Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – Film Review
I have liked all of the Ghostbusters movies (even the much-maligned 2016 reboot) but Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire really tested me because it’s the weakest of the bunch.
Following on from the events of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Spengler family – mum Callie (Carrie Coon) and teenage kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) – and Phoebe’s teacher-turned-stepfather Gary (Paul Rudd) now live in the Ghostbusters’ iconic New York City firehouse. They are an established and accepted part of the Manhattan community. One day, the family and the wider team are bestowed an ancient orb that contains an evil entity that can freeze everything in its path. Naturally, it escapes its circular prison!
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is trying to do and be too many things at once and ends up spreading itself too thin and not fully realising its ideas. It is over-stuffed, there are too many characters and storylines, and it’s stuck between trying to please fans of the 1980s films and newcomers. Because it’s so caught up in all its storylines, it forgets to push the comedy. There are some laughs here and there but it doesn’t reach the bar set by the previous instalments.
Because there are too many characters, nobody gets much chance to shine. In Afterlife, I thought Grace was hilarious as Phoebe thanks to her lame jokes and her fun friendship with the oddball Podcast (Logan Kim). Podcast is given barely anything to do and nowhere near as many witty lines as last time and Grace’s character has significantly changed. She’s a moody, serious teenager who finds solace in a friendship with a ghost named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). I also detected some possible gay vibes but it’s too subtle to know for sure. Grace is still good but I kinda missed the Afterlife version of Phoebe.
Although it’s called Frozen Empire, we don’t actually get to that situation until the final 30 minutes. It comes in far too late, is resolved far too easily and feels so underwhelming and anticlimactic. I enjoyed it for the majority of the runtime, despite the aforementioned issues, but the weak third act really let it down.
There are some great moments and performances though. Rudd still brings the goods and is the funniest member of the pack. I also liked his subplot of trying to find his new place in the Spengler family. All the family stuff, especially the opening ghost chase, was great but it gets lost in the mix later on. Dan Aykroyd plays a surprisingly substantial character that’s vital to the story whereas the other OGs pop up for fan service and not much else.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is an entertaining family film with a likeable cast – but it lets itself down by trying to please everybody.
In cinemas from Friday 22nd March