Ghostbusters 2016 Reboot International Trailer #2

The second International trailer for the new 2016 Ghostbusters reboot movie came out today. It's embedded above, so feel free to watch it before reading on. I'm going to share my thoughts on the trailer in a sort-of running commentary form, though I won't go over every single shot. This is the second trailer for the film released this very week. The second U.S. trailer was released a mere two days ago! That follows the first U.S. and International trailers from March. Whomever is making these trailers is getting better at it with each one. The U.S. #2 was a big improvement, but this one is even better than that! I will actually admit, I laughed out loud a few times with this one - something I didn't do with the others. Really, had Sony lead with this one, I think a lot of people would have better feelings about this film.

Normally I wouldn't have written a second article covering an International trailer, but this one is so vastly different than its preceding U.S. trailer, that it's worth writing about. There is only a small amount of footage shared between the two.


As with U.S. Trailer #2, this one opens with the concert promoter's (Michael McDonald) line quoted above, though here it has been edited differently. "What ever *it* is" has been changed to "whatever they are". Listening to it carefully, it sounds like "they are" is a dub, as it sounds like a slightly different recording/voice. The line is played with different footage underneath it, including a shot of a scared woman running away from a ghost during a scene of mass hysteria, more cops and the National Guard in Times Square, the spectral Hotel Mercado in a shot reminiscent of the apartment building in the original, and the vomiting ghost again. However, and this is very important to note: she is NOT vomiting here! It was cut just short of the puking, and made to look and sound like she's screaming. It shows the ghastly transformation, but that's it.


One of the ghost shots gives us something rather unexpectedly special...again. We get to see our second "before and after effects" shot, as the footage of people running away between cars was first used without the ghost effects in the first U.S. trailer. Not only did they add the ghostly streams, and the blue reflections of them in the windows, but they also changed the color of the awnings on the building behind the ghosts (from blue to red). I'm guessing that the dark blue conflicted with the light blue of the ghosts. And, yes, I was able to pull the exact frame in both pieces of footage. :-)


A better look at what could be a Scoleri Brother. If it's not, it's definitely a reference to them. I think it would be too coincidental otherwise.


Unlike the original, where the Ghostbusters seemingly "got it right" from the start, these Ghostbusters have very rough and heavy/bulky (and presumably, dangerous) equipment that doesn't work right the first time. Apparently, their first bit of field testing is when Patty brings them into the subway. Their prototype proton "pack" is in need of a little Proton Viagra. I have to admit, I think it was a smart idea to show the 'Busters off to a rough start. It's certainly more realistic than the original in that regard. To be fair, the original never made you think about how they never had an "unsuccessful test" of their equipment (though they never had a "successful test" either, prior to their first call). Also, if you haven't noticed by now, Paul Feig absolutely loves the colors blue, red, and green. All of the special effects we've seen, so far, make blinding overuse of one of these three color palettes.


The broad-style of humor in the first trailer had me (to myself) liken this movie to Filmation's "Ghostbusters, as if it was more a remake of what Scheimer created instead of what Aykroyd and Ramis created. As soon as I saw the new Ghostbusters' prototype proton "pack", I instantly thought of the Dematerializer from Filmation.


While I may have slightly chuckled at one or two lines from the previous trailers, this was the first one that actually had some lines that, legitimately, made me laugh out loud. I am not being dramatic when I say that. This exchange between Erin and Jillian was, to me at least, genuinely funny. It wasn't a broad joke (or a joke about a broad). It wasn't a juvenile joke. It wasn't low-brow. It... Was... Funny! Can we have more of that, please, Mr. Feig?


Now here IS a joke about a broad... I'm guessing the mayor's aide (I'm assuming that's what Cecily's character is) is the "Walter Peck" of the movie. The bureaucrat who's out to ruin the Ghostbusters, seen on TV (cathode-ray tube, FTW!) by them ruining their reputation. This line could also be the movie's way of satirizing the misogynists who are opposed to this movie simply because it stars women in roles originated by men. (Not to be confused with the people who hate this movie, regardless of the gender of the cast, and that includes some of the WOMEN in our fandom!)

Between tags reminding us that this movie comes "from the studio that brought you Spider-Man and Men In Black"... Let me just stop for a second. While I think it's great that they're comparing Ghostbusters to these films, especially Men In Black, I always find it ridiculous when studios bring up unrelated films with the thread-bare connection of being from the same studio, or worse; the same producer! If it was from the same writer, or maybe even the same director, okay; but when you're connecting them because of some third-sting money guy, or it was released by the same studio, then you're just being pathetic in looking for a way to connect your film to something inherently better and more successful.

So, for fun, and because it's also true, let's go with this: FROM THE STUDIO THAT BROUGHT YOU ISHTAR AND STEWARDESS SCHOOL. That's much better :-)


More of the new equipment is shown, including the foursome of proton packs (seen above on a stretcher; a callback to the original film) and...


...our first look at the new ghost trap. Astute followers of the film may remember that we saw these first as blueprints and concept art on the viral Paranormal Studies website. Personally, it reminds me of those old vacuum tube capsules you used to have to use at a drive-thru bank. You put your money/materials in the capsule, pass it to the teller through a vacuum tube, and then the teller would send it back afterward. I'm not sure if they still use them, though I know lots of banks still offer drive-thru service.


This is followed by some of the fakest-looking green-screen effects I have ever seen. I can look past the fakeness of the oh-so-colorful ghosts, but I can't look past actors who are clearly NOT actually in the world they supposedly inhabit. It annoys me to no end when I see actors in obviously-added-in-later-with-a-computer environments in the television series "Once Upon A Time", but I can chalk that up to the smaller budget of a TV show. This is a big-budget movie. There's no reason for the shot of Erin seen above to look like something I'd find on DeviantArt. (I should note that shots like this have popped up in the other trailers, but I don't think I ever called them out, so after seeing the above, it's about time that I do.)


The rock concert scene is, clearly, this film's Sedgewick bust. You know, their first successful public bust. In this shot, the group is interviewed outside the venue, where Erin proclaims the quote above, harkening back to Peter's proclamation after the courtroom bust in Ghostbusters II: "We're the best, we're the beautiful, we're the only Ghostbusters!"


A new shot of the Ghostbusters entering the Hotel Mercado in Times Square for the film's finale. I may have said it before, but I'll say it again. With so much footage of the rock concert, the possessions, and the Times Square finale shown, the trailers, essentially, spoil the movie. I feel like I've, kind of, seen the movie already... and that's not counting the Reddit spoiler from March that lines up with a lot of the footage we've seen in these trailers.

Anyway, behind them is 1970's Times Square, complete with the RCA National Twin theater showing the 1971 kung-fu classic Fists of Fury starring Bruce Lee. Again, there's nothing about this shot that looks "real" to me, but if they were going for an otherworldly dream-like quality, then they definitely succeeded. Oh, and if you haven't figured it out already, the Hotel Mercado is this film's Shandor Building/550 Central Park West/Dana's Apartment Building. Don't believe me? Look at this:


Here we see the film's big bad, Rowan, in No Ghost Logo ghost form, but sized to Stay Puft-esque proportions, breaking out of the building. Again, the trailer is spoiling the movie. Look at the original movie's theatrical trailer, and you'll notice that you see Gozer, Terror Dogs, and the Subway Ghost for a split-second each, and that's it! You're not inundated with ghosts, nor do you even get a hint that Stay Puft's in the film. Hell, you're not even given a clue as to what the plot of the movie is.

We get a few more shots of Rowan's extremities intruding on 1970s Times Square before, later, we get this:


Yup, they give us a nice, clear close-up of Rowan's face. Again, let me point out that we never even saw Stay Puft's pinky finger in the original's trailer, and here the (presumably) final form of the film's big bad is seen clear as day!


Moving on... the trailer repeats some of the footage from U.S. #2, namely Slimer's appearance, the "we don't want Mass Hysteria" line, Erin clinging to a table whist being escorted out of a fancy restaurant, and other such stuff that I already went over when I discussed U.S. Trailer #2.


Peppered throughout the trailer are bits and pieces of Kevin Beckman. (The above image isn't from the trailer; it's a publicity photo that finally gives us the character's last name!) He's dumb as a bag of rocks, which makes me sad since Janine was never portrayed that way. I'm not sure how I feel about this character. On one hand, I absolutely hate dumb/idiot characters, and I find it sexist to see that the only male protagonist is made to look like a buffoon. On the other hand, he looks like he'll be the second most-likeable "Ghostbuster" after Jillian. I'm betting that the reason he's made to look stupid is so when he gets possessed he can act completely opposite of that. You know, because the easy way for a writer to show a character who's "not himself" is for him to act 100% opposite of how he normally acts.


The trailer ends with the "dragon on Patty's shoulders" bit that we saw in U.S. #2. However, as with the concert promoter's line at the start of the trailer, here, too, we are given an alternate line. In U.S. #2, Patty said, "don't piss off the ghost". Here she says, "don't upset the ghost". We don't know which line, if any of the two, will be used in the final film.

Comparing this trailer to U.S. #2 from a few days ago, it's clear that Sony (or whomever they hired to edit the trailers) has the wrong impression of what American audiences want. We get the trailer with the vomiting ghost, the stupid stage dive joke, and a butt-ton of references to the original movie. It seems like they feel Americans need a dumbed-down, juvenile, pandering trailer. I'm kinda insulted by that. This trailer pretty much does away with all of the stupidity, and that's a DAMN GOOD thing! Let's hope that the final film does, too.