What exactly makes a Ghostbusters movie a Ghostbusters movie? Big personalities in jumpsuits, proton packs, distinctive ghouls, maybe some jokes… how much more than that is really necessary? Those trappings were enough to make the 1984 original a classic, and every Ghostbusters movie that has come since has been judged based on how well it assembles these building blocks. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire bears some superficial resemblance to its better forerunners, and for some, the allure of more time with Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson in uniform will be impossible to ignore. But the Ghostbusters: Afterlife sequel buckles under the weight of an uninspired, ballooning plot that leaves little room for comedy. Which is a problem… because it’s Ghostbusters.
Frustratingly, Frozen Empire gets off to a solid enough start, beginning with the wise move to port the action back over to New York City. Jason Reitman’s Amblinesque, small-town approach to Ghostbusters: Afterlife delighted some, but for those of us who found that story of Spengler reconciliation to be slow and self-serious, the pivot back to a more stimulating (and familiar) locale feels right. And those feelings are momentarily validated by a fun ghost chase through the city streets that director Gil Kenan (who co-wrote Afterlife with Reitman) uses to re-establish the Spengler family dynamics. Amidst the “I’ll turn this car around” chaos going on inside the Ecto-1, we find that Callie (Carrie Coon) and “step-teacher” Gary (Paul Rudd) have moved kids Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) back to New York to join the family business.
The movie’s opening salvo is, unfortunately, also its strongest. The Ghostbusters once more run afoul of former EPA inspector and current mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton), who uses their recklessness as an excuse to restrict their efforts – and completely bench Phoebe from the team just when they’ll need her most. The plucky, awkward heroine was a consistent highlight of Afterlife, but while Grace remains charming –- and offbeat as ever –- in the role here, Frozen Empire saddles her with a completely muddled arc in which a character we know to be very smart is forced to do some very dumb things. Phoebe’s angsty clashes with the rest of the family put her into the path of Melody (Emily Alyn Lind), a kindred spirit with unfinished business. Aside from ham-handed stabs at cross-dimensional romance for Phoebe to consider, Melody feels totally adrift, especially once Frozen Empire trots out its bafflingly complicated plot.
As the central ghost story unfolds, the audience is asked to track the importance and function of all manner of minutiae: secret explorer organizations, ancient orbs, ghost prisons, mystical fire heroes, and the broken horns of a demon all come into play. And hey, maybe all those things sound good on paper – they sound like they’d be great for the cover of a metal album – but all of the doomsaying and mythology that has to be built into the script to account for that stuff leaves the characters with little to do but continually re-rack the stakes. It’s an act of desperation and overcompensation on the part of Kenan and Reitman’s script: If one element of the overstuffed story isn’t working for you, maybe you’ll find another reason to stay invested.
Repeated attempts at keeping these characters relevant for modern audiences hold it back at every turn.
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The vengeful god opposing the Ghostbusters sets up a third act that rapidly devolves into a mess of CG ice and snow – and there’s even a skybeam for good measure. It all leaves the cast seeming exhausted by the end, collectively unsure of how much they should balance the weight of the apocalyptic circumstances with the need to keep things as light as a Ghostbusters movie probably should be. Frozen Empire’s unfocused and repeated attempts at keeping these characters relevant for modern audiences hold it back at every turn.
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That aspect of Frozen Empire really highlights what’s missing here: a cohesive central unit of funny Ghostbusters. The Spenglers spend much of the runtime at odds with each other – heck, Trevor spends half the movie off on a solo ghost hunt – and much of their interplay feels like potshots meant to blow off steam. Rudd and Coon have good chemistry, but few laughs come from the trials of integrating a new father figure into the family. As the scale of the spectral threat increases, Kenan piles on supporting character after supporting character to keep up with exposition duties, with Ghostbusters vet Annie Potts and comedians James Acaster and Patton Oswalt all stopping by to dump information when the plot calls for it (which is often). Kumail Nanjiani has a slightly larger role as Nadeem, a vape shop owner with a part to play in the Ghostbusters’ plans to save the day, but not even Nanjiani’s reliable comedic voice can rise above his character’s preposterous function within the plot.
Frozen Empire can’t even bear to let go of minor Afterlife characters like Podcast and Lucky, who don’t bring much to the table here and call even more attention to the story’s slipshod construction. That goes double for the returning Mini Pufts, whose obnoxious presence feels like insult added to injury. Totally unfunny, sadist marshmallows aren’t cheap to render, and with so many of Frozen Empire’s failings hinging on distracting CG crap, it makes me wish the filmmakers had spent that time and money on shooting a couple extra scenes where the talented cast was allowed to be funny on camera.
What’s missing from Frozen Empire? A cohesive central unit of funny Ghostbusters.
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At least Frozen Empire makes good on Afterlife’s promise of more time with the original, surviving Ghostbusters: Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz, Murray’s Peter Venkman, and Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore. Of the three, Ray feels the most successfully integrated into the Spenglers’ story. In contrast to Stantz’s struggle to let go of his ghostbusting days, Aykroyd’s warmth, and the actor’s comfort with taking a back seat to the next generation, end up buying him a lot of goodwill. That pays off in one of Frozen Empire’s only strong emotional moments, with Ray pondering what it’s like to be a ghost – a blurring of the boundaries between a paranormally-obsessed actor and the paranormally-obsessed character he plays. Winston has amassed a fortune large enough to bankroll all manner of Ghostbusting, but while the outsized leadership role for Hudson is cool, the intriguing notion of the Ghostbusters’ transformation into a national franchise is totally backgrounded.
For ages, the story went that it was Murray’s reluctance to reprise the role of Venkman that delayed a Ghostbusters sequel for so long… and after his cameo in Afterlife, his slightly larger presence in Frozen Empire doesn’t quite make the wait worth it. Venkman breezes in and out with that casual Murray charm, which is good for a couple laughs, but by the time New York City is freezing over, Venkman has nothing to do but look mildly concerned when the CG frost starts to creep up his legs. Confoundingly for a movie that has zero issues trafficking in nostalgia plays, Frozen Empire keeps Venkman and Mayor Peck apart for all but one brief exchange late in the movie. Given the dearth of strong comedic material here, separating the combatants in Ghostbusters' funniest and testiest verbal sparring matches seems like a major oversight.
