Tuesday, July 19, 2022

ultimate toxicity

People were expressing gratitude that Sony had omitted the 2016 reboot of GHOSTBUSTERS from the 2022 "Ultimate Collection".  And then someone was saying something to the effect of the people doing so were "toxic"
I guess nobody's ever going to read this, but I can dream................
The fact of the matter is the 2016 reboot of GHOSTBUSTERS is an ENTIRELY different film.  It has very little in common with the

humor
aesthetic
tonality

of the first two Ghostbusters movies.

From a technical standpoint, sure, maybe GHOSBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL is a "better" film than GHOSTBUSTERS II (1989) was.  After all, it was more "original", in the sense that it had none of the original cast (and I'm talking about the people who were in the movie for more than 5 or 10 seconds)...  The story was not any more original.  Different than the first film, yes, but different does not equal better.  That's like saying the man who'd been dubbed The Elephant Man was a better person than everybody else because he was different.  Sure, people aren't movies, but there is a respectability to be found in a movie that delivers what it promises in spades.  GHOSTBUSTERS II did that.  GHOSTBUSTERS: ANSWER THE CALL didn't make any promises.  The creative team that did the movie didn't even seem to know what they were doing.  They had some ideas up their sleeves and did the best they could, but seriously, that is not an achievement.  All fillmmakers do the best they can.  That doesn't make the quality of the movies they make any better.

The ULTIMATE COLLECTION GHOSTBUSTERS 4K set that was released in early 2022 could have included the reboot.  It would not have been the end of the world.  But it also would not have been the end of the world or any minOOTe tragedy had they included THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.  Or CASPER.  Or a random 15 episodes of EXTREME GHOSTBUSTERS.  Sure, why not?  Am I toxic for wanting my stuff to be MY stuff?  I'm not going to spend $100+ on a boxed set that someone made for someone else.  Or, worse yet, made for everyone, and, consequently, nobody.

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