Why Ghostbusters 2016 is Worth Your Time and Money And Suicide Squad Isn't | The Odyssey Online
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Why Ghostbusters 2016 is Worth Your Time and Money And Suicide Squad Isn't

Mo' hype, mo' problems.

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Why Ghostbusters 2016 is Worth Your Time and Money And Suicide Squad Isn't
indiewire.com

Which would you rather see: an original movie slated to revolutionize the genre or a reboot of a beloved cult classic - which many fear won't measure up to the original?

In this case, I'd advise you to choose the remake.

Suicide Squad makes a strong case for itself. It has a better IMDB score (7, versus Ghostbusters' 5.5) and received a B+ on the Entertainment Weekly grading scale. Comparatively, Ghostbusters only got a C+. Suicide Squad will make more money, if it hasn't already. Ghostbusters reportedly didn't even break even at the box office. Most importantly, fans wanted Suicide Squad. No one asked for an all-female Ghostbusters reboot.

However, all of the Suicide Squad marketing team's valiant efforts cannot turn a bad movie into a good one. The merciless critical assault on Suicide Squad will, unfortunately, probably not have a huge effect on its box-office numbers, or turn people away. People who really wanted to go see the movie will still go see Suicide Squad. People who don't care about what critics say (most people, sadly) will still go and see Suicide Squad - and people who don't care about quality will still go see Suicide Squad. But, even if you wanted to see Suicide Squad and you don't care what reviewers think, if quality matters to you, please don't go see this movie. Watch Ghostbusters instead. Here's why....

1. It's not sexist.

One of Suicide Squad's biggest selling points is Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn. Instead of a compelling character with a rich history, she becomes the wittiest sexpot, the subject of booty shots in her booty shorts. For this, I blame the all-male forces behind Suicide Squad. They either thought this was okay, or knew it wasn't okay, but went through with it anyway, pandering to the male members of the HQ fanbase. Do I think a woman writer, director, or producer would have saved Suicide Squad? It's hard to say. I hope it would have cut down on the objectification, at the very least.

Are those really short shorts, or did they just forget to give her pants? You decide.

Unlike Suicide Squad, Ghostbusters had some help from the XX chromosome. Katie Dippold and Paul Feig co-wrote the script - a script which doesn't hypersexualize its female cast. Unlike Suicide Squad's ladies, the women of Ghostbusters aren't cover models. They look like regular humans - something which makes the Internet's resident slime mold Milo Yiannopoulous feel the need to label the whole cast "unsexy lesbian janitors."

If this is what an "unsexy lesbian janitor" looks like, then I think I do not have my priorities in order. :p

Despite the contradictory opinions of Mr. Yiannopolous and others, I think the Ghostbusters cast is beautiful - in a whole-package kind of way - but it's not important. It's not their job to be ogle-able. Paul Feig and Katie Dippold know how impractical it would be to fight ghosts in tiny halters and hot pants (and that would only get the OG fans in more of an uproar for not sticking to the original costumes.) We fall in love with Abby, Erin, Patty, and Holtzmann because they're smart, determined, and a little bit crazy, not because of their cup sizes and how good they look in short shorts. (To be fair to Margot Robbie's Harley Quinn - one of the best parts of the movie, according to critics - she gets to be all these things, too, but they overemphasize the cup size and short shorts part.)

2. It's funnier

In my personal Top 3 list of Paul Feig comedies, Ghostbusters falls in at #3 - under Spy and Bridesmaids, respectively. Some of its jokes (like a too-long gag over whether or not a character "soiled" himself after an encounter with a ghost) are definitely trying too hard, but Ghostbusters is funniest when it lets the characters be. Dippold and Feig have crafted a script which plays to the actresses' strengths: a zany, heartwarming, oddball piece of comedy.

Milo Yiannopolous might call Leslie Jones a "fat black lady," but you'll never hear it from Feig. He wants the audience to laugh with his characters, not at them - unless they make a joke or there's a particularly good bit of physical comedy. (Ghostbusters, if you cared to know, has plenty.)

3. It has a better cast.

The Judd Apatow of our generation not only knows what's funny, he knows who's funny. With Ghostbusters, he created a new, American, Fab Four: Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones, and Kate McKinnon.

Actual #squadgoals (For the record, I believe I'm either the Patty or the Holtzmann of my squad.)

Suicide Squad has its own quadrant of A-listers (Will Smith, Viola Davis, Margot Robbie, and Jared Leto), but they can't\won't measure up to the four-pack of awesome that is the 2016 Ghostbusters cast. Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy have worked with Feig before (they co-starred in Bridesmaids, and McCarthy has gotten to be his leading lady in bunches of movies), but it's a first time for Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon, who, prior to their summer-blockbuster debut, have been tearing up SNL in the following sketches - and more!


(Other recommended sketches starring Leslie Jones and\or Kate McKinnon: "Baby Shower," "Naked and Afraid: Celebrity Edition," "This Is How I Talk," and the Emmy Award-winning "Do It (On My Twin Bed)." I also really like "Heroin A.M." which has neither of them in it, but does have Cecily Strong (who cameos in Ghostbusters) and Julia Louis-Dreyfus (who doesn't).)

SNL is like Longfellow's little girl with the little curl: when it's good, it's very, very good, and when it's bad, it's horrid. Thanks in part to McKinnon and Jones, as well as the 2016 election cycle, SNL is currently excellent. Even though Wiig and McCarthy are the big names in Ghostbusters, McKinnon and Jones steal the show - just like they do on SNL. Each of the four women has a different comedic strength, and Ghostbusters plays to all of them, ensuring laughs whether they're alone or in a group.

I'm not saying Ghostbusters is the best movie of all time. Neither am I saying that Suicide Squad is the worst. But I do think that one (spoiler: it's Ghostbusters) is far better than the other (double spoiler: it's Suicide Squad.) You can give your money to whichever one you want...but Ghostbusters, as I hope I've proved, deserves it more.

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This article has not been reviewed by Odyssey HQ and solely reflects the ideas and opinions of the creator.
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