Ghostbusters Review: 6 Ups And 4 Downs

Downs:

4. It’s Edited To Hell

Like most 2016 blockbusters - X-Men: Apocalypse, Alice Through The Looking Glass, Independence Day: Resurgence and many more - Ghostbusters is rather curiously edited.

The pacing of the story is all over the shop, with massive time jumps quickly followed up by stagnant development. Characters feel like they’re doing things just because the plot demands it – they know what the villain’s up to just because the audience does and there’s a bizarre bit when a character returns at the climatic moment and everyone’s like “welcome back!”, but they never left. It’s more “Were you gone?”

Crazily, its individual scenes can also be a bit of a mess, with what should be essential sequences - like the really not good at all Exorcist fight - chopped down to the bare essential beats and having no chance to breathe.

The whole thing can feel like a montage. We’re not seeing full sequences, we’re seeing a quick taste of something. Like Batman V Superman, it’s like this is cut down from a bigger film, but at 116 minutes I doubt that.