This week, Neil Calloway argues that toying with classics only leads to disappointment…
This week the much-anticipated first trailer for the much-anticipated Ghostbusters remake debuted, to a lukewarm reaction (from the Flickering Myth team here at least).
Now, you can’t judge films on trailers, and this might come back to haunt me when the film is released and turns out to be great, but I’d put good money on it being a disappointment. I’d put good money on it disappointing people even if it does turn out to be a decent film.
The original Ghostbusters was released in 1984, and single-handedly kicked off the special effects action comedy genre that is still going strong today (hello, Jump Street/Men In Black crossover). It also became the most successful comedy at the box office of the decade. Paul Feig’s all female take on the film has a lot to live up to; it’s almost impossible to live up to the expectations.
We’ve been here before, of course. A much-loved classic gets a new instalment years later, a huge amount of hype and eventually a film that disappointed its audiences. I’m talking of course about Star Wars, and the release of The Phantom Menace in 1999.
Like Ghostbusters today, in 1999 if you were under about 35 Star Wars had always just been there as part of your culture; it was a film you’d watched countless times on TV and on VHS, you had the toys and quoted it in the playground, and ultimately The Phantom Menace was underwhelming and does not attract the love the originals do, to say the least.
The Phantom Menace was not a great film, but it had a lot to live up to, and the new Ghostbusters film is the same; it won’t be competing against Batman v Superman or Captain America: Civil War in our affections this year, and it won’t even be competing with the original film; it will be competing with your childhood.
You watched Star Wars and Ghostbusters as a kid, when you were easily pleased by flashy effects and a whiny farm boy (“But I was going into Tosche Station to pick up some power converters!” should make you hate Luke Skywalker) or the giant mascot of a fictional marshmallow company. Since then your tastes have changed; you no longer eat off the children’s menu, you no longer wear the same clothes, you no longer listen to the same music. Why should you like the same films? In 1999, when The Phantom Menace was released you were a bit older, a bit more discerning, you knew a bit more about films, and no matter how good it was, it was only going to disappoint you.
When you watch the original films again when they pop up on TV, you’re not watching them in the same way you watch a new film; you’re getting a Proustian rush for a lost childhood. The new films in the franchise – be they Star Wars or Ghostbusters – are both familiar and new, which sounds like a recipe for success, but when it’s messing with a story from our childhood, it’ll only lead to the new film disappointing.
The Force Awakens was a success because it was a nostalgic update of the originals, rather than a new film in the series (arguably, the prequels are braver than The Force Awakens because they aren’t relying on the main cast and have to fill in back story only hinted at in the original trilogy). The fact is the prequels had lowered expectations sufficiently so that any film that contained Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon would be loved, no matter what. Despite Ghostbusters II, we haven’t had our love for the series beaten out of us by Gungans, trade federations and midichlorians yet.
I would argue that the success of the films in the MCU is down, at least in part, to the fact that thirty years ago there wasn’t a huge Iron Man film, or a successful Captain America film before; we’re experiencing these characters on the cinema screen for the first time, not having our childhood memories of classic films ruined by the latest version.
The new Ghostbusters film will be disappointing, and it’s all your fault.
Neil Calloway is a pub quiz extraordinaire and Top Gun obsessive. Check back here every Sunday for future instalments.
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Originally published March 6, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
