Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Starring Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, McKenna Grace, Fynn Wolfhard
Directed by Gil Kenan
In New York City, the new Ghostbusters - former Oklahoma teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), his girlfriend Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), her son Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and daughter Phoebe (McKenna Grace) are busting ghosts in the city against the desire of the town's mayor, who wishes to shut the Ghostbusters business down once and for all. He grounds Phoebe from being a Ghostbuster due to her age, and she struggles with not being able to do what she loves when she befriends a female teenage ghost named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). Trevor is now eighteen and wants to be taken seriously, which involves trying to catch a slippery green slimy ghost that lives in the attic, and Gary and Callie are trying to find a balance between their relationship and being parents as well as busting ghosts.
When an ancient artifact is discovered, it harbors an ancient evil deity that could bring about a new ice age, and once unleashed it wreaks havoc in New York City. Putting their problems aside, the family gathers together - along with the original Ghostbusters Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) and Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) to stop it.
"Ghostbusters: Afterlife" was a great continuation to the franchise that hit a stumbling block with the 2016 female reboot that critics and the majority of audiences hated, but I didn't really find any real issue with it except it took the "Ghostbusters" name - if it was a film about female hunting ghosts without the brand name I think it would've been a success - so having "Afterlife" serve as an exclamation point of sorts for the franchise felt fitting and needed. "Frozen Empire" feels like an unnecessary continuation of that exclamation point and turns it into a question mark, as in asking "why?"
That's not to say it's bad. It's serviceable, the cast is obviously all-in on the concept, the effects are decent and there's even some really scary ghost designs (especially with the big bad). It brings back the legacy characters again, but this time most of them have more to do than just appear in the end. The jokes are funny, the action is exciting, and all in all it's perfectly passable - but not wholly necessary.
The film itself honestly takes its sweet time in bringing the big bad to the big screen, but when he arrives he dominates it. He's frightening, foreboding, and seemingly unstoppable, which would've been cooler if he had come a lot sooner. In the meantime it felt like watching a pilot for a television series that never took off. There's numerous stories that take place at the same time and we go from moment to moment like vignettes that don't cohesively jive. Gary is trying to be more than just a friend to Callie's kids but also a disciplinarian. Callie exists. Trevor plays Wile E. Coyote to Slimer's Roadrunner. There's very little interaction between the family, and honestly apart from the beginning and end Trevor and Phoebe don't even have any shared screentime together.
The film's main focus is Phoebe, played wonderfully by the amazing McKenna Grace, as she deals with being a fifteen-year-old with the brain of an adult who's sidelined due to her age and feels on the outs with everything. She befriends a teenage ghost named Melody and really expresses her teenage angst well.
Some of the OG Ghostbusters have more to do this time around, especially Dan Aykroyd who receives the cursed object from Nadeem, played by Kumail Nanjiani in a role that's strange to say the least - he's the Chekhov's Gun of the film. Ernie Hudson has formed a new center for housing ghosts, while Bill Murray appears in the end to fight the big bad with his homies. Annie Potts even suits up and has an enjoyable time.
That's an ample phrase for this film: enjoyable time. It's not revolutionary, it's not necessary, and thankfully it's not bad. It's just enjoyable. And sometimes that's all you need - even though the main focus of the film took too long to catch on.
Returning to its New York roots and bringing back the legacy characters we all know and love, "Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire" does well with its effects, action, and performances - even if it feels a little forced and unnecessary.
The Score: B+
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