There's a fair degree of political issues involved with this film. I have a very good friend who is a very committed to feminism and advancing the cause of gender equality. She and I have spoken at length about the barriers women in Hollywood face -- and they are many, make no mistake. On the whole, we see eye to eye on these issues and the need for more roles played by women of all age ranges, rather than the assumption that only a man can play the role. Likewise, the need for more women in production and behind-the-camera roles.
All that said, I think I managed to get her to understand my general disregard for this new Ghostbusters. Initially, she was jazzed about it because women were stepping into four previously male-held roles, which she thought was good. However, when I explained to her the backstory for how this movie was greenlit, how it was basically just Paul Feig gender flipping the roles, rather than creating a role for women, and how -- on top of all that -- he'd tossed out the continuity to make room for new continuity and then basically recreated the old one, she began to see my point. She's still happy that women are being given a chance to perform in a major franchise film, in roles that usually would've defaulted to men, but she's less enthused when she hears that Chris Hemsworth is basically being reduced to "beefcake." Likewise, she's less enthused to learn that the film basically came about solely because the studio wanted the current "golden boy" of Hollywood to be attached to the project, gave him carte blanche, and he basically decided to just do his usual stuff.
Most people online who are super invested in the womenness of this film are, I think, not like my friend, just as I am not like most of the people online who are against what is seen as likely the lazy tokenism behind this film. But hey, that's the intarwebz.
