Ever since the Ghostbusters trapped their first spirit, it seemed that no matter how hard Hollywood tried, they just couldn’t capitalise on a franchise. However, while the gang of Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, Zeddemore and Melnitz floundered in subsequent cinematic adventures (I never really cared that much for Ghostbusters II) and a well meaning, all-female reboot that kind of missed the humour, the team strangely thrived elsewhere, with the fun, 80s cartoon, The Real Ghostbusters leading a charge of animated series, video games and comics that’s stretched for nearly forty years.
Things changed somewhat in 2021, when Jason Reitman, son of original director, Ivan, gave us Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a belated sequel armed with a proton pack overloaded with heavy-handed nostalgia that actually managed to recapture some of the dead-pan wonder of the first movie while adding a dash of Spielbergian family drama to boot.
With the next installment, Frozen Empire, breezing onto screens, can the efforts of two generations of Ghostbusters manage to keep that winning streak going?
We rejoin the Spengler family now as full fledged Ghostbusters as they roar through the streets of New York, blasting proton streams at a spectral creature from the gunner seat of ECTO-1. However, after the the youngest member, Phoebe, manages to cause a significant amount of damage while catching the ghost, the mayor of the city – a certain Ghostbuster hating individual named Walter Peck – uses this as a perfect opportunity to shut the operation down unless Phoebe is removed from the team.
While she is understandably pissed at this turn of events, the Ghostbusters business has since grown exponentially since we last saw it. While the Spenglers (mother Callie, her boyfriend Gary and her moody son, Trevor) have been doing the leg work, OG ‘Buster Winston Zeddemore has since become a successful entrepreneur with deep pockets and has been bankrolling a research station to explore the supernatural even closer.
It’s a good job too, because lurking on the horizon Garraka is a new, ghostly, big bad who has its glowy eyes set on using its ice powers to freeze all of New York solid with pure fear. However before he can do that, he’ll have to escape his brass, orb, prison first that’s recently been sold to one Raymond Stantz by two-time loser, Nadeem Razmasdi. Able to contact other ghosts from the confinement of his small quarters, Garraka tries to manipulate matters under the very noses of gang of Ghostbusters utterly distracted by their own, familial issues. So while Phoebe meets someone who gets her, Gary and Callie figures out their boundaries and Trevor wrestles with a familiar green ghost squatting in the attic, Garraka finally makes his move…. eventually.
I always get a little nervous when Sony – a studio that seems dead set on ritualistically murdering each and every franchise that they own on the alter of ka-ching – gets ready to release another tent pole sequel into a crowded marketplace as it usually means to be an invitation for disapointment as they drive yet another OP deep into the cold, cold ground. Well, while I would debate that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire isnt the told disaster that some are claiming, I do concede that the movie fails to properly capitalize on the genuinely sweet nature of Afterlife.
The problem is that the script, which still ferociously deals out vast waves of nostalgia, is completely unwilling to jettison any of the established characters – both new and classic – in order to give the story any from to breathe and each of them come complete with their very own arc to try and squeeze in before those end credits roll. Let’s start with the Spengler family first as you’d expect the movie to focus mostly with them, but in the crowded shuffle of characters that often resembles the New York subway at rush hour, they are mostly sidelined in favour of feeding the bloated ensemble. As a result, after the rousing opening which sees the family take down a blue, writhing, baracuda-faced wraith, the plot threads involving Paul Rudd’s Gary, Carrie Coon’s Callie and Finn Wolfhard’s Trevor (and by extension, a cameoing Slimer), feel so translucent, they could be mistaken for spirits themselves. The same goes for Ligan Kim’s Podcast who is shifted along to be a sidekick to Dan Ackroyd’s Ray and Celeste O’Connor Lucky who is bundled away to work at Winston and Janine’s secret ghost lab with James Ascaster’s new boffin character, Lars. You already can see that the plot is steadily groaning under the sheer weight of cast members it has to cater for, and when you add new characters played by Patton Oswalt and Kumail Nanjuani, an extended Bill Murray cameo, a ghostly relationship between Phoebe and Emily Alyn Lind’s friendly apparition and a whole new clutch of fearsome ghosts to introduce, then something obviously is going to give.
Taking the hit is movie’s sense of forward motion which, to put it bluntly, is as stone dead as any of the Spooky entombed in the Ghostbuster’s overloaded containment unit. The result is similar to some of the character demands encounter by the similarly densely populated Jurassic Park: Dominion and when Frozen Empire reaches the one hour mark, you’d be forgiven for wondering why the film technically feels like it hasn’t even started yet as it tries to share out plot duties among its crammed ensemble instead of simply not including them at all. I could name at least six cast members whose services are arguably not required and if they were removed, would make the action flow a lot sooner.
Still, I’m still an adoring Ghostbuster at heart, and I have to be honest, watching the new and old cast mingle and share trademark wisecracks in that laidback Ghostbuster way still kept me happily watching even though nothing really happens until the latest twenty minutes. Does the return of the masochistic Mini Stay Pufts make no real sense after Gozer was vanquished last time? No. Am I pleased to see them nonetheless. Sure. And random new tech is similarly cool despite barely featuring (by the way, would the Ghostbusters’ thermal coats technically be called Ray Parker Jrs?).
If you aren’t quite as enamored of the whole Ghostbusters atmosphere as I was then Frozen Empire will probably end up being a bit of a slog and is worth pressing on that plunger to send one of those stars from the rating spiraling into your nearest ghost trap. But even a die-hard fan like me has to admit that in this instance, that even though bustin’ makes still me feel good, maybe we should focus solely on the Spenglers next time…
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