Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

 

 

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a sequel to Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) in which we now join the Spengler family home in the classic Ghostbusters firehouse, careening about New York City and catching ghosts. Yet while the Spengler family faces the challenge of bureaucratic red tape a far more deadly threat is on the horizon: a being called Garraka that harnesses the chilling power of fear itself.

 

 The central storyline really builds itself up nicely, over the course of the movie you really feel the genuine threat of Garraka's impending release into the mortal world. The movie opens with an arresting moment of foreshadowing, a segment that spells doom as we are then hurtled into the sort of fun adventure that this more modern take on Ghostbusters is doing so well. Our family team of Spenglers careens through the streets of New York pursuing a ghostly dragon and causing mayhem, what more could you ask for? The way this film threads Garraka's prison and impending release through the story by letting it trade hands through the classic Ghostbusters cast, the new cast and into a new location is really a nice method of linking. All the while Garraka is steadily unveiled and the scale of what he will bring down upon New York is really well depicted, the tension in the lead up to his physical reveal to Phoebe is spectacular. While there were some issues with this subplot I really liked the nature of a ghost like Melody becoming a main character and befriending a Ghostbustser like Phoebe; it was a nice creative step the franchise needed to make.

The movie has a neat style, the camera work often feels very bold and makes use of the iconic locations or New York cityscape. I also felt this film could jump between a flourishing visual effects shot and a more cleverly placed 'scare shot' to up the tension. The visual effects looked really impressive, with a decent amount of variety between all of the ghosts and the ultimate design of Garraka being quite sinister. The score for the feature is the perfect blend of family friendly goof and charm alongside a more gripping sense of foreboding.

 

Paul Rudd, who played Gary Grooberson, was a pretty solid lead once again; Rudd has a very easy-going charm that makes most roles he plays quite charismatic. Mckenna Grace, who played Phoebe Spengler, is one of those character performances that has really defined the new Ghostbusters; the more down and out quality of this role in the sequel Grace tackled candidly while still maintaining a strong connection to what made her role so beloved in Afterlife. Kumail Nanjiani, who played Nadeem Razmaadi, is quite the random comedic role but he works surprisingly well; the real deadbeat loser turned hero trajectory is something Nanjiani has a lot of fun with here. Patton Oswalt, who played Dr. Hubert Wartzki, is only a small role but he leaves a good impression; Oswalt is really good at spinning long exposition and leaving it feeling fun. James Acaster, who played Lars Pinfield, is a whole lot of fun as the new uppity scientist on the Ghostbusters payroll; Acaster really falls into the severity of the role which draws out some great comedy from how he inhabits a scene. Bill Murray, who played Peter Venkman, is so quick with hilarious dialogue delivery that it feels like he never left Ghostbusters; Murry and Nanjiani's scene together is one of the very best in the film given how they play off one another. Dan Aykroyd, who played Ray Stantz, is one of my very favourite performances in this; Aykroyd feels like the heart of the movie and you can see how much he still believes in the magic of Ghostbusters. William Atherton, who played Mayor Walter Peck, is a nice returning minor antagonist; the way he takes to triumphing over the Ghostbusters makes you love to hate him.

However, the best performance came from Emily Alyn Lind, who played Melody. This is a role who wasn't exactly the most front and centre performance but who was a unique concept that really left a strong impression. Lind is really good at starting out quite witty with an edge of mystique to her. She really plays the friendly persona well, her and Grace have some excellent onscreen chemistry with one another. Yet there is this unsettling quality to her, something that makes you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that she is a dangerous person too. I loved her portrayal of grief at not being able to reconnect with her family; this tragic feeling of loneliness she fed into her portrayal. Lind also really presents the conflict between betraying her friend or serving her interests really well. This was such a fresh role for the Ghostbusters universe and it couldn't have been done much better than Lind.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the sort of story that holds a lot of promise but the content within really just doesn't work all that often. The second act was a very tough one to watch because the whole thing is filled with character after character explaining how all the technology worked, the history of Garraka or any other ghost that wandered into frame and even long winded explanations of new characters like the Fire Starter. The whole thing really slowed down because the movie felt like it had to take the time to explain itself in every second scene. For a franchise built on humour I was really surprised by how infrequent and poor the jokes were. This was an objectively funny cast but the dialogue rarely brought a laugh and there were scenes oddly scattered that felt more like skits than the natural flow of scenes. The family dramas of the Spenglers just weren't as interesting this time around; things like the mayor rallying against the Ghostbustsers are played out, causing Phoebe to feel angst because she was benched was over the top, they didn't know what to do with Trevor and Gary trying to find his place in the Spengler family was such a dull storyline. As a whole this is a film with a very exciting true north but it is riddled with some really lousy plot inbetween the 'big moments'.

Carrie Coon, who played Callie Spengler, is a character that really hasn't worked in these modern sequels; Coon plays a very stereotypical mother figure and she isn't great at the more comedic elements of Ghostbusters. Finn Wolfhard, who played Trevor Spengler, just feels like he's poorly placed in this film; watching Wolfhard complain about being taken seriously as an adult while fighting Slimer all film was such a poor use of this performer. Celeste O'Connor, who played Lucky, is inserted back into this film and doesn't really earn her sequel return; O'Connor just plays Lucky in quite a scattershot manner without ever making her feel like she belongs to the story. Logan Kim, who played Podcast, was fun in Afterlife but quite annoying now; Kim's same rapidfire dialogue delivery and in your face screen presence really have lost their charm. Ernie Hudson, who played Winston Zeddemore; delivers so much of his exposition like he's trying to sell me a used car; Hudson's Ghostbuster was always the more boring and this still holds true. Annie Potts, who played Janine Melnitz, never really justifies being back in this sequel; it's quite unclear what role Potts is actually serving and why she's here for any reason beyond nostalgia.

A decent special effects action blockbuster that really struggles to tell a story without cramming exposition down your throat or smashing storylines together like a toddler playing with blocks. I would give Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire a 6/10.