Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire [Review]
Frozen Empire fails to forge its own identity by relying too heavily on nostalgic callbacks.
Image credit: Sony Pictures
Ghostbusters is my favorite movie. This doesn’t mean I’m predisposed to dislike any sequel. I really want the Ghostbusters franchise to succeed and I want to see more. Ghostbusters: Afterlife wasn’t amazing, but it succeeded at what it needed to do—reintroduce the audience to the world of the franchise and establish new characters to carry it forward. Then we have to ask: what should come next? The answer, unfortunately, is definitely not Frozen Empire.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picks up some time after the previous film. The Spengler family has settled into the iconic firehouse headquarters. Callie (Carrie Coon), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), and ex-science teacher Gary (Paul Rudd) are working together as a well-oiled ghostbusting machine. After capturing the ghostly Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon in a high speed chase through New York City streets, they’re summoned to the mayor’s office—now occupied by our favorite bureaucrat Walter “Dickless” Peck (William Atherton)—to answer for the damage they’ve caused. Peck still has it out for the Ghostbusters, so he decides to bench fifteen year-old Phoebe because she’s a minor doing dangerous work. Meanwhile, slacker Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani), sells an ancient brass orb belonging to his deceased grandmother to Dr. Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), which may contain an ancient evil trapped within—Garraka, a pre-Sumerian god with the power to freeze people to death with fear.
Image credit: Sony Pictures
The plot description makes it sound like this could be a great Ghostbusters adventure. It could have been. However, Frozen Empire is too preoccupied making callbacks to the original film. We have throwaway scenes between classic green ghost Slimer and Finn Wolfhard’s Trevor, who could also have been written out of the film entirely with no effect as his only function is to irritatingly proclaim he’s eighteen and an adult. A cameo by the Librarian Ghost that looks like footage lifted directly out of the original film interrupts and throws off the pace of a genuinely inventive sequence in the New York Public Library featuring one of the film’s best new ghosts, the Possessor. Then one of the library’s stone lions comes to life again. We were already hit with nostalgia in the last film and a sequel like this should be moving forward, not lingering in the past. The movie uses the nostalgia as a crutch, making the movie feel creatively bankrupt. It continuously takes me out of the film like an annoying friend prodding me during the movie to point at the screen and ask, “hey, remember that?”
The only time the movie handles nostalgia in an interesting way was a brief scene that features footage of the Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters music video and original Ghostbusters merchandise as part of a news report. The way those things are couched as part of the in-world Ghostbusters craze from their heyday is smart. If Frozen Empire would have handled its callbacks more like this than the ham-fisted way they played out, it would have been a far better film.
Image credit: Jaap Buitendijk / Sony Pictures
The problem extends to the roles of the original remaining Ghostbusters. Some of their involvement works. The idea of Winston (Ernie Hudson) now being the wealthy benefactor of the team and funding paranormal research with Janine (Annie Potts) as his right hand is great; it’s an evolution of the concept that makes sense considering the original members were scientists. Venkman (Bill Murray) has a lab scene that’s genuinely funny. Stantz discovering the macguffin is fine. These characters are still living people in that world. But we already had a passing of the torch in the last film, so their remaining screentime is unnecessary and detracts from time the movie can spend developing the new characters.
Regarding new characters, Patton Oswalt is great as Hubert, a librarian with paranormal interests who is relegated to the library’s basement. Kumail Nanjiani also has some very funny bits and nailed his scenes opposite Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd. They’re wonderful additions to the cast.
Image credit: Jaap Buitendijk / Sony Pictures
The movie is a bit heavy handed with its themes of belonging and finding a home. The way the film explores them makes the tone uneven, ping-ponging between ABC Movie of the Week family drama and funny bits or action. It can’t be fixed by the movie’s (sometimes impressive) practical and CG visual effects.
To be clear, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is not a bad movie. I did have some fun. It’s just very average and not memorable. I hope that whatever Columbia Pictures and Ghost Corps produce next is better and leans less into nostalgia. Maybe for a third film they’ll realize it’s no longer necessary. Maybe next time I won’t be disappointed.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire premieres in theaters on March 22.
