Evolution: The Ghostbusters Movie We Forgot We Had

It’s fair to say that Paul Feig’s 2016 Ghostbusters reboot was met with mixed responses. The film was unfairly doomed from the start, with people criticising its mere conception as being a ‘gimmick,’ others claiming it to be a desperate attempt by feminists to ruin their childhoods. Even when its first trailer was release people were quick to judge. People feared the film would rely heavily on easy jokes and nostalgia.

Many felt that Ghostbusters was a franchise that should remain untouched and with the industry’s current trend of dragging old classics back from the dead kicking and screaming it is understandable. Michael Bay’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a prime example of this, as well the TV revival of MacGyver shows it can fail on the small screen too.

The 1984 original is quintessential 80’s and is a cornerstone of many of our childhoods but we forget about Ghostbusters 2. We look at the 1989 sequel through rose tinted glasses. It suffered from the same issues as its remake, how it lacked charm, wit and overused special effects. We even neglect the expansion of the franchise with the ‘The Extreme Ghostbusters’ cartoon series which served as a reboot/sequel to the series.

We waited years for a third Ghostbusters film. Aykroyd even had a potential script for a sequel, revolving around the team being transported to a hellish version of Manhattan (comically named Manhellton) however this storyline was later adapted for 2009’s Ghostbusters: The Game, which would fundamentally serve as the closest we’d get to Ghostbusters III as after this development slowed to a snail’s pace, clearing the way for the studio to move forward with a reboot.

However, we got a Ghostbusters movie back in 2001. Now bear with me, imagine Ghostbusters but with aliens. You may be thinking “What are you on about? It can’t be Ghostbusters if there aren’t any ghosts,” that may be true but the film sci-fi comedy Evolution follows many of the beats and themes of the original two movies.

Firstly, what is Evolution about? In short, the movie follows scientists and community college professors Dr. Ira Kane and Harry Block as they discover extraterrestrial single-cell organisms from a recently crashed meteorite. The two, with the help of trainee firefighter Wayne Gray, proceed to research its development, growth and subsequent attacks on the town’s locals. The military then intervenes and block any further involved. Among the army’s research team is Dr. Allison Reed who initially despises Kane but gradually comes to fall for him. The military involvement eventually backfires, causing the alien species’ evolution to accelerate and grow exponentially, threatening all of humankind. The ragtag team then band together to defeat the monster from outer space, saving the day and the human race from extinction.

So where do the similarities lie? Immediately I should point out the film was directed by Ivan Reitman, director of the first two Ghostbusters, who reportedly went about rewriting much of the story, turning it from a science-fiction horror into a comedy, a fact that alone raises a few flags. Next, let us break down the characters.

The leads Ira Kane, played by David Duchovny, and Geologist Harry Block, portrayed by Orlando Jones, embody many of the same traits of the 1984 film’s main characters. Obviously, Kane is a parallel o Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman. Casual and cocky, he spends much of his time not taking his academic job seriously and acting ‘cool.’ Another clear correlation revolves around the clumsy government scientist Allison Reed whose relationship with Ira matches that of Peter Venkman and Dana Barrett in the Ghostbusters series, initially finding him annoying and repulsive, the cocky lead coming to conclusion she’s attracted him long before she actually shows any signs of interest and by the end she is madly in love with him.

Harry Block, however, is a combination of Ray and Egon, as well as some of Venkman. Like Ray and Egon, Harry maintains a far more serious demeanour about the situation they are in but like Peter Venkman is retrospectively creepy and quite pervy towards his students. In Ghostbusters 1, Venkman conducts an ESP test on two students but rigs the test, favouring the female participant and shocking the male participant, even when he gets the questions right. In Evolution, Block constantly checks out his students and talks about getting ‘extra credit.’ The character even admits to often showering with the women’s volleyball team that he coaches.

Seann William Scott (who surprising wasn’t playing a Stifler-esque character) represents the most under-appreciated Ghostbuster, Winston Zeddemore. Like Winston, his character Wayne Gray was not an expert in a scientific field, the wannabe firefighter was an outsider, an everyman who the audience could relate to more.

The characters weren’t the only aspect of Evolution that was eerily familiar, the plot of the comedic sci-fi flick followed many of the same beats and plot points as its supernatural predecessor. One of the earliest comparisons is their first contact with a creature and their complete lack of ability to handle the situation, the Ghostbusters facing off against Slimer in a hotel and destroying an entire ballroom in the process, and the ‘Alienators’ (that’s just what we’ll call them for argument’s sake) hunting down a pterodactyl type alien in a shopping Mall and calling out “Ca-Caw Ca-Caw” and “Tookie Tookie” in an attempt to communicate. Then there is possibly the largest similarity between the franchises, a complete disdain for government intervention. In both cases, when the state gets involved they make things much worse and it’s up to the heroes to clean up the mess. In Ghostbusters, it is a representative of the Environmental Protection Agency that shuts down their containment unit, releasing a multitude of spirits to terrorise the city. In Evolution, the military takes over the site and eventually decide to bomb the alien with napalm, which causes it to grow. Both films take a clear stance on the government, believing them to be incompetent. Finally, both band of heroes must face off a giant monster, either a blob or the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, which once defeated exploded and covered the main characters in the goop of their vanquished foe. Dan Aykroyd even makes an appearance as the Governor for Arizona near the film’s end.

The similarities don’t just stop at the movies. Evolution even had a cartoon spin-off too. Like the Ghostbusters cartoons, its branding relied heavily on the films’ logo and even copied the original animation’s use of Slimer by having a small alien pet, G.A.S.S.I.E, to act as a series mascot.

Now, this is hardly a shocking revelation, since its release Evolution has been compared to Reitman’s previous work by many critics. An article by the Hollywood Reporter even stated that the movie’s original screenwriter Don Jakoby had referred to it as ‘Ghostbusters 2001’ and said that Reitman was simply looking to recapture the momentum of the glory days of his career.

Evolution wasn’t perfect, or even spectacular, but it was still an enjoyable film despite its flaws and silliness. It could never be as good as its source material, of course, but it was still a run ramp about fighting aliens and government officials. Did it have some dumb, childish jokes? Sure, it was PG-13 but go back and watch Ghostbusters II and tell me that wasn’t filled with bad jokes. For me, Evolution would come somewhere just before the first two originals and above Feig’s 2016 reboot, whose theme song was a Fall Out Boy cover of the Ray Parker Jr classic while Evolution main song was ‘Play that funky music’ by Wild Cherry.

In the end, Ivan Reitman’s Evolution was a casual rehash of The Ghostbusting classic and, well, do we even really care? Some modern films have even lazier writing but we still flock to see them because we know they’ll entertain us, they won’t change our lives but we’ll get a kick out of it and that was the case of the 101 minutes of 2001’s Evolution.