Peop;e weren’t quite ready in the summer of 1984 when GHOSTBUSTERS hit theaters and took the world by storm, proving to be one of the most successful comedies of all time, and spawning at least one original sequel… that is until there was an attempt at a reboot it in 2016.. but the reboot didn’t quite work out as the all female cast didn’t spark with audiences, and the humor in that version of the film just never clicked. Then in the summer of 2021, after a slight delays due to Covid, we got another opportunity at a sequel called GHOSTBUSTERS AFTERLIFE, which paired original GHOSTBUSTERS writer and Director Ivan Reitman with his son, Jason Reitman, and delivered us a new cast of younger players, while still incorporating what was left of the original cast, and delivering a very warm and touching tribute to the recently departed Harold Ramis. Now in 2024, we’re getting yet another GHOSTBUSTERS sequel that follows up after the events of AFTERLIFE, this one being called GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE.
The new movie picks up where AFTERLIFE left off, this time finding our heroes back in New York City, and becoming the newest versions of regular Ghostbusters, even operating out of the original fire house that the film used way back in 1984. The new movie focuses primarily on the new cast, although we do get some glimpses of the original players here and there, mostly Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson, although Annie Potts and Bill Murray do show up… used sparingly… One could probably make the argument that Murray’s scenes were all shot in a day or so, as he’s just not in it all that much. But that’s sort of understandable at this point as the fact they can get Murray to come back and do one of these movies at all is probably a blessing. The new movie also focuses on a villain that has the power of freezing people to death, and it’s trapped inside a supernatural sphere. If that sphere is unlocked, and this evil presence is set free, he could potentially freeze the world to death, and there would be no one that could stop him. So our team has to rally together and figure out a way to bring this guy’s evil plans to a stop, while also meeting someone who might just be the modern day version of a firemaster, and possibly the only person that can stop this evil threat.
FROZEN EMPIRE definitely delivers a lot of fan service, to the point of feeling like it’s overkill at times, or at the very least an example of people sitting around and saying “What can we do to make the fans happy in this particular scene?” While I appreciate the fact that they deliver fan service in this movie, at times it does seem to be a bit in your face and unnecessary, and it’s coupled with the realization that there are a lot of characters here to keep up with, including a few that probably could’ve been left out of the film altogether. For example, Patton Oswalt has a small role in the movie as an authority on supernatural lore, and while I love Patton Oswalt and was very happy to see him in this movie, they really didn’t need to have yet another character added to the story – almost all of his lines of dialogue could’ve been given to either Dan Aykroyd, or one of the existing characters and it would’ve worked just fine. We also get Kumail Nanjiani as a new character in the film, and again while I really like Kumail as an actor, I don’t know that the character was that necessary for the story, it really just kind of complicates things beyond what they needed to be.
The newer characters from the AFTERLIFE story worked pretty well together, and have good chemistry, and Paul Rudd definitely seems to be taking the aduly lead here, although, like the first movie, McKenna Grace as “Phoebe” is really the story’s star character, and the film goes out of its way to give her as many glory moments as possible, at times, sacrificing what could’ve been glory moments for some of the other characters on display. Finn Wolfhard, who had become very popular from STRANGER THINGS, is kind of wasted here, and doesn’t really have a whole lot to do other than a few comic relief moments. There’s also the addition of a new character named “Melody” who is a lingering ghost that befriends Phoebe, but it’s an awkward inclusion that feels uncertain of its existence in the story.
Dan Aykroyd is given more screentime in this one than he was in AFTERLIFE, and it’s nice to see him back in the role of Ray, although he’s kind of played as sort of a bumbling weirdo this time around, rather than a competent guy who has done all this before and should be advising our new heroes on how to go about things. Ernie Hudson gets a few good moments as well, although I was wishing they would’ve given his character a little more meat to, especially considering how in AFTERLIFE he is set up to be a sort of benefactor for what could be an army of mew Ghostbusters, should these films continue. Like I said, Bill Murray and Annie Potts also show up, but are used very sparingly, Murray is given a few comedic quips that sometimes land and sometimes don’t, and Annie Potts doesn’t have a whole lot of dialogue, though it’s nice to see her back in the role of Janine. One of the most fun additions to this sequel is the return of William Atherton as Walter Peck, the foil from the original movie who in this story is the mayor of New York City! I was happy to see them bring this character back as he works quite well as a human antagonist of the story, although you would think at some point, he would wake up and realize that the Ghostbusters actually are doing good things… he certainly has seen that for himself in the past.
This films directed by Gil Kenan, who has previously helmed movies like MONSTER HOUSE, and is someone I have enjoyed seeing work from in the past. The story is a bit disjointed, and sometimes confusing, and it really does feel like they tried to do a little too much all at once, sometimes hurting the overall script and pacing of the film. The first half of the movie moves relatively slow, sometimes feeling like a real slog, where the second half of the movie seems to pick up and has quite a lot going on, but also ultimately builds up to a big finale that feels quite anti-climactic. In fact, the whole concept of the villain being someone that could freeze the world over and kill everyone by freezing them to death is really exciting, but we don’t see a whole lot of that executed until the final scenes of the movie, and it feels like it was a missed opportunity as they could’ve been building that up the entire time to where they finally reached a point where they had to bring him down or else.
FROZEN EMPIRE feels in someways like GHOSTBUSTERS 2 did in that it’s fun to see these characters back on the big screen, but the magic from the first movie just isn’t quite there, even if the laughs and entertainment value are. I am one of those people that actually really liked GHOSTBUSTERS 2, and thought it was really funny, although it did take me multiple viewings to feel that way, so it’s possible that FROZEN EMPIRE will age better if it’s seen a few more times down the road. But as a follow-up to AFTERLIFE, it does feel like it’s missing some of the quality that the previous film had, or at the very least a little bit of that magic is just not quite there. There are times in this movie when you can tell they are not actually in New York, or they’re just shooting on a soundstage, which is a problem that the original GHOSTBUSTERS movie never seemed to have. There were several scenes in the original film where you could tell they were actually shooting in front of real New York buildings or racing down New York streets in the Ectobile. I had noticed in advance publicity on this film that one of the primary shooting locations was actually the UK, I imagine because tax incentives over there are much better than they are here… I mean let’s face it, shooting in New York can’t possibly be cheap! So there are scenes that have a somewhat odd look to them because they don’t feel as authentic as the original films did, though I do respect them for taking the story itself back to New York City, and away from the farm setting that AFTERLIFE had.
Overall GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is entertaining and fun and does absolutely deliver a lot of satisfying moments for hardcore fans, but is it a good movie? Hard to say, especially considering how originally I didn’t like GHOSTBUSTERS 2, and felt it was just a lazy remake of the first movie, but now when I watch it I find it to be quite fun. FROZEN EMPIRE probably won’t age as well, but it is fun to see these characters back on the big screen, even if the original cast is used a little too sparingly for my taste… I mean let’s face it, in this day of nostalgia being big on the big screen and all these 1980s movies coming back and telling new stories, why is it the filmmakers can’t just give us what we want? Just give us the original characters in exciting moments and give them a really cool sendoff. If you don’t intend to use them moving forward, don’t just pepper them in here and there while giving the new characters all the good scenes. This did happen an AFTERLIFE to some extent, but here it does feel a little more nagging in the end. I don’t want to say this is a upsetting sequel, but it definitely feels like certain things could’ve been handled better.
