- February 5th, 2022, 10:45 pm#4966827As an overall package, I was always somewhat (and to this day remain) disappointed by Ghostbusters 2.
That’s not to say it isn’t salvageable, but I believe that the film would have to be changed significantly to make it at least closer to the original in terms of overall quality.
To be honest, the Ghostbusters 2 logo itself never bothered me, and I can still see it hanging in front of the firehouse and maybe even remaining on the doors of the Ghostbusters 2 Ectomobile. I agree that the Flight Suit patches should’ve remained the originals, and I feel that there was a missed opportunity in fully utilizing the new and modern looking charcoal flightsuits.
Janine could easily be fixed with a more subdued outfit and I really believe that her feelings for Egon should’ve been at least mentioned, if not a continuing plot from the original.
Somewhat in that vein, it would’ve been much better to see Walter Peck return from the original as well instead of… whatever Kurt Fuller did. Both of these points are sort of ironic, considering Ghostbusters 2 gets so much flak for repeating the original film beat for beat.
Some have suggested that the film’s opening works as is, and the film would be incomplete without it. Others say it should be scrapped entirely and have the film jump right in during the courtroom scene. I envisioned somewhat of a compromise: the original Ectomobile still pulls up, siren blaring, to Jason Reitman’s birthday party. What I would change for the scene is to have all the Ghostbusters be there for the birthday party instead of just Ray and Winston. I felt that the original opening was supposed to be a “twist” in that the audience is led to believe that the ghostbusters are on their way to bust some ghosts.
They would naturally be surprised to see them pull up to a kid’s birthday party.
Unfortunately, even during my first viewing, I could tell something was off when I didn’t see Peter or Egon climbing out of the Ectomobile, so when the twist happened, I was already suspecting something. Having the whole team be there would make the twist more effective, and I’m sure Peter or Egon would have something funny to say about being reduced to children’s entertainers.
Immediately after, the Ghostbusters would go to court, unzipping their flight suits to reveal their dress shirts or whatnot with blazers and neckties in the Ectomobile that they could simply throw on. The case could be about practically anything: maybe they’re in bankruptcy court due to the lack of work they have as ghostbusters, or maybe they’re being sued by the city for the damages caused by Stay Puft (an interesting reference/parallel to Son of Kong).
They could even be in the court for some environmental violation after a successful investigation by Walter Peck, any of these are more interesting that whatever happened in the film.
I understand some take issue with Louis Tully being a lawyer instead of an accountant, but I find the scene funny enough to ignore that. In fact, one thing I will say that almost everyone I’ve seen discuss Ghostbusters 2 at length seems to find humor in Moranis’ performance in that particular scene.
Anyways, the scene could play out mostly the same, and in fact, the whole plot of Ghostbusters 2 could remain mostly the same, but it would benefit greatly from these changes (in addition to adding back deleted scenes like Possessed Ray driving the Ghostbusters 2 Ectomobile or the Subway Frog ghost/Original Spectral Subway train to compensate for the decreased runtime.)
The only other issue I have with that film that I can think of at the moment is Slimer’s appearance, which has been brought up before as looking too different from the original. I think Slimer definitely could’ve benefited from a 1988/89 update, but one more focused on streamlining the original design rather than starting a whole new, more cartoonish one.
Last edited by Kingpin on February 6th, 2022, 11:06 am, edited 1 time in total.Reason: Added paragraph breaks