The Ghostbusters Thread

[Khrz]

To be honest, with the constant bitching about how much trailers show off, wouldn't you think the studios would just go back to the old format of a man's voice over some clips of different scenes? Like how they were in the 70's and 80's.

And people would complain that they can't tell if the CGI is any good and that it's a fishy marketing ploy to gloss over shitty photography, editing and/or acting. And it's not how you'd sell Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and Star Wars 8.
They still kinda do that though. Talking about Guardians of the Galaxy, that's what they did, only they used a character's remarks on how they were just a bunch of jackasses.

[Volband]

I don't think the Hollywood trailers excuse works for the new GB, not at all. It is a movie where they could be very liberal what they want to show, because it is not entirely a story-centered movie. No one would care if they had shown the main antagonist, or if they included at least the audio of a dramatic scene, where someone calls for help, then screams or something. This trailer had two job: 1. peak your interest about the story and 2. show the fun side of the movie. Number 1 is basically non-existant, ghosts are all over the city. Just wow, how will we sleep at night? As for number 2, it's subjective, but as a hint, it should be noted that there is a reason to the ratio of people who think this was lame comedy, and those who say it was hilarious.

The Hollywood trailers-problem is real, but it had nothing to do with this trailer.

To be honest, with the constant bitching about how much trailers show off, wouldn't you think the studios would just go back to the old format of a man's voice over some clips of different scenes? Like how they were in the 70's and 80's.

Or just solve the problem with hiring decent people. The trailer for SW7 was pretty solid. It was very cool, yet it tricked you a lot, because some of the dialogues were not even matching the scene which was shown. Yeah, someone actually did a very good job guessing the plot of the movie based off the trailer and some rumors, but it's fine. If you have to cut together a lot of pieces and brainstorm for hours for all the possibilities, then I would not blame the trailer for giving too much away, it is entirely on those people who actually WANT TO know the plot.

The Batman vs. Superman trailer on the other hand... yeah, that was not ok, not at all.

[GibbonBlack]

The trailers only job was to spark peoples interest and get people talking about it. After 3 pages of discussion I'd say it's a pretty good trailer.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

The trailers only job was to spark peoples interest and get people talking about it. After 3 pages of discussion I'd say it's a pretty good trailer.

People have been talking about this movie for years... The only job the trailer did was make the movie look even worse. Job not well done.

[Volband]

The trailers only job was to spark peoples interest and get people talking about it. After 3 pages of discussion I'd say it's a pretty good trailer.

That's not exactly how negative publicity works. It is mainly for people to stay in the spotlight, making free promotion for (preferably) good stuff they do. Prime example is Kanye West. I totally missed he released a new album, but after the internet was all over his Grammy statements, I learned about it, listened to it, and liked it. That's how negative publicity works in your favor.
edit: To clarify, no one will ever buy a music CD just because the two released singles from it are godawfully shit. But they just might, if the singer makes controversial stuff every other week. NEVER alienate the actual product, that's got to be marketing 101.

Making a shit movie then a shit trailer to it is not a clever plot from some mastermind. It works in very rare cases like The Room, or with the trend of making superbad movies like SHarknado and co., but it does not work for making a shit movie AND provoking an established franchise's yet living fans at the same time. People will make it personal to even tell their friends off from watching the movie. Watching a plane crash is not funny when your childhoot is on the plane.
Also, a franchise like Ghostbusters would not even need this type of guerilla advertising to begin with.

This trailer is a net loss for this movie and its creators, no way around it. Their only way to redeem themselves is if the next trailer will be actually good, but that would require the movie to be good. Then more people would be at least willing to give it a chance, and if it's good, then positive reviews will lure others in.

[theimage13]

The trailers only job was to spark peoples interest and get people talking about it. After 3 pages of discussion I'd say it's a pretty good trailer.

Nope, that's not what trailers are for. At least, not when it's a movie that needs no promotion. When you put several of the current "it" actors into a film AND slap on the same title as one of the most popular movies of the 80s, you don't need to put out a trailer to get people talking. The only thing you need if you want people to talk is to put out a still photo or two, or a five second screen before a youtube video.

In the instance of a Hollywood blockbuster like this, the purpose of the trailer is to make people think "this movie will be worth a $15 ticket and some overpriced snacks".

And holy shit, did it miss the mark on that.

[Frozen Beach]

[GibbonBlack]

The people I work with, who aren't the type to go on internet discussion boards or anything really beyond Facebook, had no idea this movie was being made until the trailer hit their feeds. They don't know any of the leads, bar Mccarthy who is just "the one from Bridesmaids" but after the trailer hit they all mentioned it in work.

I'm not saying you don't have valid points, but the movie needs to be marketed to people other than us

[tony.parente]

[botley]

Ernie Hudson feels some ambivalence about his role in Ghostbusters, because racism was also a thing in the 80s

[KarenLeslie]

Ernie Hudson feels some ambivalence about his role in Ghostbusters, because racism was also a thing in the 80s

I appreciate his nuanced opinion here. It's about how several overlapping factors contributed to what was a racist outcome, rather than oversimplifying and villifying the franchise and the people involved.

[botley]

Yeah, it's almost like an insidious background level of racism pervades Hollywood and society generally?

[screwdriver]

Ernie Hudson feels some ambivalence about his role in Ghostbusters, because racism was also a thing in the 80s

this was a depressing read, thanks for sharing. I've always sort of been bugged by his half-role in the movie.

[KarenLeslie]

Yeah, it's almost like an insidious background level of racism pervades Hollywood and society generally?

True. I wonder how much that's really changed since the '80s, honestly.

[botley]

In the context of the Ghostbusters franchise it probably has not. I don't want to judge a whole movie by the trailer, but it's pretty clear that this is falling into a familiar pattern by design.

[thevoid99]

Here's the new International Trailer, I think this might be funny:

[neorev]

I like how they changed "Four scientists" to "Four friends" in the international trailer because there really was only 3 scientists.

Too bad it gets worse as more footage is revealed.

[Frozen Beach]

I just want to say that I like Ghostbusters II and I never knew it was perceived as bad until I was on the internet one day.

[eversonpoe]

I just want to say that I like Ghostbusters II and I never knew it was perceived as bad until I was on the internet one day.

dude, i LOVE ghostbusters II. it's so fun, it's actually SCARY at a few points, and it doesn't just feel like a re-hash of the first movie (like a lot of sequels end up doing).

[tony.parente]

So this is amazing.

[Self.Destructive.Pattern]

Whatttttt, interesting indeed. Fuck this movie ***Potential Spoilers***

[Frozen Beach]

So James Rolfe(aka the guy who plays the Angry Video Game Nerd) posts this video informing and explaining to his fans that he has no interest in seeing the new Ghostbusters remake and that he's not going to review it, answering a question he's probably been asked a hundreds of times.


then Patton Oswalt tweets this


And then the internet explodes with some people taking Jame's side, other people against James, some who haven't even bothered actually watching Jame's video spreading that he isn't watching it because of the female cast. This situation is really dumb, and I really think Patton Oswalt fucked up. He created a mob needlessly attacking James over something so trivial.
Then he tweets this

And the video James posted wasn't even a fucking review. It was simply a video informing his fans that he has no interest in the film because it looks bad to him. Why should he waste his money and time on a film he has no interest in? He's not trying to be a professional reviewer that reviews everything under the sun. He reviews films because he enjoys it. He reviews comically bad films because he enjoys it. He makes videos, like this one, because he enjoys it. This shit just proves how toxic the internet can be. Even if James is somehow wrong in his stance, that does NOT excuse the amount of harassment and public shaming he's getting for it. This shit makes me feel disgusted. And the worst part about this is had James actually seen the movie, thought it sucked and posted a review about it, these same people would be giving him the same level of harassment and public shaming, most likely with responses like "If you thought it looked bad, why the hell did you see it?"

If you don't care about this, sorry for bumping the thread, but I really needed to vent because I can't help but feel pissed about this because James Rolfe really is a good guy and doesn't deserve this shit.

[r_z]

I'm with Oswalt on this. All that bashing of the new Ghostbusters movie BEFORE it's even released is just silly. Also, if Rolfe is enjoying posting strong opinions about stuff on the internet, it should be fair enough to let people respond to it.

[Frozen Beach]

I'm with Oswalt on this. All that bashing of the new Ghostbusters movie BEFORE it's even released is just silly.

Jame's opinion is on the TRAILER for the new Ghostbusters and remakes in general, not for the movie itself. He even acknowledges in the video that the movie could even be good and the trailer could just be bad. The thing is, the trailer didn't interest him. Are trailers and teasers not meant to be the equivalent of say a sampling of a food item but for film? If a person didn't like that sampling, why should they buy the product?

I'm sorry, I just don't agree with you on this. I never watch or see things I have no interest in. And usually when I do watch things I originally had no interest interest in, it's because I found interest.

it should be fair enough to let people respond to it.

I never said people couldn't criticize him for it. My issue is there are people harassing him, basically bullying him and even falsely claiming that he's a misogynist. They're claiming he's not seeing it because it has a female cast when he doesn't say that at all. My issue is that Patton Oswalt inadvertently caused a giant mob to harass him on twitter.

[botley]

Like what happens to any woman expressing any opinion on the Internet whatsoever every damn day?

[Frozen Beach]

Like what happens to any woman expressing any opinion on the Internet whatsoever every damn day?

And? It's wrong in all regards. No matter what color, no matter what gender, no matter whatever. I see shit like this every few months, and I bite my tongue each time because I don't want to get involved with the poisonous people. I don't care how small the incident is, it still pisses me off. I don't agree with some of the things Anita Sarkeesian says, but I wouldn't ever fling personal insults towards her or support harassment of her. And those people who do that DO piss me off.

[botley]

It's like online discourse dealing with gender is toxic or something, hmmmm, if only feminists had been pointing this out.

[henryeatscereal]

I'm with Rolfe in this one; why force him to review something he doesn't care about?

I can relate, i'm a huge comic book fan but i barely watch the latest Marvel/DC movies and i could care less about most of them (with few exceptions).
I dont do this to "be cooler" or pretend im an expert: i just do it because i dont care about them and i find everything i like about the genre in the comic books.

Im not saying to others "dont watch", if people are interested and like it: God Bless ...theres some great movies out there, i just rather watch something else... i watched the new TMNT and hated it, i'm not planning on watching Part 2, it's not for me, i'll find something else, things not are always as you want, so, why should i put myself through some disappointment? Because i'm a fan?
screw it, im glad James knows what he likes!

[Space Suicide]

I laugh about the outrage this movie is causing every time I see it on a news feed or comment sections. It's a fucking movie.

[GibbonBlack]

I laugh about the outrage this movie is causing every time I see it on a news feed or comment sections. It's a fucking movie.

I like that now people are getting worked up about people getting worked up about people getting worked up about it. "Oh my god, I can't believe that you don't like that he said he doesn't like that he said he won't like it before it's even out! I MEAN COME ON!!!!!!"

It's comically absurd