bluetoast

That part is fine. However, the AVGN had a gripe about the movie being called "Ghostbusters", despite being set in a different universe, and wanted it to have some generic sub-title to differentiate it. He had no such qualms about the RoboCop remake, and even enjoyed it.

Now, you could say Ghostbusters is more personal to him, but that would be playing favorites, considering RoboCop is on a similar level with other fans. So that part of his argument seemed pretty inconsistent.

Me007gold

Was Robocop set in a different universe or was it just a straight up reboot?

TheMovieman

It's a straight up reboot with no cameos of the original cast playing different characters.

bluetoast

Yeah, though both that and the Total Recall remake weren't exactly accepted with open arms by general fans. But nowhere near the backlash that GB has.

TheMovieman

But imagine the backlash if they went that route. Oh, and add to that the filmmakers and cast rolling in the mud along with the haters. Apparently taking the high road is lost on Feig and company.

My issue is not only that I hate McCarthy (and haven't found her funny in anything) but the marketing hasn't been the best and at times downright dishonest, beginning with that first trailer.

dex14

High road... I read an article today that said they apparently added a scene that involves viewing footage of one of their first public ghost interactions on YouTube and them calling out the haters who commented on it.

Mike86

Maybe his argument is a bit inconsistent but he still didn't deserve the backlash he received from the videos he made. He didn't say anything hateful towards the film or the cast being made up of females. All he did was give a reason why he didn't want to see it.

bluetoast

I agree he did get pretty beaten up, despite being one of the more rational fans.

Enterprise

What do you mean set in another universe?

E Unit

Set in the same universe where Batman V Superman is also a good movie.

Dan

They went months without saying a single thing to/about the people hating on the film, all before the first trailer showed up.

This is the problem I have with arguments about "taking the high road," because... they're damned if they do and damned if they don't. The negativity about this film kicked into high gear the moment Feig announced that he was making it with four women. Sure, the negativity was there beforehand, but that's when "fans" lost their collective shit. Feel free to check the original thread here on DVDTalk for evidence. So, Feig and his actors barely said anything about the film from that point all the way until the first trailer. In that time, people complained that it wasn't being promoted. They complained about the silence from the cast and crew, saying things like "Well, if they were proud of it, they'd be talking about it and defending it!" They DID take the high road, and were shit on regardless, every time any bit of info came out about it. Now, after the trailer, and after Feig spoke out, and after McCarthy and Jones commented on it, then suddenly they're shit on for not taking the high road. It's impossible for Feig and co. to win the argument in the eyes of the "fans" so why not have fun with it?

In the interview posted by a DVDTalk staff member above, Feig specifically mentions his frustration with Sony's marketing. He makes it sound like he had enough control to keep them from using SOME specific footage in the trailers, but not enough control to keep them from making trailers he didn't like. That's just Sony being Sony.

Did you think it was funny/okay when Kevin Smith did it in J&SBSB? I think it's a good gag to throw in, but since this is a PG/PG-13 movie, it won't be anything compared to the REAL comments seen from some people on reddit/YouTube/here. I'm sure the standard complaint will be that they added it in later, whereas Smith probably had it in his first draft of the script.

Just curious... do you think Feig and his cast/crew deserved the very specific, very vile backlash they got before anyone saw a single frame of footage from the movie?
I like Rolfe (The Angry Video Game Nerd) for the most part; he's entertaining and can be relatively articulate when he wants to be, but his argument amounted to refusing to review the movie because it wasn't made for, or catered directly to, him. I agree that he didn't "deserve" extreme backlash, but neither did Feig. Or Oswalt. Or anyone somewhat famous who has said anything remotely positive about the movie or the people involved in it. Oswalt in particular, but I'll leave it at that, since we've exhausted enough avenues of talking about how fucked up that was.

There's a common theme of, "Oh shit, someone said something nice about the movie? Who is blackmailing them and/or how can we shit on them?" We see that a little here, but way more on reddit and elsewhere.

Anyway, when Oldboy makes the official review thread, it'll be interesting to see a) who actually sees it, and b) whether or not it's any better than GB2. If it ends up better than GB2, I'd consider it a success, but that's a pretty low bar.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

I have the feeling that video was directed as his fans who kept pestering him to review the movie, rather than some moral stance on shitty remakes.

Abob Teff

Is he from Game of Thrones?

Enterprise

Bahahahahahahaha ROTFL!


Are you sure? Most people I know are livid about it being a total reboot - that this team are women doesn't and shouldn't matter.

I'm a big fan of the comic series and I quite like the women that joined not only the original Ghostbusters but the Ghostsmashers who started up when the Ghostbusters denied their franchise application. Hell there could be gays, lesbians, and characters from Full House in it why would it matter?

But Feig insisting there were no more stories out there and the only way to do a Ghostbusters movie is to redo the original? 300+ cartoon episodes, the video game, the numerous comic series that have gone for many years, etc clearly demonstrate that is not true. And even if you wanted to repeat everything from the first movie all he needed do was acknowledge this is another team in another city, heck the cameos could have even been Ray or Venkman signing off their franchise application. Done, movie otherwise remains the same - a bit cheesy redoing much of the same stuff but never the less there we have an acceptable Ghostbusters 3.

Dan

Yeah, I meant more specifically that Feig officially announced that he became the director. At that time, I don't recall any cast members being announced. Prior to that, I think there was still speculation that it might be a sequel instead of a reboot, but I'm not totally sure. I have no doubt you're right that most people just don't want a reboot at all (while others just don't want a sequel at all, or one of those "in the universe but not directly related to the original" situations, either. Lots of people hated Prometheus for that, among other things).

I guess my point is... there are different people who, no matter what, are going to hate different things about what may or may not have become of this franchise. I don't recall if it was the DVDTalk interview or another recent one, but Feig said he passed on it initially because it was an impossible task. No matter what any director did with it, it'd get torn apart by the "fans" for one reason or another.

My personal opinion is that there's nothing acceptable about that idea at all. It's terrible. but I get why people would want that.

I mean... what is the logical follow-up to GB2, knowing we're adding almost 30 years to the timeline?
Ghostbusting has become a billion-dollar business. Ray is crazy-rich, sitting in a huge office in Manhatten. Like Wolf of Wall Street, but Ghostbusters. Peter got shafted because of his contract, so he's living day-to-day. Some young tech startup begins making waves with their lower costs and better service. Hell, they'd probably have an app. There's a big court battle over patents or some shit. Some paranormal shit goes down forcing Ray and Peter to work together. Big conflict with iBusters over who has jurisdiction. Moral of the story is the old tried-and-true GB is totally better than those damn millennials, but everyone deserves a chance. I can't even imagine.

I'm just joking around.

But, in my humble opinion, any sort of straight-up sequel would have been a bad idea. A reboot is a bad idea, too, but in a world where it's one or the other, I'll take a reboot. If it's trash, it's trash on its own terms.

tylergfoster

Any imagined Ghostbusters 3, you have to imagine it without Bill Murray, because he didn't want to do it. In 2013, shortly before Ramis passed, Aykroyd finally started saying in interviews they were moving forward without Murray.

I do think Rolfe was pretty good about avoiding the casting entirely, but his video still isn't good. If it were only a minute long, I would have even shared it -- although I'm pro-reboot, I was totally on board with "I don't think it looks good, I don't want to pay to find out, and I definitely don't think it would be a good idea to see it just to come back and record a hate video." The last part even excited me -- high road!

Then the video turned into exactly that video for the other six minutes and he totally lost me. The note about wishing it had a subtitle is easily a low for pettiness. Even if you WANT that, anybody who pays any attention to movies should know no studio ever does that and that it's a pipe dream on the face of it.

Josh-da-man

I don't know if it was matter of Murray telling him "no," and waiting for him to come around, or if Murray was non-committal and dragging his feet, but if Aykroyd wanted to do a GB 3, he should have gotten the hint and started on a third movie with Ramis and Hudson years ago that wrote out Venkman.

stingermck

Saw this at my local Target last night. Movie isnt even out yet and toys are already on clearance.

RichC2

Sony put those toys out waaaay too early.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

And at a 20$ price point.

TheMovieman

So I take it, you have to buy all four of the ladies dolls to make the Ghost?

resinrats

Yup.
They have a classic Ghostbusters wave as well. But instead of making Stay Puff, you build the Ghostbusters logo. Guess the new ones win in that regard.

Guru Askew

I have both sets. The no-ghost logo is kinda cool but pretty worthless as anything but a display piece in a static no-action display, and would be absolutely worthless if you were expect a kid to play with it. The Rowan figure at least stands as a unique character that could be "used" with/against the Ghostbusters figures.

The "classic" set from Mattel is a bit underwhelming coming after the Diamond Select figures were released anyway. Their enormous rooftop diorama (currently only 2/5 complete) will put both of Mattel's build-a-figure offerings to shame.

Mike86

I'm not necessarily saying the filmmakers deserved the hate they received, but Rolfe was attacked pretty vehemently as being the main face of the source of the hate towards the film or something. In reality that's not the case at all if you watch his video. He came off very calm and collected about giving reasons why he didn't want to see it. The main things he said were that the trailers didn't appeal to him and explained his love for the original films. He didn't go on an angry sexist rant. I'm a fan of his and frankly I found the way people leeched on and attacked him the way they did was fucking ignorant as hell. They just saw a guy who's known for providing angry reviews (which are parodies of old games for the most part) that made a video that wasn't positive and attacked him for it.

That's my guess too. Fans of Rolfe know that Ghostbusters is one of his favorite things and I have no doubt that he was pestered to give his thoughts or was being asked if he'd review the new film.

Also there's this (I'll spoiler it because there are some spoilers in it):

Obi-Wanma

There's been a lot of posts since then, but I reported this over a week ago.

http://forum.dvdtalk.com/12839687-post262.html