Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Ghostbusters: Did It Suck?




The original Ghostbusters is one of the classic comedy movies of all time. It harbored famous comedians Bill Murray, and Dan Aykroyd. It has won fans alike who still to this day quote lines from the movie. When the movie came out it was a hit. We've gotten a sequel, a cartoon, and let's not forget the Ecto Hi-C. There have been trouble getting a third Ghostbuster movie started ranging from script troubles to cast fighting. We wouldn't have anything Ghostbusters for years until now. Is the franchise back from the dead or is it time to put it to rest?
      Ghostbusters, just like the original movie its rebooting, is a comedy. It was a bit different than the original as it kinda went for less of the dry humor and went for a bit more slapstick and the stuff you'd usually find in Paul Feig, the director, movies. It is full of jokes. The beginning did start off slow with some witty writing, but as the movie progresses, things build and things do get outrageously funny. Despite it having some funny moments, I felt the jokes were kinda tame compared to Feig's previous movies. There were a lot of funnier moments and the movie could've gone out with certain moments. Feig brought the funny, but it wasn't necessarily his A game.
     The story was pretty much your standard Ghostbusters story. It's up to the Ghostbusters to save New York, and maybe the world but mainly New York, from a spiritual catastrophe. the only difference this time is that the antagonist is not some powerful ghost, but a human. Neil Casey plays the villain and like the Ghostbusters he is doing some ghost hunting as well for some really bad reasons.
    Watching Ghostbuster was almost like remix of the original in that it seems like a completely original movie and it had some moments that were inspired by the original movie. The first encounter in the mansion was the library scene. The rock concert was the hotel scene where they caught Slimer. And the subway scene was from Ghostbusters 2 even with one of the ghost brothers that was electrocuted. Also their are a ton of cameos. The movie is almost one big Ghostbuster reunion as it featured almost the whole cast in different roles except for Rick Moranis and Harold Ramis you know because he's dead. You even got one from the Stay Puff Marshmellow Man.
     As for the female Ghostbusters, everyone did their job well. Melissa McCarthy was classic Melissa McCarthy is almost every role she's mainly been whether you like that or not shame on you if you don't. Kristen Wiig is in full comedy prime quirky Erin Gilbert. They were the Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd of the reboot. Kate McKinnon was great playing the pretty much out there "Egon" of the group, Jillian Holtzmann  The highlight of the movie clearly was Chris Hemsworth. He played a ditzy male receptionist well. He has amazing comedic timing. It was shocking to see him able to have a comedic side and him doing it so well. Also cred to due to Lesie Jones. She was amazing and despite some claims that her character was too "stereotypical" (and like they even care?) it wasn't nor did she come across that way. She was a sassy and witty New Yorker who wasn't just sitting back on the side lines to say something witty compared to the other girls' characters. And to boot Jones' was funny as hell delivering her lines.
     Overall the movie was fantastic. Is it better than the original? No. Definitely not. But it's not trying to be. It was made to show love for the original Ghostbuster movies and bring it to a new generation, with a modern twist. It's a great popcorn movie. It was fun. The audience I was with had a good time dancing when the original Ghostbusters theme played as well as during the ending credits. The people who are spending all their time hating this movie and crying over their "tarnished childhoods" are seriously missing out. I'd give it 4 out of five stars.


Sunday, July 10, 2016

Will Pokemon GO Be The Next Miitomo?



     Ladies and gentlemen Pokemon GO is finally out. It was released over a few days ago and everyone seems to be downloading it like crazy. Pokemon GO is a new app game brought to you by Pokemon Company and Niantic. It links to your phone's GPS posts spots where you can catch AR images of pokemon outside. It is as real as real life pokemon we're going to get, sadly. Pokemon GO is just the recent release in Nintendo's plan to make games for mobile phones with more titles coming out this year and next. Whether or not Pokemon GO ends up being successful, you could draw comparison to it and the previous app game Nintendo released, Miitomo.
     For those who haven't heard of Miitomo, it marked the Nintendo's debut in the mobile gaming market. In it you designed a Mii and communicated and make friends with other people's Miis, whether by the app itself, Twitter, and/or Facebook. Think of it as Miispace. You also could collect and buy clothes for you Mii and that was just about it. Since the end of April, over 10 million people downloaded Miitomo. in the long run the Miitomo  excitement over it was short and it got boring rather quick. The question is will Pokemon have more longevity than Miitomo did?
     For one thing that sets GO apart from Miitomo is that there are a ton of things to do other than catch Pokemon in parks and on the street. Unlike Miitomo Pokemon GO does have a lot of things to do. Of course you can catch pokemon and fight other people. You can also join teams and pretty much mark your territories by claiming gyms and being gym leaders. The game also does have a huge thing with exploration that Nintendo is really about recently. It encourages you to go out and visit certain spots in your neighborhood and even landmarks to catch them all. It does seem the the Pokemon Company does have plans to keep players interested in playing. So far we have only generation one pokemon available, but they can release other generations of pokemon in the near future. They can even have legendary pokemon sightings at certain landmarks a la pokemon giveaways for the handheld games. There is a lot they can do. Whether or not this will be too much we can't tell.

What are your thoughts?