. If you are a cool person you probably love both movies. If you don’t you may direct yourself elsewhere, may I suggest a Wiki Lucky Dip?
The Ghostbusters reboot has me chomping at the bit to get to the cinema, get a giant bucket of popcorn, the largest diet coke available and sit, squirming, trying not to have to leave halfway through the movie to relieve myself… because that was an image you needed, right?
I don’t think I’m alone; there has been some great feedback with regards to the reboot. It’s something we all wanted, I know it. I can speak for you, dammit! Who doesn’t want to see Slimer again? I remember, growing up, I loved him quite a bit [albeit the cartoon version and not the version from the movies because what did they do to him?], so when I watched the new trailer I was SO happy to see his grinning green face fly by the camera.
What I wasn’t so happy about was the backlash that came with the trailer. I mean, it always happens, but this movie seems to have caused many ass-hats to take to their keyboards and spew utterly pathetic comments regarding gender and race.
The two topics the Anti-GB squad have been running circles around [for the sake of being a voice in a very large crowd of typical, boring, unintelligent voices] are the fact the Ghostbustin’ team are all women and the fact one of those women is black and works in the subway.
Let’s start with the ‘women’ thing. This baffles me, to a point I probably can’t even talk about it and come out sounding smart so I’ll just start with DURRRRRRRRRRR. It’s 2016, we’re pretty great at being a world of people who are forward thinking; the hoverboard is almost as cool as the movies would make out, we have finally rebooted the Jurassic Park series [finally, guys!], we have a family who are famous for sex and buttzzzz. We’re living in the future, people… yet there’s a film featuring all women and people say it’s a gimmick. I mean, yeah. It’s a gimmick in that it makes you realise how effed up Hollywood is when it comes to casting. I don’t understand why people would shriek at the thought of a majority women cast in a film when no one would say anything about an all male cast [except ‘Hey, where all the honeyz at [c’mon, that’s a thing people say, isn’t it?]]. Kristen Wiig says it best;
“The fact there was so much controversy because we were women was surprising to me,” she said. “Some people said some really not nice things about the fact that there were women. It didn’t make me mad, it just really bummed me out. We’re really honoring those movies.” – Variety [Source]
Because that’s the important part; it was a script written to bring the series back to life, it was a movie green-lit to be made because people wanted to make it and the actors were cast because they wanted to be a part of it! I’m not saying there’s no basis for the complaints; I’m as cynical as the next thirty year old idiot; I think Hollywood does play on controversial subjects to drum up business because it’s still business but we, as people and fans, shouldn’t swallow it. We should just roll our eyes and clap sarcastically that they think women are a spectacle to be pointed at. [Gasp. Boobs].
Let’s drop the subject of women and move onto the complaints about stereotyping black women.
Leslie Jones has been cast to play a civilian Ghostbuster whilst the other women, who are white, are playing scientists. I’m a bit perplexed; yes, again, Hollywood probably had a hand in this. They agreed to the casting but are you telling me Leslie Jones took the role knowing she was being stereotyped but she didn’t want to say anything? It’s a subject that’s tricky to get to the bottom of because Hollywood does favour white leads yet I find myself shrinking away from that sort of thing with this movie. The reports I’ve seen state Leslie has been cast as a secondary character, like she’s an ‘add on’. Have these people not seen the original series? Her role, no matter her skin colour, is a main role. I guess we can’t really speculate on her actual screen time until the movie is out but I’m actually looking forward to her character – she’s going to be the one we can all relate to the most because most of the viewers aren’t going to be scientists who specialise in the supernatural [I mean, I’ll be relating to the smart people because I’m well versed in ghosts and crap like that but that’s just me]. She’s as much stereotyped as Melissa McCarthy is for playing the overweight half-wit [a stereotype no one will ever complain about because body shaming is still A OK!].
I’m just wanting to give Leslie the benefit of the doubt; she’s a regular SNL-er and I’m sure she had enough say in her role and dialogue for her to feel comfortable with her portrayal of a normal city-worker in New York. I mean, her tweet really says it all:
I’m just excited to watch the movie and talk about all of these things afterwards; who knows, I might change my mind and totally backtrack but I’m going to give myself time to react to the actual film rather than grab my pitchfork and start point it at the TV at all the assumed garbage. Isn’t it funny people want to defent Leslie but they don’t want to defend women taking prominence in movies?
Watch the trailer here:
Tell me your thoughts!
Sam
Pretty Thoughtful Blog 