The sun is shining, spring is here, and the long winter is finally over. Yet, there’s a chill in the air and it’s coming from your local multiplex.
The frost-fingered feeling is coming from Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – an ice-covered entry in the GB franchise. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the latest instalment in the series, and for those not keeping track, it opens in UK and US cinemas from today.
Directed and co-written by Gil Kenan, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire stars Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Logan Kim, Celeste O’Connor, Kumail Nanjiani, James Acaster, Emily Alyn Lind, and Patton Oswalt. The film picks up a couple of years after the events of Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) and sees Ghostbusters old and new join forces to save the world from a spooky new Ice Age.
In the movie, New York has a new, active team of Ghostbusters. Callie, Trevor, and Phoebe Spengler, lead the way, along with former teacher Gary Grooberson, and under the watchful eye of ex-Ghostbuster Winston Zeddemore (who bank rolls the outfit), they spend their days bustin’ spooks.
For the most part, the team work well together and are successful at capturing ghosts. However, the city’s Mayor, Walter Peck, is less than impressed with the damage they cause on the job, and is keen to shut them down.
But shutting down the Ghostbusters would mean cutting short a now more expansive operation. Not only do the team operate out of their old firehouse, the Ghostbusters also have another facility in the city which studies ghosts for research purposes.
Meanwhile, while all of this is going on, across town former Ghostbuster Ray Stantz is working in his occult store when he is approached by a seemingly ordinary customer looking to sell a not-so ordinary artefact. The artefact is an ancient sphere which appears to contain a spirit of some kind.
After taking the sphere to the research facility, work begins on trying to uncover its secrets. But what the Ghostbusters will soon discover is the spirit inside is keen to escape and blanket New York City (and then the world) in an endless winter.
Over the past few years, the Ghostbusters franchise has had a bit of a bumpy journey. The 2016 reboot (aka Ghostbusters: Answer the Call) was unfairly torn apart by online trolls and tossed to the wolves, while Ghostbusters: Afterlife was warmly received, but was criticised by some for delivering a little too much fan service at the expense of something new.
No matter what direction this series goes in, it seems it is impossible to please everyone. However, the general consensus is that old is good, and callbacks to the past are welcome.
Or at least that’s what director/writer Gil Kenan and his co-writer Jason Reitman believe, because when it comes to Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire there are a lot of callbacks to the past – and some (myself included) would say it is too many. To be clear, this film is loaded with little in-jokes and references to the previous movies, presumably to delight loyal followers, but it is way more than necessary.
There’s also a lot of everything else in this movie, from characters to plot points, and even Ghostbusters themselves. By the end of the film there around 12 different characters thrown into the mix that could essentially be called Ghostbusters and this is arguably too much for any film to handle.
And this is essentially the problem with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. While this film isn’t terrible by any stretch of the imagination, it is overstuffed with ideas and the end result is a bloated picture with too many moving parts.
Is it rubbish? No. But is it underwhelming and all over the place? Unfortunately, yes.
The key issue with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the movie has its eyes set on ‘franchise’ status. Rather than being a film about something important, or a picture which has something to say, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire appears to exist just to add another new entry to the series.
And because it operates in this way, it essentially becomes a bit of a dumping ground of ideas. Rather than having one idea to hook onto, it attempts too many, and it becomes a poorer film as a result.
During the course of its two-hour runtime, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire throws a lot onto the screen. It starts off by establishing the four new Ghostbusters (Gary, Callie, Trevor, and Phoebe), before going off on various tangents.
One of these tangents is about Phoebe being dropped from the team for being too young. The next is about the Ghostbusters expanding, having a new containment unit, and having access to the aforementioned research facility.
Then there’s the introduction of a new ghost called Melody, the arrival of new technician Lars Pinfield, as well as story beats for Kumail Nanjiani’s character, Nadeem Razmaadi. Plus, the film has to find some space for Lucky Domingo and Podcast – two characters introduced in the previous film.
On top of all this, there’s the return of old faces in the form of Ray Stantz, Winston Zeddemore, Janine Melnitz, and Peter Venkman, as well as a few cameos from fan-favourite spook, Slimer. There are also a couple of other cameos and nods to the past, as well as a few new ghosts.
And for those already feeling overwhelmed, there’s also that pesky plot about an ice-themed ghost looking to freeze the world. The big villain of the movie is tossed at the screen along with everything else, and as you can probably tell by now, something has to give.
As a result of the sheer amount of elements crammed into Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, very few ideas or characters are serviced particularly well. Only Phoebe gets what feels like a proper storyline, and even then it doesn’t feel fully fleshed out.
It’s also worth noting that Phoebe becomes a fairly one-note character, which is a shame considering how great she was in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and how perfect Mckenna Grace is in this role. Unfortunately the same can also be said of all the other newcomers carried over from the previous films (Podcast, Trevor, Callie, etc) who all feel sidelined.
The characters are sidelined and sadly undercooked simply because there isn’t enough time to give everyone what they need to shine. Characters pop up, get a scene here or there, then disappear for a while to allow someone else to have a go.
Yes, it’s great to see the likes of Dan Aykroyd and Co. back on screen as the original Ghostbusters, and it’s nice they stick around for majority of the film, but it comes at the expense of everyone else. The newbies feel like bit players in their own movie, which should not be the case for their second outing, and the film can’t quite decide who to focus on.
One thing’s for sure, the movie certainly doesn’t focus on the chief villain, who appears mostly as an afterthought. The arrival of the icy ghost during the film’s climax is a complete let-down, in what also amounts to a rushed finale.
On a more positive side, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire serves up some nice dashes of humour, the action scenes are fun, and the new ghost designs are enjoyable. There really is no need to wheel out Slimer again or bring back the mini-Marshmallow Men when there are new ghosts to explore, but at least the limited screen time given to new ghosts allows for some nice visuals.
And speaking of visuals, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire looks good and is suitably spooky in places too. There’s nothing mind-blowing on offer I’m afraid, but it conjures up the right atmosphere and tone needed for a Ghostbusters film, meaning some audiences will like what is on offer.
If you like the look of the movie and want something which is entertaining in places, and enjoyable enough, then Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is perfectly fine. Don’t expect anything special and don’t see this as the next must-see movie.
Enjoyable in part, but sadly underwhelming, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is fine as popcorn fodder but don’t go into this with hopes of anything more. In an attempt to appease old fans, while also trying to expand quickly, the movie serves up a confused offering which is unfortunately quite empty and all kind of pointless.
It’s good to see the original Ghostbusters back in action, but bringing the old gang back at the expense of moving the series forward feels like a misstep. If another sequel is to follow, the series must try something new or any future films will be dead on arrival.
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