Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
The latest money grab in the Ghostbusters series will leave you cold
Finn Wolfhard, Carrie Coon, Paul Rudd, and Mckenna Grace try to resurrect this dead franchise.
After fixing all the ghost problems in Oklahoma, the remaining Spengler family heads back to New York to restart The Ghostbusters. They move into the firehouse, dust off the Ecto-1, and start blasting their proton packs all over New York City.
Unfortunately for the new Ghostbusters, an old nemesis is waiting for them. Former EPA agent Walter Peck (William Atherton) is now the Mayor of Manhattan, and he’s just as committed to shutting down the Ghostbusters as he was in the 80s. He forces teen Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) off the team and tells the remaining group they are one incident away from jail.
That incident comes up rather quickly. A mysterious frost seems to be agitating the ghosts in New York. On top of that, the old ghost containment field that Egon built 40 years ago is beginning to fail. With girl genius Phoebe sidelined, it’s up to the rest of the team to figure out how to stop these disasters.
Who you gonna call? Nostalgia!
At least this one doesn’t commodify Harold Ramis’ death to sell toys, I guess. Director Gil Kenan takes over the reins on this wildly stupid sci-fi comedy. It’s clear everyone involved in this movie remembers the Ghostbusters franchise of old and decided to mine every last cent out of it with this lazy, terribly written cash grab.
The problem with this movie (and its predecessor) is that it hamstrings itself with its own legacy. Without the nostalgia porn it pedals to millennials who desperately want to believe the 80s was 20 years ago, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has nothing to say. It tries to assert that the first and second films happened, even showing us footage from the Ray Parker Jr. music video of the theme song. This means that at some point in 1989, the Statue of Liberty walked down the streets of Manhattan, and yet…everyone forgot about the Ghostbusters until some teenagers found a proton pack in Oklahoma.
I find it hard to believe that Lady Liberty taking a stroll past Midtown wouldn’t have legitimized the Ghostbusters to even their harshest critics. In fact, I’m curious as to how a Department of Paranormal Security wasn’t formed the next day by the government. But The Ghostbusters only works if the central characters are a band of plucky outsiders, and since these new films have no interest in doing anything but rehashing the plotlines of the first film and throwing out references for older viewers to gobble up like trained seals, we’re stuck with a basic premise that makes no sense at all.
The other glaring issue the franchise has is the cast of 20 main characters, none of whom have any real reason to interact. The “Old Guard” is toddled out for a few scenes — Bill Murray mumbles something sarcastic, Dan Aykroyd babbles out exposition, and Ernie Hudson has created a shadow Ghostbusters agency that conveniently pops up when our heroes need it. Then there’s the new guard. The Spengler family, though incredibly irritating, have a reason to be in the movie at least. It’s curious, however, why the film brings back Podcast (Logan Kim), who notably no longer podcasts, and creepily has worked out a deal where he lives in Ray Stantz’s basement. Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) also shows up because…she must have signed on for two films.
And just when you think you vaguely remember who all these poorly written characters are, Kenan adds about six more. It’s a blur of fast-talking nonsense, punctuated by appearances from Stay Puft mini-marshmallow monsters and Slimer. The whole film feels like a head injury.
Even the supposed heart of the film doesn’t work. The Spengler family is a total mess. Phoebe, the clear successor to Egon, is brilliant, but also an insufferable brat. She throws tantrums when she doesn’t get her way and yells misogynist insults at her mother constantly. It’s not a cute look for the new face of the franchise. The only redeeming part of her storyline is a quasi-romance with a girl ghost that is subtle enough that the producers can easily edit out the gay undertones and still market the movie in Asia and the Middle East. Her brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) is now 18, which is his defining character trait. Ninety percent of his dialogue is about being 18, which makes the fact that Wolfhard is sidelined with the C-plot of this film a mercy. As for the parental figures, Gary and Callie (Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon), spend most of the movie in an after school special about blended families.
But the most disappointing part of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is that Walter Peck is yet again proven to be right. He was right in the 80s when he pointed out Egon’s containment system was a disaster waiting to happen. And he’s right in 2024, when he says that Phoebe is too young to be a Ghostbuster. Though she may be the most precocious girl genius since Hermione Granger, every single decision she makes causes harm and chaos to her family and the city of Manhattan.
You can’t make Walter Peck right, guys, it’s a total bummer.
Verdict: This movie should be exorcised from the franchise.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is rated PG-13 and available in theaters.
