Ok...after watching SLC, I have a hard time understanding some of the claims people have made about it in comparison to RotGB. While I thought SLC was (for the most part) shot really well and had great props, I didn't really care for the story or the characters. Realizing full well this is a fan film, I still expect something more from people taking the ideas and concepts of Ghostbusters and using them to tell their own story.
(Side note, did anyone else hear the 21 Jump Street theme in their head when the SLC spraypainted itself onto the Ghostbusters logo?)
I mean, take their 'Bill Murray' character, Kevin Mavrik. He reminded me of Silent Bob from his appearance, and Seth Rogen in his demeanor. I know it's kind of obligatory for Ghostbuster fan films to have a douchebagish character who grows up over the events of the film, but the problem here is there's no time for him to grow up. The script is focused around what can be best described as a remake of the hotel scene from Ghostbusters 1. The whole thing is basically a scene rather than a film so, naturally, there's no time for character development at all. Which inevitably leaves me hating Kevin Mavrik all the way through instead of him slowly growing on me.
Also, I got the feeling that if I hadn't seen anything Ghostbusters before this, I'd have had no idea what was going on. I know the whole idea is that it's a film made by fans for fans, but moreso than any other Ghostbusters fan film I've ever seen, SLC basically says "Yup, these are Ghostbusters. Take it or leave it."
a half an hour action scene with sub-par fx is hailed as "the best gb fan film ever" and that it "is the only one out there to recapture the essence of the original movies"
Let's break this down. The special effects I thought were fairly good, it is a fan film, after all. The only thing that
really stood out to me is the first time the book levitated, it was blatantly obvious that AE's wire removal didn't help much. And I already covered that it basically was just one scene.
The 'captures the essence of the original movies' thing gets me. What about it caught the essence? The characters didn't have the comedic timing and chemistry of Aykroyd, Murray and Ramis (to be fair, no one's come close on that one. But that's because it's a once in a lifetime combination), which to me was the essence of the original.
It wasn't the cinematography style. While I thought the film was very well photographed, the overuse of steadycam sometimes gave me the feeling I was watching Ghostbusters Scranton with Michael Scott. Not all the time, but enough to be notable.
So is it the music? The fact that the soundtrack came directly from the original movies certainly made it
sound like Ghostbusters. But that'd be like if Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory used the soundtrack from Willy Wonka. It'd certainly sound the same, but it's not the essence of the original.
Truly, I think I've already stated why it feels like the original movie:
because it remakes the original movie. It feels like they took the library and hotel scenes of the original and made them into a separate film set in Salt Lake City.
And imagine all the great stuff you could have happen to Ghostbusters in Salt Lake City! I was hoping for maybe Mormon opposition to the commercialization of banishing souls, (despite that the same issue was touched upon in RotGB, I thought taking it from a religious point of view would create a different form of adversary) or at the very least something that couldn't be shot anywhere else. The classroom used for the main scene of SLC looks very much like a classroom where I shot a short film in Chicago. And I've been in similar classrooms in Minnesota. That could have been filmed anywhere, I was hoping for something I couldn't see anywhere but in Salt Lake City.
In the end, it felt less like a Ghostbusters fan film and more like an SNL sketch about Ghostbusters than anything else. The only reason I think people automatically like it better than the much more professional RotGB is that it's dressed up nice and it's short. They can get straight to what they love about Ghostbusters without having to bother themselves with plot and character development. Maybe they'll take after Hank and make a feature now, and maybe I'll hate Mavrik less after a more extensive installment. But I think in most people's minds, RotGB continues to be the final word in Ghostbusters fan films.
Two things, daftkid909: I'm loading Megaman right now. And the fact that I'm so uncontrollably excited about loading it leaves no doubt in my mind that GB: Generations would have none of the above problems
