Why You Should Watch Ghostbusters If You Haven’t Already

While searching a haunted house, Dr. Abby Yeats (Melissa McCarthy) wields a device with convex neon wires that converge. As the yonic device whirls, the “don’t cross the streams!” joke of the original Ghostbusters comes to mind — but, in a culture saturated with dick jokes, this subtle gag is much more endearing.

This is just one example of how the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters has achieved the impossible: improving upon a franchise that has lodged itself so firmly into the hearts and minds of an entire generation while also recasting it as a story that is relevant to today’s audience.

The new Ghostbusters has a better plot than the original did. By the time dead gods came alive in the original film, we hardly remembered how we had gotten there. The Sumerian mythology did not mesh with the human antagonist, whose profession — EPA inspector — was seemingly chosen at random. The new Ghostbusters, in contrast, clearly outlines the threat: scary weird guy wants to conquer the world using ghosts.

Even while it shores up plot holes and tightens up the worldbuilding, Ghostbusters gives an affectionate nod to the original wherever possible. Cameos abound. The Ghostbusters play with the original film’s weapons before updating them. The Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, the memorable incarnation of evil demigod Zuul, even makes an appearance.

At the same time, Ghostbusters doesn’t drown in its own nostalgia. Newcomers and kids can watch this movie without knowing the minutiae of 1980’s geek culture. Better, the film is clearly set in 2016: YouTube and Reddit are both mentioned in this film and people take cellphone pictures of ghosts.

Speaking of 2016, Ghostbusters’s all-female cast is essential because it brings the franchise into the 21st century. The team of established comics (Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon, and Leslie Jones) play their roles so well that audiences will be left asking why this isn’t more common. Pernicious tropes that haunt other comedies starring women, like fat jokes and catfighting, are absent. Gendered stereotypes are inverted: the dumb blond secretary is a man (Chris Hemsworth). Even the fart jokes are updated with a female sensibility (“It came from the front!”) Furthermore, few question the Ghostbusters’ expertise — two of them co-wrote a leading book on paranormal phenomena. When one old grouch tells the Ghostbusters that they “don’t have the equipment for the job,” he feels like an unwelcome holdover from the past.

One area in which the film falters is in its treatment of the only Black Ghostbuster, Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones). A non-scientist who joins the team late, Tolan feels like a sidekick rather than a hero in her own right. Worse, Tolan is a pastiche of stereotypes. Rumors abound that Tolan is an urban historian whose MTA employment pays the bills, which would explain her eidetic knowledge of Manhattan. If true, this should have been included in the film. It’s reminiscent of how, in the original film, Black Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore’s (Ernie Hudson) impressive credentials — former Marine, multiple degrees, and a PhD — were never mentioned. Jones herself has defended Tolan for “portraying regular people,” but why the stereotypes? In an otherwise thoughtful film that nudges the franchise into the future, this racial typecasting is a disappointing remnant of the past.

Overall, though, Ghostbusters is a film that old and new fans alike will enjoy, and it will likely endure for at least 30 more years. Go watch it if you can — and be sure to watch until the lights come up. There’s an Easter egg at the very, very, very end that simultaneously references the original and points a new way forward.