Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – A Drowned Out Sequel

The second attempt to bring the Ghostbusters franchise back for a modern audience (2016’s poorly received female reboot being the first), 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a requel to 1989’s Ghostbusters II, fared much better by plotting a new path through the family of then Ghostbuster Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis, star and co-writer of Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters II with fellow costar Dan Aykroyd). The highlight of Afterlife was easily the dynamic of the new Spengler family and Mckenna Grace’s scene-stealing performance as the youngest member of the family, Phoebe Spengler. Set in a rural Oklahoma town, it was only a matter of time until the franchise went back to where it all started, therefore the second post-credit scene foreshadowed a return to New York City, the home of the Ghostbusters. Setting up a new universe, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire picks up from there and with the assist of a few familiar characters, gives the Spenglers a derivative coming-of-age story through the lens of yet another crisis where they had to come together in order to save the day. For a family that could never seem to find their place, they had to do it again in the most predictable of ways. There may been other stuff sprinkled in that could hold some appeal for audiences, but most of it doesn’t matter for the most part. While there is a decent amount of fun to be had here, it could have been so much more.

As mentioned, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire saw Callie Spengler (Coon), her boyfriend Gary Grooberson (Rudd), and her children, Trevor (Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Grace), in New York City and living out of the notorious firehouse as the new team of Ghostbusters. Just like the old team, they were rough around the edges but they got the job done. Often leaving plenty of damage in their wake, they also ruffled their fair share of feathers, including that of Mayor Peck (William Atherton), a man who’s always had it out for the Ghostbusters. Meanwhile, a kid whose knowledge and curiosity was beyond her years, Phoebe was brought back to reality as her age was put into question, now finding herself benched. Getting the chance to be her age for the first time, what started as soul-searching became more. Once again taking the forefront of this film, she would ultimately be the key to the final outcome. The rest of the Spengler family, Gary included, spent most of the time on the sidelines whenever they were not delivering the occasional quip as Gary continued to find his place within the family. The contributions from the returning characters from Afterlife were also minimal at best. In the end, looming over everyone was a mysterious brass orb that unleashed an evil entity with an irrelevant origin and mythology that threatened New York City by shrouding it in a layer of ice.

When it came to the overall ghost busting operation, it has seen quite a few upgrades and advancements since audiences saw it last. Starting with buying back the firehouse, Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson), putting his wealth and impressive ressources behind that new technology and a new lab designed to house and study ghosts. Finding itself in the lap of the now possessed item collector, Ray Stantz (Aykroyd), it was only a matter of time until the orb got to Winston’s ghost lab and officially be unleashed. There’s nothing like a life or death crisis to bring all the characters and subplots together. This was easily when the film was at its best, however, it took way too long to get there. With Peter Venkman (Bill Murray) and Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) along with the other legacy characters to round out the film’s forced nostalgia trip, the climax wasn’t exactly what it was built up to be either, trying to force the past and the present through too tight a space created by its derivative and convoluted script, that moment, nor the film as a whole, just couldn’t deliver. Had the script seen some editing and found a more focused path for the story, it would have easily fared better as the charm and the laughs are simply not there.

Technically speaking, the film is fine yet unremarkable, using a combination of practical and CGI effects to create its ghosts and ghostified environments. While its opening sequence brought excitement, that excitement essentially ended there (though the end of the films appears to foreshadow more in a potential sequel). Ultimately, the best part of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was the performances of Grace and Aykroyd as two characters who did not want to grow up and give up what they loved to do. Grace, as she did with Afterlife, carries this sequel with much of that same charm and energy. That likeability still worked here, making her a decent anchor to it all. Unfortunately, she can barely keep her head above water as the film insisted on drowning her under a superfluous tidal wave. Once that wave made it to shore, it merely forces all those pieces together. Similar to Grace, Aykroyd was an absolute delight. Stentz’s sheer joy and passion was infectious as he was faced with the backend of his life. He didn’t want to grow up and move on. Like Grace, his part was far too small in relation to what he actually contributed to the story, helping to connect all the pieces together.

At the end of the day, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a misfire that whose mess of a story, watered down by a reliance on quantity over quality.

still courtesy of Sony Pictures

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Keith Noakes

The EIC of the coincidentally-named keithlovesmovies.com. A Canadian who prefers to get out of the cold and into the warmth of a movie theatre.