Ghostbusters reboot opens to mainly positive reviews

The film had its US premiere on 9 July

The Ghostbusters all female reboot has opened to mainly positive reviews.

The film's trailer attracted more "dislikes" than any trailer ever on YouTube, which suggested a concerted campaign by some fans of the original.

The Guardian is one of the papers that gives the film four stars: "Call off the trolls - Paul Feig's female reboot is a blast," it said.

"Fun oozes from almost every frame," Nigel M Smith said.

"Most crucially, the mean-spirited reception to the film before anyone had seen it does not seem to have put a dampener on the movie itself."

'Girls rule'

Robbie Collin in The Telegraph said: "The 2016 vintage of Ghostbusters speaks to its time with the same withering comic accuracy and hot-air-balloon-sized sense of fun as the 1984 original."

The New York Times' Manohla Dargis said: "the new, cheerfully silly Ghostbusters is that rarest of big-studio offerings — a movie that is a lot of enjoyable, disposable fun.

"Girls rule, women are funny, get over it."

Empire magazine has given the film three stars. Jonathan Pile said: "an effectively spooky opening gives way to a film that's fun, funny and full of energy. It's almost as if it never mattered that the four main characters were women. Strange that."

While Screen International's critic Tim Grierson said the remake was "a consistently funny pleasure".

"Never quite as sharp or inspired as the 1984 original, but radiating such good cheer that comparisons between the two films don't much matter."

Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from the film has been put on display at Waterloo Station in London to publicise the film's UK release on 11 July

But not all reviews were positive. Vanity Fair critic Richard Lawson was one of those not so impressed. He called it "a flat, occasionally charming disappointment".

"It spends so much time doing battle with its legacy that it forgets to be its own movie, putting a talented cast to waste and marking another disappointment in this dreadful summer movie season."

Chief film critic Peter Debruge with Variety agreed - he said the film spent "far too much energy channelling the original to establish its own identity."

Hollywood Reporter, David Rooney said: "The unfunny mess that hits theatres Friday, like a big goopy splat of ectoplasm, will no doubt make those naysayers feel vindicated.

"But the fact is that an oestrogen-infused makeover, particularly one with such a comedically gifted cast, was a promising idea. Sadly, that's where the inventiveness ended."

'Nervous about the movie'

The film, which stars Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones, Kate McKinnon and Kristen Wiig, had its world premiere in Los Angeles on 9 July.

Speaking at the premiere Ghostbusters director Paul Feig said he understood fans were "nervous" about the film.

"I understand people are very passionate about this movie ... I get it. People are nervous. If I wasn't doing the movie, I would have been nervous.

"All I can say is we came to it with such a purity of spirit and so desperate to give a new audience what we all felt 32 years ago when we first saw it in a theatre."

Jamie East, film editor for The Sun, was one critic who received tweets questioning whether he had been paid for his review.

He tweeted: "Ignore the haters - #Ghostbusters is really, really good."

Helen O'Hara, who reviewed the film for GQ, was also questioned by fans online about her positive review.

"Ghostbusters is a very, very funny and occasionally scary movie, which features jokes aimed squarely at the misogynistic commenters who risked RSI attacking it for its female-led cast," she said.

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