Review: Ghostbusters - Frozen Empire
Review: Ghostbusters - Frozen Empire
It'll Send A Chill Down Your Spine
INTRODUCTION
This is a quick review of the newly released film Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Keep in mind this is but one of the many movies I watch every year, and that whatever initial grade I come up for this film could change for better or worse with time. To better keep up to date with both my thoughts on other movies and if my feelings on this film changed, follow me on Letterboxd.
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THE PLOT
Via Letterboxd: The Spengler family returns to where it all started, the iconic New York City firehouse, to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
QUICK REVIEW
Well all the glitz and glam of the Oscars has vanished over the last two weeks, and after catching up to some smaller new releases to log on my Letterboxd, I decided it was time to start doing some written reviews again for the newsletter. And look at that, over the next two weeks we have major blockbuster franchise releases that feature “Empire” in their title, so lets begin with this weekend’s new entrant to what has been a rough start for film in 2024 (Putting aside the spectacular Dune: Part Two).
That entrant is Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the fifth movie of the franchise and the fourth in the main series. A direct follow-up to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife which was met with okay critical reviews and good audience reception. A movie that I came away mixed to positive on as I found it basically used nostalgia towards the final act to cover up all of its weaknesses. Would this new entry not rely on such a thing?
Fat chance. We live in a world where a repeat of another disastrous Trump administration is (currently) looking likely as swing voters have nostalgia for an Economy that in their minds was better than it actually was, and a world where the entire cast of all the Jurassic Park films signed up to end the Jurassic World trilogy with more of a whimper than a bang but audiences ate up the nostalgia bait it offered.
Realizing how much the previous entry in this franchise’s final act worked with audiences, the studio heads approved a script (What little actual script there is with this movie) that leaned into that nostalgic sentiment and fan-service through its entire runtime this go-around. The cast is so big that no one truly gets a chance to shine here, but at least the fans will get what they want in seeing the the original cast of the first two entries have a few scenes here or there.
The story itself might be the laziest plot I’ve seen for any film in the franchise. We spend nearly ninety-minutes wondering what’s behind a certain mystical trinket and the regular-joe who gave it to our protagonists to investigate. All leading to a third act filled with not awful, but also not great CGI just so we can see the old Ghostbusters gang suit up for what I would hope is the last time. The new characters by the way also don’t add much here.
It may sound like I outright disliked this movie because I’m harping on all of its weaknesses, but I still came away liking it. But liking it in the way you walk away from a fast food meal, more than the feeling of walking away from a great sit-down dining experience. I admittedly chuckled more than a few times at some of the jokes, and as much as I criticize the nostalgia it did work on me in a few scenes. I can also see the hardcore fans enjoying this for what it is, and I’m genuinely happy for them that they have one more entry to add to their favorite franchise’s entry of films. General audiences can easily turn their brain off an take this in as mindless popcorn entertainment for the whole family.
Overall I don’t think Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gave me a good reason for its existence, but like Jurassic World: Dominion I’d be lying if I wasn’t charmed by the movie a couple times. And like that up-tenth sequel to a franchise living off an iconic original, the nostalgia bait will either entertain you or have you bored and rolling your eyes. I give Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire the same grade I gave its predecessor, an initial soft grade of B-.
INTIAL GRADING
