Ghostbusters III

After all the bad press for the original, I opted to avoid it. Not for any male dominance boycott, but mostly, because it seemed like a hollow polished Hollywood nostalgic reboot with humor that doesn’t necessarily vibe with me, essentially not my type of movie.

When I saw an improved fanedit had been released, one that had largely favorable reactions, I opted to watch that instead.

I can’t speak for the original theatrical cut, but based off of the more streamlined fanedit material that opts to remove a lot of the lengthy improv, it’s exactly what I thought it would be, a nostalgia fueled Hollywood blockbuster, that instead of going inventive new places settles for rehashing the original.

And to see so much money and talent put on the screen from main cast to supporting cast, (Michael C. Williams, Charles Dance, Andy Garcia, and the absolutely hilarious Chris Hemsworth), CGI and effects including a hefty amount of practical effects, and set design, only for it being a disappointment.

Admittedly, from what I’ve seen of the cut list, the fanedit achieves its goal, letting the jokes here breath and removing some of the worst offenders of the improv, the amount of toilet humor removed is astonishing. The script itself actually isn’t bad, with a core emotional point on the friendship between the two leads, and thankfully the edit keeps the movie moving at a quick clip. The main cast stick to their characters well, even if I'm not fond of the cast by and large.

One thing that bugged me was there’s just way too many, “mount up” scenes, so much so that they lose impact by the end. Compare that the originals confrontation with Zuul in the climax, they're a team, for real and you feel it. This new film spends way too much time spent on gadgetry and gear, while that was the least interesting part of the originals, certainly it's important because it pays off in the climactic fight, it's just not that interesting.

The film as a whole missed its mark, and while there’s clearly a lot of homages and fun cameos to the original films, it missed the inventive spirit of the original, the wit and assholeness of Bill Murray’s Venkman as a guy who doesn’t take this absurdity seriously compared to his colleagues, who spout random techno-babble nonsense. There's far too much scientist here and not enough everyman asshole wit.

As for the fanedit itself, it’s clearly excellent work technically. I barely noticed any cuts, outside of two instances that felt off, the transition of the proton pack testing with Melissa McCarthy to the next scene that features the team, and a line that feels cut, where possessed Hemsworth says, “ Women…”

It did have the usual problem I have with the sound mixing in blockbusters in that the music is really loud drowning out dialogue.

Overall, while I can't compare this to the theatrical, I can give the edit a thumbs up for making a bad movie watchable, but the film as a whole is just another hollow Hollywood nostalgia cash grab, unfortunately and I continue to learn that an edit can't make a bad movie great.

I was very happy with this edit. The pacing has been greatly improved. I noticed a couple of edits that were jarring to me. However, it didn't detract me from my overall enjoyment. I actually didn't mind the original film and even got some enjoyment out of the extended edition. However, this version is far superior to the studio cuts.

I didn't hate this movie when it was in theaters but I did have a lot of problems with it. One of the main unchangeable things about it is the weak villain. Just not enough to him, kind of boring. I also hate how under-utilized Kate Mckinnon was. She needs to be given characters with more range, she could do so much.

Some jokes I liked by the tour guide were cut, but making him more purposeful and tonally consistent was a necessary trade-off and makes the set-up more grounded.

The editing is wonderful, love the stream-lining of jokes and scenes in general. It just makes it feel like you're watching a movie again instead of waiting through !COMEDY! to get to story again. It took something I enjoyed already and made it into an actual movie.

I don't like that the big fight between the leads was kept. I didn't like it in the movie and I don't feel like it needed to be addressed in this cut either (even though I am thankful that it's been cut down). The added in deleted scene of them hashing things out in the courtyard feels very stagey for the purpose of emotional exposition. Them putting such on-the-nose clear words to all the themes and problems of the movie just takes me right out of the story. It doesn't help that the noise floor is audibly much louder than surrounding scenes.

I think it works to have them be at odds interpersonally and then things just get better. Without the confrontation, it never really feels that intense of a feud anyway (especially in this edit). They get a little pissed and then they help each other out and are good again. It's like most friendships in real life and makes sense with the lightness of the first Ghostbusters which also didn't really have high emotional stakes. It's not that I don't care that there's this gaping hole, I really don't feel the relationship's arc needs anything explicit to be effective and understood. It's a very simple arc.

Overall, really liked it. Most definitely replaced the original for me and makes for a good narrative comedy instead of an improv fest. Great job.

I kinda liked Ghostbuster 2016, despite all the parts that didn't really work. I got the impression that the movie got a bit warped in the wake of all the controversy surrounding it, and in the end got caught up in meta-jokes about internet trolls and a mish-mash of brands of humour (and that godawful cover version of the song). Every character did every kind of comedy, and more often than not it just felt hysterical instead of hilarious or coherent. But hey, kids loved it, right? And there were parts that were IMHO great, like the visual effects, Chris Hemsworth, Holtzman and the new Ghostbusters cast overall.

Anyway, this edit by TM2YC imho improves, I would say a lot, upon the theatrical release. It tones down the jokes, which of course diminishes the movie of some opportunities to get a laugh out of the audience (there were one or two gags I missed that I liked in the ThCut, but humour is subjective, so that is to be expected) but, and that's important, creates a much more coherent tone for the overall movie. The characters feel more natural, and don't get me wrong, there's still a lot to laugh. It just doesn't try to get a joke in every single scene, and most of the more infantile gags (farts and the like) and running gags that went on one or two times too often are gone. Plus the soundtrack got very smoothly edited and feels now very Ghostbuster-y (the original score is back on! No more cringeworthy new version! Yay!). And I don't know whether I just missed it in the ThCut, but the emotional arc between Abby and Erin felt for the first time complete to me. The theme of "embracing your weirdness, despite being rejected from most for it" came out nicely, which is imho one of the strong points of the movie - and yes, especially because the protagonists are women, which I think can indeed inspire young girls to take an interest in science and other "nerdy" interests which they don't really get encouraged to do by the bulk of other movies. But that's just my take on it.

Cuts an audio was edited seemlessly, by the way. TM2YC obviously knows what he's doing.

That said, this is my definitive version of the new Ghostbusters, and if I would want to introduce someone to the new crew, I would certainly show them this cut instead of one of the official versions.