GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE

The Spenglers are back!

Following 2021’s Afterlife, with which Jason Reitman wrestled the franchise back from the mere concept of progress, we have Frozen Empire, a film with a sheen of adventure, but with its roots still lodged firmly in the past.

For the latest entry the Spenglers have left Summerville behind and have set up shop in Firehouse 8, NYC. With an endless supply of ghosts to be busted they soon find themselves in need of a bigger ghost storage space and reach out to Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) for help.

Stantz in turn introduces them to the Paranormal Research Facility - headed up by James Acasters Dr Lars Pinfield - to assist them.

Unfortunately for the audience it isn’t just the Ecto Containment Unit that has become overstuffed, as from this point onwards both the plot and the cast of characters within it are bursting at the seams.

We have Phoebe (McKenna Grace) struggling to deal with her youth, and being sidelined because of it, and her relationship with ghost Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). We have Gary (Paul Rudd) struggling with his role as a step dad. We have the mystery of Nadeems (Kumail Nanjiani) paranormal orb.

And we have other plot strands that go absolutely nowhere, such as Trevors (Finn Wolfhard) and his coming to terms with being an adult, and Podcast (Logan Kim) working for Ray.

We also have the remaining old ghostbusters returning for the action, a load of characters from Afterlife who are included for, what I can only imagine, were purely contractual reasons, a host of new characters - who, in fairness, are often the strongest elements of the movie - and a villain that we barely spend any tie with.

All of this means that the interesting plot strands get drowned out by the filler. The interesting characters get diluted by the deluge of old faces, and people who are given nothing of interest to do.

There are some fun performances here. James Acaster brings new energy as Lars and Kumail Nanjiani is funny as Nadeem, a layabout who unwittingly sets the films plot in motion. But they are never given the space they need to own their scenes.

McKenna Grace is excellent, and this should be her movie. She has good control over her performance and over her characters emotions, she has good chemistry with the rest of the cast, and she can handle the few action schemes that are given to her. But her story isn’t given the time it needs to breathe.

But for every fun performance, there are 2 or 3 that just feel superfluous. Nobody is bad in it per se, its just that some characters just do not seem to have warranted inclusion.

The ghosts themselves are fine. The big bad is a relatively scary presence - or at least would be if we’d have spent any time with him - and The Possessor is a fun new addition, zipping from object to object and causing chaos as he goes.

But they are another victim of Frozen Empires wanton disregard for restraint. Slimer is here. Why, other than sterile fan service, is unclear as he doesn’t serve any particular narrative function, but he’s there. There is a genuinely creepy looking ghost in the research centre but, naturally, it is given nothing to do.

It is so overstuffed we never get to spend any real time with any of them. Which for a film called Ghostbusters is kind of an issue.

And the nostalgia. The constant wink at the camera and doff of the cap every time another half baked easter egg is wheeled out in front of the audience. 

It’s just boring.

The old films exist. If you want to watch them you can. We don’t need to see all of the old beats, we don’t need all of the old references again and again. It’s not interesting. 

In Afterlife I understood why the old characters came back. I didn’t like it, but I understood. But Frozen Empire should have been the passing of the torch. This should have been when the old guard finally let go and gave the franchise to someone new. Someone who could breathe fresh life into it.

Yet still they cling on.

They do not improve the narrative. They do not have the best lines. And, ultimately, they do not move the franchise forward in any way.

Yet still they cling on. And if they don’t let go this franchise is doomed to fail. 

So far Jason Reitman has delivered us two films (Afterlife and Frozen Empire) that feel uninspired and unoriginal. They are not terrible, but everything good about them comes from the new, rather than the old.

Unfortunately the vitriolic response to 2016's Answer the Call has left us with a franchise so terrified of its own fanbase that it refuses to fully commit to the future.

They clearly want to hand the torch over to Mckenna Grace's Phoebe Spengler, yet with one foot planted so firmly in the past Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire can't help but feel haunted by spectres of 1984.