Synopsis
In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, 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 army of ghosts that casts a death chill upon the city, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.
What We Thought:
Did you like Ghostbusters: Afterlife? Then you will very much enjoy Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. As someone who grew up on the original 1980s flicks, these films are fine to me. I should be the audience they are geared towards considering I am a fan of the franchise, but they skew towards a younger audience and that’s one of the issues I have with these films and legacy sequels in general.
Frozen Empire sees the cast of Afterlife all living in New York City. Yep all of them leave their southern town and move to the Big Apple. Paul Rudd is now living with Carrie Coon and her two teenaged children played by Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard. They are all busting ghosts in NYC until the mayor (a character from the 1980s films) decides they cause too much damage and with Grace’s Phoebe underage, she gets put on ice (pun intended). Of course evil is a brewing in New York and soon the family that busts ghosts together needs reinforcements and in comes the nostalgia.
Friend of The Nerds Templar Martin Lieberman made a good point after the screening and I have to agree with him, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is Jurassic World: Dominion for 2024. Here are the new characters we introduced in the legacy sequels with the fan favorites of the original films. The Spengler family is joined by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts to figure out what evil bad guy is on the loose and how to save New York City once again.
Why these sequels don’t latch on to me is that I don’t really care about the new characters. There’s nothing wrong with them and being the family of Egon Spengler is cool, but the films are for a younger audience, not the now fully grown adults who watched the movies and cartoons in the 1980s. I was a kid when I first saw the original film. It starred four grown men busting ghosts and cracking jokes. I didn’t need child characters to relate to. I didn’t need child representation to enjoy the movies as a child. I watched the films, enjoyed the effects and laughed at Bill Murray. For some reason these legacy sequels put in younger characters to draw in a younger audience. Well, you’re pushing the original fans to the side because I don’t care about teenaged characters. I want MY Ghostbusters and that’s why these movies will never be more than just fine to adult me. Jurassic World introduced new characters, but they were adults for an adult audience that kids could also enjoy. Then they brought back the nostalgia characters and I wish that’s what these two Ghostbusters sequels did.
Another issue with this film is the second act is nothing but an exposition dump. It’s all backstory on the spirit they’ll have to fight thanks to Patton Oswalt and the introduction of Kumail Nanjiani’s character and family history. Plus there’s a side story with a ghost that Phoebe befriends (or maybe falls in love with because it feels that way to me) and at least fifteen minutes or more could be cut from the movie. It’s not an excessively long film, but you could definitely trim some of the fat especially the return of Lucky and Podcast who have no real reason to be in NYC other than to be in the movie.
When asked what I thought of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire after the screening I said it was fine and I stand by that. I don’t love either of the sequels, but I’m not sure if I’m supposed to. I’m clearly not the target audience for the films despite growing up with the movies, cartoons and toys. I don’t hate myself for watching Frozen Empire, but I’ll also completely forget it exists by the end of the year. It’ll make some money and maybe more than Afterlife because the legacy characters are more prominent, but it’s not something I can see myself watching again anytime soon.
The Nerds Templar 