Who Ya Gonna Call?

[Kaptain Badrukk]

I had forgotten about the role of motherhood in the alien films, i stand corrected, you could not (given our preconcieved notion of gender roles) have a male Ripley.

[Mr Mystery]

Yet Ripley was originally written as a male character.

[eldargal]

The script went through quite a few revisions from when Ripley was going to be male to when she wasn't though, it wasn't just a case of swapping the gender of the actor and hte pronouns in the script or something.

[grimmas]

I think it's only relevant in the later films. In Alien it's about them being chased around a ship by an Alien and Aliens is about them being chased round a planet by lots of Aliens.

Edit: according to critics the original uses ideas of male rape to build the fear.

[Kirsten]

The script went through quite a few revisions from when Ripley was going to be male to when she wasn't though, it wasn't just a case of swapping the gender of the actor and hte pronouns in the script or something.

if it had been kept as male Ripley that would be some awkward dinner time conversations round the Alien table

[Charistoph]

I mean evne just taking the Ghostbusters franchise and ignoring the broader issues in Hollywood, we had two all male Ghostbusters movies already (and cartoons and comics and video games), so why is it a big deal to have an all female cast now?

If I remember right, the second cartoon series (found it [URL="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extreme_Ghostbusters"]Extreme Ghostbusters[/URL]) actually had at least one female member. Of course, she was a goth girl to make her "fit in" with the theme of Ghostbusters, but it was also late 90s, too.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I liked Extreme Ghostbusters, and the goth girl was awesome. Not enough alternative characters in media generally either, allthough I've heard that NCIS show also has a goth girl (that even listens to industrial/ebm) but never seen that show. Goth girls should be in everything. Especially ones that like skinny puppy and fla. This is a fact.

[CoffeeGrunt]

I'm not bothered about the gender make-up of the cast, tbh. I can understand demanding a 50/50 mix, but ultimately isn't that exactly the kind of cold, clinical pandering that people are crying out against? A demographically and statistically-oriented focus grouping breaking characters down into perfect distributions.

I mean, we can't have another Ghostbusters movie anyway. Murray and Arkroyd, for whatever reason, apparently decided to recruit new blood for this remake. It has their blessing online, and a lot of places are claiming they had a hand in choosing the cast and helping with writing, though they're unsubstantiated 'til we see the credits or get confirmation from the guys themselves. This may well be their vision of a third movie.

As far as an all-female cast being pandering, we're still 2:1 on male-female representation as Ghostbusters, given two movies of four dudes versus one movie of four ladies. If the characters are well-written and the comedy is good, it shouldn't matter.

But it does matter. The only people I've heard really complain about the gender make-up, are guys. Even on here, many of the ones complaining about that aspect, even citing it as forced or something that will adversely affect the movie through other ways, are guys.

I mean, we didn't really need a remake. But it's Hollywood. They're remaking everything right now while they try and work out how to write the occasional original script. Original IPs don't make as much money, and people don't go to see them in the same numbers, so if anything the remake culture is born of us as consumers preferring to see a safe retread of something we like than trying something new and unknown.

A remake was inevitable, and this one appears to have Murray and Arkroyd behind it. Murray's awesome, Arkroyd is a bit more variable. He's hilarious in some stuff, but then there's stuff like Blues Brothers 2000. It's about the best we can hope for.

My personal decision on this is the same as everything. Wait for it to release, check out reviews, mull it over, then possibly watch it on a stream if I'm on the fence. If it's any good, I'll hit the cinema or buy a Blu-Ray, (or both if it's particularly good.) No financial risk, nothing lost.

[Asymmetrical Xeno]

I'll probably watch it in a few years time or so when all the hype and hate has died down and I don't have to listen to other peoples opinions about it. I find I'm better able to go in without any expectations and enjoy things that way.

[Psychosplodge]

Isn't the media wonderful?

Holy Hyperbole, Batman! I guess the exaggerated headlines with terms like "RIPS!" & "RAILS!" & "SLAMS!" make for better click-bait than the headline "Smith Defends ‪#‎Ghostbusters‬ Director/Cast" (which was more along the lines of what I actually did on last week's ‪#‎BabbleOn‬). ‪#‎Sigh‬ ‪#‎KevinSmith‬ ‪#‎headlines‬ ‪#‎hyperboleandahalf‬