Things I Dislike About Ghostbusters II
After visiting NYC last year, one of my new pet peeves with GB2 is the fact that the museum is actually the closest landfall from Liberty Island… so there was no need to go for an extended walk with her if they were so worried about vibrations tearing her apart. Just ‘swim’ to Battery Park, and pop up right behind the Museum. There was already a crowd gathered there. Boom. Done.
I rather like the between-the-lines assertion in the IDW ongoing series that many of the events of GB2 are the result of the mood slime. A positive flipside to all the negative accounting for Dana’s quick thaw to Peter, Peter’s interest in being a surrogate Daddy AND janine and Louis. It’s subtly handled and makes sense of some iffy elements.
One thing I will always argue, as an old fella that I am, is that in 1989 a lot of pop stars and teen idols were doing V signs in posters. It was the ‘cool’ thing to do to some extent, while still being evidently quite rubbish. It fits that the always slightly ramshackle Ghostbusters may adopt this to edgy up their logo for a corporate rebrand at that specific point in time. Sure, it’s obviouslt mainly for the 2 connotation outside of the narrative, but back then there was also an undercurrent of trendiness to the V sign. I readily admit it is flimsy, but back then it didn’t feel as odd as it does now.
I’d also argue that The Statue of Liberty bit is a lovely conceit, even if it makes no real world sense. It’s nice to see actual New York to come to life to aid the four who always save it. It fits (albeit clumsily) the New York as a character vibe that Reitman so liked. It is also responsible for one of the best Venkman throwaways in the film: “Are any of you people here a national monument? Would you raise your right hand please. Oh, hello Miss!”.
Other than that, though, I have nothing.
Hi Alex
The thing about the museum is that in the fictional universe, it’s not in the same place it is in the real universe. In real-life, it’s at the tip of Manhattan island, just across the harbor from Liberty Island. Like you said, Miss Liberty could have just waded across the harbor and hopped right up on shore at Battery Park and she’d be there at the museum! In the movie, it looks like there’s a giant park (Central Park?) behind it, and more of the city behind that. The buildings that surround the museum, and even the roads, were changed in the movie. The guys at the Ghostbusters Wiki have tried to place it in the fictional universe, but have not yet found a satisfactory place for it.
— Paul
Hi Rob
That’s an interesting idea… that the characters in GB2 were acting, well, out of character because they were under the influence of the mood slime running under the city. Kinda like pod people 🙂
— Paul
Hey. First-time poster, long-time reader.
Regarding the changed No Ghosts logo – I completely agree that the change was unnecessary but, at the same time, I always interpreted it as a statement from the Ghostbusters: “2nd Time Around”
As in “We thought we had ended all of the paranormal activity after that Gozer business and being shut down by the government but now it appears that there is more business to be had and this is our Second Time Around doing the bustin’ that makes us feel good”
Like I said – unnecessary but not entirely unexplainable.
I’ve always thought Ghostbusters II to be a pretty good sequel, but I have to admit you make some really good points here.
Janine’s mysterious character transformation always bothered me. But she’s actually not alone in her metamorphosis — Louis’s personality and demeanor also changed between films.
Surely the point of walking Miss Liberty around the streets was to stoke up a positive vibe throughout the city. Not just for the crows around the museum. The ones around the museum may not have been enough to counteract the negativity of the mood slime, they needed as much of the city as possible.
I disagree with the slime. As a kid I loved the slime aspect of GB, I remember getting a ectoplasm bubble bath with onion-head on the top. Seeing all that mood slime when I saw GB2 that looked exactly like my old bubble bath was pretty cool. I thought the mood slime idea was pretty neat overall. The flow in the old subway was cool.
The main thing I never liked about GB2 was that it didn’t continue like I thought. They weren’t heroes. Everyone hated them. The change of the Ectomobile and as you say the sign. All sequels seem to undo the previous film and start again.
I would have liked to have seen more busting. The court scene was one of the best bits of the movie. Didn’t see enough busting in the first so it was cool to finally see some more with even better effects!
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