"GB2's Struggles"
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I remember the smell of the popcorn that faithful day. For five years, we had waited for the second installment of the Ghostbusters series, and it was finally time; I will never forget that day. But from that opening day, Ghostbusters 2 (which, before Scream 2 was the fastest grossing sequel of all time) was looked upon as somewhat of a failure. Why? I have two theories, the first being the fact that there were two movies which seemed to dwarf just about every other genre in the year 1989: little films called Batman and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Two highly successful movies which seem to do what has always happened to poor Dan Aykroyd, dwarf him out of the public eye. You see, many people have blaimed the changes and ultimate cancelation of Real Ghostbusters to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which eventually became the next "phase" in children's entertainment. Heck, even Dan Aykroyd's latest contribution, "Blues Brothers 2000" was dwarfed, or should I say sunk, by a small budget film called Titanic... maybe you've heard of it? So, in my eyes, poor Ghostbusters 2 was the underdog to begin with, and never really had a chance of sweeping over the box office records of 1989.
Secondly, I've always had a theory that sequels never live up to expectations, because after seeing a largely successful movie, we expect too much from the second installment, and are usually awarded with a poorly and quickly written script. Some say that Ghostbusters 2 "forced GB humor down our throats." Which, in a sense, is correct. But fear not fellow ghostheads, I've also noticed a pattern that third installments always seem to make up for the losses. Remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2? It is a classic example of scripts that are written as quickly as possible just to get another movie out while the genre is still fresh in the general public's tastes. It was duely made up for with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3, which was a compelling movie that actually seemed like it had been creatively developed over time and lived up to expectations once again. The same was true for the second and third installments of Back to the Future.
More to come in "Part Two" of "GB2's Struggles"