With the release of director Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot a little over a month away, the film’s promotional campaign has been picking up speed. Aside from a new international trailer and an in-depth look at the revamped Ecto-1, we’ve also been given news of a fresh take on the Ghostbusters’ anthem, an advanced review of the film from original Ghostbuster Dan Aykroyd, and seen a general change in momentum regarding the film’s imminent arrival.
Of course by this point, anyone who’s been following news of the film is well aware that a certain number of critics remain. It seems that no matter what Ghostbusters does to highlight its new take on the 32-year-old franchise, some people will simply never be able to see past the concept that this time around, the Ghostbusters are made up entirely of women.
The new Ghostbusters themselves – Kristen Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Leslie Jones and Kate McKinnon – have been locked into these roles for some time now, so fans are definitely aware of who’s involved by this point. What fans haven’t had however, is much of a chance to learn about the actual characters that the ladies play. In order to provide some insight on this, Sony Pictures Entertainment has released a series of video vignettes detailing each one of the Ghostbusters, alongside some footage of them in action.
Each vignette comes in at under two minutes and provides individual focus on Jillian Holtzmann (McKinnon), Erin Gilbert (Wiig), Abby Yates (McCarthy) and Patty Tolan (Jones). These videos revealed that Holtzmann is the scientific genius in charge of the team’s gear; Erin is the Columbia professor mocked for her belief in ghosts and the book she wrote about them; Abby is the hard-core believer in all things paranormal who provides the unwavering momentum for the team; and Patty is the NYC Metropolitan Transport Authority employee (and general expert on all things New York) who joins the Ghostbusters after a paranormal encounter. Together the four women form a silly, yet functioning unit that aims to take down the dark spirits menacing New York City. You can watch those videos below.
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It’s great to have some insight on the new Ghostbusters, though much of the footage included here was also featured in previously-released clips and trailers. On one hand, this could be intentional in order to avoid spoiling all the film’s laughs before audiences even hit the theaters. On the other hand, given the film’s rough road to acceptance encountered thus far, it seems it would make more sense to keep dishing out the humor as a means of attracting audiences. Unless of course, these recurrent clips are as funny as Ghostbusters gets.
Still, regardless of how many laughs Ghostbusters does or doesn’t provide, the film looks like it can be a lot of fun. There are a vast variety of ghosts and ghouls this time around and the chemistry between the four leads has an all around goofy authenticity to it. There’s no guarantee that Ghostbusters will match the original’s charm or box-office take, but then again, there’s also no guarantee that it won’t, either.
NEXT: Paul Feig Talks Ghostbusters Marketing Challenges
Ghostbusters opens in U.S. theaters on July 15th, 2016.
