Discuss the Ghostbusters movie that was released in 2016.
#4935198
https://ew.com/movies/paul-feig-trump-a ... -backlash/

Thoughts anyone?

I think the election certainly fed into atmosphere at the time, although it obviously can't just be boiled down to "anti-reboot = pro-Trump" "pro-reboot = pro-Hillary." I know that within the fandom, there were certainly legitimate views, both positive and negative, about the reboot. There were also some extremely sexist and racist views as well. I'd assume that some of the trolls, particularly on sites like Youtube, weren't even big Ghostbusters fans, but simply people who wanted to have a gender war (can you believe that anyone would even have the nerve to claim that women aren't funny, as if it were some immutable law of physics?). However, I also know of at least a few longterm Ghostbusters fans who just went right off the deep end with their hatred for everything ATC. Those folks seemed to have disappeared for the most part, so hopefully they managed to make peace and move on with their lives, haha.

Admittedly the main reason I created this thread was to prevent a derailment of the Afterlife thread, and not because I want to get into a heated debate over the role the 2016 election played in the backlash against ATC.
#4935210
Trump is moronic brain dead con artist. Don't even listen to anything he has to say.
Alphagaia, Kingpin, robbritton and 1 others liked this
#4935225
I planned to watch it later to see if there's any new tidbits about ATC, but Feig also did an interview with Collider.
https://collider.com/paul-feig-intervie ... ple-favor/

Talks GB around 36:02, talks about backlash stuff, mentions an unfilmed scene of Patty fighting a giant Barbie doll in a FAO Schwarz.
Last edited by mrmichaelt on May 25th, 2020, 7:37 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Alphagaia, robbritton liked this
#4935226
Sav C wrote: May 25th, 2020, 12:03 amhttps://ew.com/movies/paul-feig-trump-a ... -backlash/

Thoughts anyone?

I think the election certainly fed into atmosphere at the time, although it obviously can't just be boiled down to "anti-reboot = pro-Trump" "pro-reboot = pro-Hillary." I know that within the fandom, there were certainly legitimate views, both positive and negative, about the reboot. There were also some extremely sexist and racist views as well. I'd assume that some of the trolls, particularly on sites like Youtube, weren't even big Ghostbusters fans, but simply people who wanted to have a gender war (can you believe that anyone would even have the nerve to claim that women aren't funny, as if it were some immutable law of physics?). However, I also know of at least a few longterm Ghostbusters fans who just went right off the deep end with their hatred for everything ATC. Those folks seemed to have disappeared for the most part, so hopefully they managed to make peace and move on with their lives, haha.

Admittedly the main reason I created this thread was to prevent a derailment of the Afterlife thread, and not because I want to get into a heated debate over the role the 2016 election played in the backlash against ATC.
Does everything have to be about politics? The reboot was announced in, what? 2014? There was a anti reboot sentiment as soon as it was announced. Most of the backlash had nothing to do with women and everything to do with remaking & rebooting Ghostbusters after years and years of a GB3 in development.

One had nothing to do with the other.

It’s more of “my movie failed and it’s everyone else’s fault but mine”.

Look at Mad Max Fury Road. It features a terrific female lead character, the movie has feminist overtones and is one of the best action movies ever made. That movie was embraced & loved. But it didn’t make its money back. It was a financial failure. So where’s George Miller going “oh my movie wasn’t a success because of X/Y & Z”? He’s not. Because he made a good movie that was embraced by everyone.


Knowing what we know about Bots & how they are designed to create & draw lines in the sand of a culture war, I’d guess that most of the sexist Ghostbusters crap was bots. Most.

GB16 gets the same reaction if it was released in 2012, 2008 or 1999.

I think Paul needs to realize that while his reboot has it’s supporters, it’s one of the most disliked films made within the last 5 years. Along with The Last Jedi, Rise of Skywalker & Justice League.
Coover5, timeware, Davideverona and 4 others liked this
#4935249
Hmm, I dunno there was definitely a stink created by anti-feminists about Fury Road and calls for boycotting the movie.

Now, if the movie was released during an election year instead of before, it might have done worse, but let's not forget the Fury Road still had lots of cars and explosions 'to trick the audience' as this article says.

https://www.businessinsider.com/mad-max ... &r=US&IR=T
Clarey feels Hollywood and Miller tricked him by making a movie that "visually looks amazing."

"Let us be clear. This is the vehicle by which they are guaranteed to force a lecture on feminism down your throat," writes Clarey. "This is the Trojan Horse feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to (vainly) insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength, and logic."

He calls for a boycott:

"So do yourself and all men across the world a favor. Not only REFUSE to see the movie, but spread the word to as many men as possible. Not all of them have the keen eye we do here at [Return of Kings.] And most will be taken in by fire tornadoes and explosions. Because if they sheepishly attend and 'Fury Road' is a blockbuster, then you, me, and all the other men (and real women) in the world will never be able to see a real action movie ever again that doesn’t contain some damn political lecture or moray about feminism, SJW-ing, and socialism
."

As we can see from the article, anti women / gay organisations do exist, and have lots of subscribers.

Does that mean politics or misogynists ruined the BO? No, I don't think so. But it didn't help either, hence the conclusion this article makes. I don't think the anti women organisations are big enough to tank a movie.

But I feel the biggest problem here is GB:ATC had a perfect storm around it, containing much more problems any other 'feminist' movie had:

Sony was hacked, and it made up a big stink
It was a reboot, not a sequel
It was an election year with a man vs women for the first time.
Men were 'replaced'


I remember GB:ATC being promoted on Ellen and people here furious it was a political piece because Clinton was on the same show afterwards. So it definitely factored in.

I'm also sure those mysogynists who failed to tank Fury Road tried to boycott ATC the year after. Perhaps got better at it and trolling the audience.

I'm also sure bots had a big say in this and how social media works (by showing you controversial articles you have to respond to).

The hack was a big thing as well. This was done because N-Korea hated the Interviews and wanted revenge on Sony if I rememeber correctly. Either way, someone wanted to seriously hit Sony. Who knows how much they tried to rain on their biggest blockbusters for a while?

All of these problems factored in, some more then others. It's obvious that for most GBfans, a reboot instead of the long awaited sequel was a hard pill to swallow. Ofcourse they dislikes that, but they also seemed more acceptable to the fake news being created by the other parties wanting to bomb the movie.

I'm sick and tired of this whole discussion though. All has been said. People from both sides to easily use the controversy as an excuse. ('Paul is calling me a women hater because I dislike his movie', ) I've heard that line so many times when he didn't. He was targeted hard.

The media to easily focused on just that part of the pie and made it bigger. Here as well, Feig says it's just a part, not the sole reason, but that's not how it's gets picked up. Quite a few people focus just on the political part and go from there, and there goed the hate train.
Last edited by Alphagaia on May 27th, 2020, 3:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
robbritton liked this
#4935251
Alphagaia wrote: May 27th, 2020, 1:27 am Hmm, I dunno there was definitely are a stink by anti-feminists about Fury Road and calls for boycotting the movie.

Now, if the movie was released during an election year instead of before, it might have done worse, but let's not forget the Fury Road still lots of cars and explosions 'to trick the audience' as this article says.

https://www.businessinsider.com/mad-max ... &r=US&IR=T
Clarey feels Hollywood and Miller tricked him by making a movie that "visually looks amazing."

"Let us be clear. This is the vehicle by which they are guaranteed to force a lecture on feminism down your throat," writes Clarey. "This is the Trojan Horse feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to (vainly) insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength, and logic."

He calls for a boycott:

"So do yourself and all men across the world a favor. Not only REFUSE to see the movie, but spread the word to as many men as possible. Not all of them have the keen eye we do here at [Return of Kings.] And most will be taken in by fire tornadoes and explosions. Because if they sheepishly attend and 'Fury Road' is a blockbuster, then you, me, and all the other men (and real women) in the world will never be able to see a real action movie ever again that doesn’t contain some damn political lecture or moray about feminism, SJW-ing, and socialism
."

As we can see from the article, anti women / gay organisations do exist, and have lots of subscribers.

Does that mean politics or misogynists ruined the BO? No, I don't think so. But it didn't help either, hence the conclusion this article makes. I don't think the anti women organisations are big enough to tank a movie.

But I feel the biggest problem here is GB:ATC had a perfect storm around it, containing much more problems any other 'feminist' movie had:

Sony was hacked, and it made up a big stink
It was a reboot, not a sequel
It was an election year with a man vs women for the first time.
Men were 'replaced'


I remember GB:ATC being promoted on Ellen and people here furious it was a political piece because Clinton was on the same show afterwards. So it definitely factored in.

I'm also sure those mysogynists who failed to tank Fury Road tried to boycott ATC the year after. Perhaps got better at it and trolling the audience.

I'm also sure bots had a big say in this and how social media works (by showing you controversial articles you have to respond to).

The hack was a big thing as well. This was done because N-Korea hated the Interviews and wanted revenge on Sony. Who knows how much they tried to rain on their biggest blockbusters for a while?

All of these problems factored in, some more then others. It's obvious that for most GBfans, a reboot instead of the long awaited sequel was a hard pill to swallow. Ofcourse they dislikes that, but they also seemed more acceptable to the fake news being created by the other parties wanting to bomb the movie.

I'm sick and tired of this whole discussion though. All has been said. People from both sides to easily use the controversy as an excuse. ('Paul is calling me a women hater because I dislike his movie', ) I've heard that line so many times when he didn't. He was targeted hard.

The media to easily focused on just that part of the pie and made it bigger. Here as well, Feig says it's just a part, not the sole reason, but that's not how it's gets picked up. Quite a few people focus just on the political part and go from there, and there goed the hate train.


It’s still so weird to me that in 2016 it felt like the battle for pop cultures soul was being fought over a Ghostbusters Reboot. How many of us would’ve predicted that? It’s still surreal to think about.

It’s one of those moments where it felt like a paradigm shift. The internet and geek culture got really ugly & partisan. It was always on the fringes before with things like Gamer Gate(I still don’t know, or care, what that was about) but now it was mainstream. It’s unfortunate it had to be Ghostbusters. That stink is still on this fanbase & it’s very unfair.
#4935257
We've come full circle. I still don't feel like debating this topic again. I really need to point this out.

Almost twelve articles have come out on this subject since this topic was created.

It's almost like looking at a time capsule, or a bad 1950 sci fi movie titled revenge of the fem-bots. These aren't journalists, they're activists with a grudge.

The same groups that flooded the news feed in 2016 are back.

I'm going to bang my head against the wall. Maybe when I wake up the Rock will be running for office.

    Yeah, we've been building this thing for ten[…]

    Someone on FB found it. NARDA ELECTROMAGNETIC RADI[…]

    It appears that some time today someone who […]

    Correct, it grants several in fact the Melody's […]