Ghostbusters: Old vs New

Good evening everyone and welcome to The Magical Mystery Tour.

Just yesterday Paul Feig released his take on the iconic Ghostbusters suit for his version of the famous movie. Feig’s version of the movie has an all female cast (Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Kristen Wiig, and Leslie Jones (and possibly rumored Sandra Bullock)) and Chris Hemsworth as the receptionist. Without further ado, let’s take a look at Feig’s Ghostbusters suits and see how they measure up to the original.

Feig's Ghostbusters suits. theguardian.com

  

Original Ghostbusters suits. cinemablend.com

Well for starters, both costumes share the iconic logo which is a definite must. You can’t have a “Ghostbusters” movie and not have the logo nowhere in the film; that would be like having a BLT without the T, it’s terrible. There also appear to be no elbow padding like in the original costume. However, it appears the gloves have returned and are curled up in the pockets.

Also on the new suits there are orange stripes for a splash of color, but from what I can tell I don’t see any of their names stitched onto their suits like the original Ghostbusters. While the original Ghostbusters had their last names stitched onto their uniforms, they don’t appear anywhere on the new suits. This makes me wonder if they’re going to be cast as four new Ghostbusters (with different last names) or have female versions of the original names (Ex.: Winston -> Winona/Winnie, Ray -> Rayna/Reyna, Peter -> Petra, Egon -> Egonia). It would be strange to not have their names stitched onto the suits because it seems like something the Ghostbusters wouldn’t do.

The suits are also a slightly darker shade than the original suits. The one feature I wish they would take from this new suit and apply to women’s fashion is the pockets. In women’s fashion, there are no useful pockets. Rather, there are imposkets, imposter pockets that appear to be helpful when really they’re just there for decoration.

I also wonder where the belts are on the suit. The belts not only kept the original Ghostbusters suit together, but were also resourceful. Ray and Winston are using their belts and belt hooks to hold up some of their machinery in the picture above. To be honest, I don’t even see belt hooks on the new suits which makes me wonder how exactly Feig is going to approach the overall gear. Will it be partially digital equipment combined with what the Ghostbusters initially had? If so, how will he make it work? We already saw Feig’s proton pack which is slightly different from the original proton pack.

Feig's Proton Pack. entertainmentweekly.com

Original Proton Pack. gbfans.com

The new proton pack appears to be smaller than the original and bears fewer cords. The generator appears to have been updated to fit modern times as well as the rest of the pack. But in the process, many of its other notable features are missing; all those wondrous gadgets strapped to the pack that we never knew existed or how they functioned are gone. Those gizmos though were what made the proton pack so wonderfully complex and fascinating, and contributed to the proton pack’s overall iconic look.

In general, Feig’s suits and proton packs look all right.  While they will never compare to the original for me, I’m still willing to give Feig’s “Ghostbusters” a go. After all, you can’t judge a book by its cover and I’m curious to see Dan Aykroyd supports the new film so much.

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So tell me, what do you think of Feig’s take on “Ghostbusters”?