Ghostbusters (2016) Part 3 of 3

 The Villain (sort of?)

The main villain is one of the worst bad guys I've seen since Battlefield Earth. This villain is in the form of the human named Rowan North, Rowan is played poorly by Neil Casey. Casey plays Rowan so weak and uninteresting that it brings down the film. Why not get a more menacing actor to play this character.

Rowan is supposed to be this nerd character that has a major chip on his shoulder. He feels like he's been pushed around and overlooked his whole life. He wants to see the world burn with crossing the undead world with the real world. That is pretty much his goal. Give us more, movie.

And, what was his point of killing himself anyway? What was the point? It falls for a weak villain in the same manner as GB2's main villain. Make him creepy, but not pathetic.

And, was this a bash against the nerd culture? The movie goes out of its way to put nerds/geeks in a bad light. And, using the promise of using a weepy-creepy outsider as your powerful villain seems like a cheap shot. Then, the makers of this movie turn Rowan into a CGI/Thor character that forces the government folks to dance.

The villain and the YouTube diss are really the only things that stick out as the director and studio having an axe to grind against its fanbase. Why weaken your movie by having this be your main villain? (Star Wars The Force Awakens does a better job giving us a weak minded yet menacing villain. Ren is a fanboy of Vader, but he is also deadly with his untapped power. It can be done.)

Why not have Charles Dance as your main villain instead? You have Dance in your movie and completely waste him. Dance lives to be the main villain.

Useless and Dropped Stuff

The government subplot is a new twist on the GB mythology, but that isn't fully realized and not fleshed out. The local and national governments talk badly about the GB in the media and thank them for solving problems behind the scene. However, this isn't fully realized with the time we have with this story. What was the point if it doesn't help the plot or make it funny? This government subplot has been around since the very beginning of the reboot's first draft. And, it doesn't work.

What about the actual ghostbusting? There is not much in the movie until the final part of the third act.

Here the thing; we don't get those montages of them doing their job and busting ghosts. We need to see them doing their job and busting ghosts. We see them bust one ghost..one.

Then there is the Bill Murray side story that shows the real problem the script. while the movie goes out of its way to have cameos from people from the first movie, Bill Murray sort of plays a certal role with the overall story...kind of. Bill's character is a non-believer in the ghost stuff and is against the GB team. (Bill goes out of his way to not care about being in the damn movie.) The GB team bust their asses to bust ONE ghost and they let it go in order to prove that ghosts are real. In the process, the ghost kills Bill Murray's character! The police show up and the entire plot point is dropped and no one references the scene after that. A Ghostbuster let loose a dangerous ghost and there is no pay off. (Huh?)

What was the point of catching, releasing the ghost and killing off Murray's character? Nothing.

It is a complete waste of plot and time. And, it makes the GBs look really bad.

In the End...

Despite all the controversy, the movie doesn't amount to anything good or that bad either. The movie feels unfinished and uneven. The writing feels like an early draft that was thrown into production with not much forethought. The movie doesn't hold a candle to the original. It doesn't even have the funny jokes the second movie had. However, the acting isn't that bad given the bad writing. The movie isn't well made, funny or entertaining, and that should be the issue people should be talking about. Ghostbusters isn't the train wreck or dumpster fire that its enemy wanted,but people shouldn't support it for its political aspects either.

It is just mundane and that shouldn't what comes from a Ghostbuster movie.

Grade: D+