Ghostbusters 2 (1989) - 5 questions

Question: When the Ghostbusters went on trial, did they CHOOSE to waive their right to trial by jury and be tried by the judge? Given the obvious bias of this judge against them, if I were them, I would certainly not have waived my right to a jury trial.

Answer: Violating a restraining order is regarded as Contempt of Court, and thus is not subject to trial by jury.

Question: It seems like the character of Winston (the fourth Ghostbuster) has very little screen time in this movie. He was in a few scenes in the beginning, then kind of disappears for a while, then shows up again after the court room incident. Was there a reason why his character wasn't in the movie more?

Answer: Winston was an employee of the other Ghostbusters, not a "professional paranormal investigator" like the other three. When they're looking into Dana's problem, they're doing it not in a professional ghostbusting capacity, but as a favor to a friend. Once the judge lifted the restraining order and they were back in business, they were able to hire him back.

Question: What exactly happened to the Ghostbusters between the first film and this film? Why was a restraining order taken out against them?

Answer: After the initial high of saving the city from Gozer wore off, they were blamed for the danger in the first place and sued out of business. The restraining order was additional insult to injury.

Question: At the end, how did they vanquish Vigo? As far as I could tell all they did was blast him with their Proton Packs and Slime gun.

Answer: Yup, that's pretty much it. They were unable to defeat him with the proton packs alone because his power was being boosted by the mass of negative energy from the slime that had been building up beneath the city. By spraying him with their positively charged slime (as Ray mentions later) they are able to negate that effect. The proton packs then force him back through the dimensional gate that had opened within the painting.

Question: I recently saw Ghostbusters 2 on Spike TV. when the broadcast came to the point where Winston is pulled into the river of slim, before Vigon and Ray, I noticed the river of slime looked odd. It was as the river had been shrunken down, or the Ghostbusters were enlarged. Am I crazy? If I am not, then why would they make such a trivial alteration?

Answer: SpikeTV didn't alter the movie except for editing for time and content. The scene you saw was in the original film and the way the river looked was a combination of two things, the camera angle and the poor special effects of the time.