I’m slightly apprehensive about it not being set in New York, which was a character in the other films. It’s one of a few cities in the world with that quality. I’m not sure some random small town can fill in for it.
Any place can be a character. It just takes an understanding of the place and a good writer. Some place-characters are easier to write than others, though.
The Real Ghostbusters also accounts for a HUGE chunk of the origin Ghostbusters Fandom, far more than Ghostbusters II really, and that show had some really striking scary stuff amidst the 'Slimer bothers Peter' gags.
Which speaks a bit to having
good writing. The Real Ghostbusters had JMS on a whole mess of episodes - the guy who went on to do Babylon 5, and effectively changed how genre shows were plotted forever afterwards...
Sure, be funny, but try to be more than that.
The critique I'm seeing float around, which probably has some merit, is that the first was actually a science fiction movie that happened to be performed by some of the funniest people in the business at the time. The second movie was written as a comedy, with some sci-fi elements.
I think the 2016 movie honestly tired to aim for the sci-fi by funny people idea, but a lot of folks got too wrapped up in the all-female cast to enjoy it.
This trailer makes me think they are leaning to a slightly different scifi - "Kids on bikes". The question remains how funny they can get...
The World of the Ghostbusters is vast enough that you can set stories in all sorts of cities and each city can be its own new character and add its own flavour.
I think even a small Oklahoma town can have its flavor... if the writers pay attention to it.
A proton pack isn't Excalibur! The point is that any shlob can pick it up and start busting (with the correct training).
Correct training? Um... the entire first movie is comedic in part because they had no frelling idea what they were doing! Ghostbusters
bumble their way through, training or not.
Ghostbusters are basically pest control, not Chosen Ones.
Well, given the title, and the cameos... I'm guessing it is less "Chosen Ones" and more like, "We ghosts of the originals now have to find someone to clean up a mess, and if you can't haunt family, who can you haunt?"