Turn on the siren of the Ecto-1 and here we go again. Despite a frigid reception from some critics (I’m some critics), Ghostbusters: Afterlife spawned a sequel: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Ignoring Paul Feig’s romance with Melissa McCarthy, this horror-comedy series is based on 1984’s Ghostbusters and its 1989 sequel. , Ghostbusters II, but doubled down on its tradition, following the family of the late Epassn Spengler.
This creates a new bankruptcy replete with characters, CGI demons, and clinical screams. While there are sometimes jokes that come out well (thanks to Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt), overall, this sequel is a confusing combination of fan service and possible inexplicable choices. intended to cater to a wide audience. In fact, parents welcome a warning.
Transplanted to New York City, Egon’s descendants took over Lower Manhattan’s iconic chimney station and answered the call to ghosts. Egon’s daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon at cruise control), has cleared up and gets along with her “ghost dog” friend Gary Grooberson. (an unflappable and playful Paul Rudd), who shyly assumes his role as stepfather to his children. Trevor (a whiny Finn Wolfhard) is now 18 years old, a fact he repeats over and over again instead of seeming like a genuine expansion on his character. Phoebe (a serious McKenna Grace) is now 15 years old and finds herself in the middle of this sequel, dealing with a confusing crush, hard work laws for children, and an icy Armageddon.
The screenplay, from Afterlife director Jason Reitman and Frozen Empire director Gil Kenan, presents an exhaustive amount of stories to identify an undeniable premise: A big, icy, angry deity needs to take over the world. Ghostbusters, new and old, we have to band together to prevent it.
The mix of old and new effects from the Ghostbusters team into a messy film, which fails due to its desire to appeal to adults who grew up with the original two films and their youngsters who get caught up in sales and product placement schemes. (Just buy Cheetos in advance. They spend more screen time than many of the supporting characters. )
This sloppy sequel brings back Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, and Annie Potts, this time in more than just a cameo. (Thankfully, GCI’s afterlife ghost, Harold Ramis, rests in peace. )Frozen Empire also traverses familiar settings such as the Ghostbusters firehouse and the exterior of the Bryant Park library with its iconic lion statues, allowing for chilling reminders of memorable memories. I’ll also be doing a montage of old movie clips beyond, TV commercials for Ghostbusters toys and cereal, as well as the Ray Parker Jr. music video.
These allusions can cause original movie enthusiasts to rejoice in joyful recognition. But none of the ancient relics have received a new varnish. Even the original cast’s performances range from polished performances to transparent performances. (Well, aside from Aykroyd, he’s clearly excited to be back in this supernatural chair, even if his enthusiasm is rarely very contagious. )Therefore, the adult comeback content has painfully faded away. But child-centric things are extraordinarily miscalculated.
Some parents are worried about the spooky spirits hiding in this ghost story. But as in previous installments, those sinister apparitions come with gleefully menacing appearances (Stay Puft and his mini-mini-mini-minions), the more sensual and confusing (Gozer), and the creepy gothic (Vigo the Carpathians). No genuine nightmarish curtains will be discovered in this new installment, as ghosts range from the inexplicable “Sewer Dragon” to a horned deity that looks like a tame imitation of Pan’s Labyrinth.
What’s more troubling is the way writers treat their teenage characters. Back from the last film, the misnamed Podcast (a brave Logan Kim) and Trevor’s mistress, Lucky (a Celeste O’Connor, unfortunately underused from Madame Web), conveniently get internships that take them away from Oklahoma to this New York setting. However, only the latter is dealing with a series of sexual jokes that are simply confusing.
While wandering through a stranger’s room as part of a fact-finding mission, Lucky makes nonchalant comments about nipple play, noisy sex, and a hidden room she devised as a “sex dungeon,” prompting the restless resident (Nanjiani) to become defensive about his Vanquished Granny Collection. Artefactos. Es’s a series of awkward jokes for social reasons, but it’s also unsettling to place the debaucherous humor in the black teenager when the film is full of adults.
Elsewhere, Phoebe stumbles upon a subplot of forlorn lovers, in which she falls in love with a ghost woman named Melody (Doctor Sleep’s Emily Alyn Lind). Phoebe is temporarily established as a queer character in a Sapphic flirtation. In queer coming-of-age stories, Phoebe feels so isolated among her friends and circle of family (albeit due to ghost hunting, not her sexuality) that she’s desperate to get closer to her crush. This leads to a large, disturbing gesture that emerges alarmingly close to a suicide attempt. The Picky Eaters will notice that Phoebe warns before the act that this is “not fatal”, suggesting that it is not permanent, so the effect is more of a Ghost Papa coma zone. But in representation, however, it is sinister and may only be a trigger.
Given the heartbreaking statistics about suicide among LGBTQ youth in the United States, the fact that this scene gave the impression of appearing on screen is incomprehensible. As for the plot, it would have been easy to invent other cinematic sciences to achieve the same plot point. So how is it possible that the filmmakers tried to make a film about family while tackling something so delicate with so little caution?
Beyond those huge red flags, this sequel is too busy to be entertaining. The explanation for why the two original Ghostbusters videos were so funny was largely the chemistry between its four leads. Egon, Venkman, Ray, and Winston were laughs to watch. Here it turns out that Kenan and Reitman don’t think their audience is engaged enough with the Spengler family to succeed without the more productive eccentric friends and almost all of the protagonists of the first two films. This army of characters is too large for the film to keep up substantially with, and many of the roles feel little more than guest appearances. They don’t offer an arc, but they still offer opportunities to, thankfully, drop an exhibition or a cinematic science talk and, on rare occasions, a punchline.
This lack of team spirit has the most profound effect on the central plot, which focuses on how Phoebe feels about her position in the family and in the Ghostbusters. Cleverly executed, this disconnect may have made the audience feel as disconnected as she did. Instead, Kenan runs the risk of making audiences feel disconnected from this total as a whole, as films randomly jump from scene to scene with little sense of the plot’s tone, setting, or team spirit. Sometimes, even the characters’ roles seem to count. less about who they are or what they know and more about who might have had to film that day. How else do you understand why characters who haven’t shared a scene paint with the exact same information?
Another loss similar to this lack of connectivity is the way New York City is represented. In the first two films, the city itself turned out to be a detail of the film. The sullen New Yorkers and their beleaguered mayor have been hard to convince, creating a clash among the new paranormal scientists. The gritty character of ’80s New York City colored those films, and in Ghostbusters II, the city’s network combines (in a song, no less!) to engage and save the day.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was largely filmed in Georgia and it looks that way. The New York City exteriors can’t make up for Kenan’s obvious disinterest in depicting the culture and chaos of the iconic metropolis, where locals may be unaware of the arrival of the docked Titanic. Instead, when icy chaos ensues, it delivers a jarring series in a sun-drenched Coney Island that resembles anything but a handful of aerial perspectives of a wintry New York. Everyone on the street does a little editing.
Say what you think of Ghostbusters II, personally, it’s my favorite of the bunch. But it’s not to get carried away by the excitement and goodwill of this festive finale. On the other hand, the climax of Frozen Empire is full of grimaces. and CGI nonsense, which undermines the underlying emotional current, leaving the audience frozen and excited.
In the end, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is neither a smart movie nor a smart children’s movie. (This reviewer would say that many movies, most recently Turning Red, Luca, and Nimona, have shown that you can do both. )Even better than Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a movie I’ve described as “a macabre movie. “An animated corpse, full of half-baked new characters and lazy fan service.
The most productive thing I can say about Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire is that it’s not the worst. That would be Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hits theaters on March 22.
If you are feeling suicidal or experiencing an intellectual fitness crisis, please reach out to someone. You can succeed at the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988; Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860; or the Trevor Project at 866-488-7386. Text “START” to the crisis text line at 741-741. Contact the NAMI Helpline at 1-800-950-NAMI, Monday through Friday from 10:00 a. m. 10:00 a. m. p. m. ET, or email [email protected]. If you don’t like the phone, use the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline chat on Crisischat. org. Here is a list of foreign resources.
Kristy Puchko is the film editor of Mashable. Based in New York City, she is an established film critic and entertainment journalist, who has traveled around the world on commission, covered a variety of film festivals, co-hosted film education podcasts, interviewed a wide diversity of artists and filmmakers, and invited her to paintings published in RogerEbert. com, Vanity Fair, and The Guardian. A member of the Critics Choice Association and GALECA, as well as Top Critic on Rotten Tomatoes, Kristy’s number one is in movies. , is also known to emerge from television, podcasts, and board games. You can follow her on Twitter.