10 Movies That Didn't Understand What The Fans Wanted

And now we come to by far the most widely loathed recent entry into any major movie property - the 2016 Paul Feig-directed Ghostbusters reboot.

Though much of the pre-release scorn was undoubtedly rooted in shameless sexism, the final movie sadly didn't vindicate the all-female approach, as Feig turned in a bizarrely flat, achingly forgettable retread of the iconic original.

A gender-swapped Ghostbusters movie with this cast absolutely could've won over fans, but as ever, it comes down to a low-effort script that gambled far too aggressively on its cast members making sub-par material funny.

Between the abundance of awkward editing and 116-minute run-time, it's painfully clear that Feig relied on a ton of improv from the four leads, yet despite the talents of Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy in particular, they barely make a dent here.

Kate McKinnon tries her best to mug the film into shape, but Leslie Jones is the only performer who really feels like she's playing an actual human being on par with the original movie.

While the 1984 Ghostbusters invested the audience in its characters while building up the creative ghost-hunting shenanigans, the 2016 version left any potential charm at the door and hoped you'd give it a pass on the basis of its branding alone. Which most critics actually did, by the way.

Fingers crossed that Jason Reitman's upcoming new Ghostbusters movie might serve as a potent course-correction for a franchise that, honestly, might be best left on the shelf without its original cast.