Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Movie Review

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

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Written by: Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman, Ivan Reitman (based on the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" by), Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis (based on the 1984 film "Ghostbusters" written by)
Directed by: Gil Kenan
Starring: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton
Rated: PG-13
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Plot
When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.

Verdict
I'm as big a Ghostbusters fan as anyone, but this movie feels like a blatant first step at monetizing the franchise. While it pulls many scenes, characters, and lines from the original movie, they always feel like a ploy, not an homage. This throws a lot of characters and CGI at the audience in an attempt to cover a lackluster story. At least Afterlife had emotional weight. There's never any reason to care about this movie or the characters. It's overstuffed and never slows down to create any memorable moments. This feels like Ghostbusters fan-fiction with an enormous budget.
Skip it.

Review
The Ghostbusters franchise seems poised to released more sequels. Jason Reitman setup a Ghostbusters focused production company, Ghost Corps, in 2015 to oversee the universe. I knew I wouldn't like Ghostbusters: Afterlife as much as the original Ghostbusters, but it did bridge a nearly forty year gap. I predicted Frozen Empire would be less likable. Unfortunately I was correct. This movie seems to follow the big budget franchise  movie playbook. It's a lot of style and CGI with very little substance and lots of bloat.

This evokes so many aspects from the original movies from characters and locations to dialog and music queues. They feel like copying instead of homage. For all the mimicry this does, it never feels as grounded as the original movie. We never saw the original crew driving around New York causing so much collateral damage. It never had silly ghost pursuits. CGI is what allows this movie to execute such scenes, but it's too much freedom. This movie doesn't have to be creative with practical effects, and that creates a disconnect from reality. There's the question of what this movie wants to be. It brings in too many elements from the original two movies to stand on it's own, but the style and tone, the most crucial elements, are lost. The endless budget hinders creativity. Detrimentally, this relies on the images alone to impress.

There's family turmoil as the Spenglers have moved into the firehouse and continue capturing ghosts. This uses the tired trope of Phoebe (McKenna Grace) being stuck in the middle. She's not young, but she's not old enough to be an adult. This causes her to turn elsewhere for validation.

Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, McKenna Grace play Gary, Callie, Trevor, Phoebe

Winston (Ernie Hudson) is the movie's easy button. His wealth provides whatever is needed in a given scene. This movie feels like fan fiction with the lack of obstacles and the number of children. They're also so many subplots. This movie could easily cut half an hour and be better for it. While it's fun to see Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson, it's not the homage I want. Also, count how many times characters state "in the nineties."

The antagonist is the evil spirit Garraka. Its plan hinged on not only predicting how Phoebe would react, but also knowing how the Ghostbuster's equipment works. It's flimsy. Garraka's main purpose is to show off the movie's CGI. This follows modern big budget movies by relying heavily on digital effects while being light on story.

William Atherton, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Paul Rudd, Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, Bill Murray

The 1984 movie was humorous and smart as characters dealt with other worldly circumstances. This movie tries to do everything, but it doesn't have the foundation. It's difficult to match Bill Murray in his prime. He ad-libbed many of his lines, but this franchise has the resources to create a solid story. The Slimer scenes could be cut without losing anything. It's clear Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) is a Louis Tully type character, but we get too much of that character. Worse than that, he's not very funny or interesting. Ray was the heart of the Ghostbusters in the original movie, but here he's more of the weird uncle. This movie tries to do everything but doesn't do any one thing well. It never slows down enough to create truly great moments, but I think that's also a problem with not having any moments that rise to the occasion.