Ghostbusters review: This rehash is harmless fun that doesn’t attempt anything truly surprising

After what seems like years of criticism on the internet over the first trailer of Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters remake, we finally get to see the movie. There’s good news — the film is far better than the trailer . And the real surprise is that Leslie Jones’ character, which was the worst thing in the trailer but is actually the best thing in the film. If you’re in the mood for some harmless fun you’ll actually end up liking this film. Set in the present day, which is about 30 years from the original film, Ghostbusters is like an inversion to everything in the previous movies. Erin (Kristen Wiig) is a ditzy wannabe college professor who is pulled back into her former life as a paranormal investigator thanks to her friend Abby (Melissa McCarthy). The two join forces with nuclear super genius Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon), a social worker Patty (Leslie Jones) after they encounter a spirit and eventually open their Ghost Busting business. [caption id=“attachment_2922118” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  A still from ‘Ghostbusters’[/caption] There are some fun moments to be had — mostly thanks to the camaraderie between the four women. Every one of those four actors is utilised to their strength, which mostly leads to familiar and predictable, yet still enjoyable jokes. Going with the tradition of Feig’s earlier films like Bridesmaids, there are plenty of fart gags as well. The designs of the ghosts are interesting, some of them being more gruesome than the others. Although it’s utter torture watching it in 3D where the horror element keeps coming right to your face in not a very fun way. But there’s a problem when the film becomes a complete inversion of the earlier movies. Instead of a team of men, this film has women as its heroes — that’s a bold decision but one that ultimately works against the film. None of the actors in the previous films had to try really hard to make things funny because they were all Saturday Night Live alums. The women in this film, on the other hand really strain to make all the improv comedy work, and Feig’s direction strains in over selling the fact that there are women in this movie instead of men. _Read on Firstpost: 'Ghostbusters' to 'Rush Hour'— Nostalgia, and why we’re rebooting everything_ In other inversion related elements, the prickly and unattractive female office assistant from the previous movies is replaced by the ultra handsome Chris Hemsworth in the same role. It’s a great idea that just falls flat in execution because of the utter lack of nuance in Hemsworth’s character than the one note handsome jock. Instead of one of the clients becoming possessed by the antagonistic ghost, this time one of the heroes goes through the ordeal. Even the iconic Ghostbusters logo is turned into a massive possessed being destroying the city. In doing this it almost feels like this film was made by a bunch of cynical people, rather than those who grew up worshipping the original films. The original Ghostbusters had become a legendary Hollywood product that created film geeks for decades to come. The problem with this rehash is that it doesn’t attempt anything truly surprising. So despite the passably funny moments you’ll leave the theater glad you saw a light comedy, but you’ll be disappointed by its lack of ingenuity and you’ll forget about it in a couple of days. The Extreme Ghostbusters cartoon from the late 90’s was a far stronger attempt at bringing the Ghostbusters brand to the newer generation and I wish this film were a movie version of that show. _Also read: 'Ghostbusters' star Leslie Jones outs racist trolls on Twitter; says she's numbed by the hatred_