Rent Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (aka Firehouse / Hell's Kitchen) review by Mark McPherson - Cinema Paradiso

After the off-putting detour that was Afterlife, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire feels like a safer entry in the franchise. It doesn’t do anything as bold as shift the location out of New York City or simply rehash of the previous films trying to establish underdogs and familiar threats. There are cameos, but they’re better utilized. There are Easter Eggs, but they don’t dominate the plot. There are new characters, but they don’t dominate much of the screen as they make room for the old. For this staging, Frozen Empire enters into a sort of Goldilocks zone, which might be suitable for fans but will likely dismay those seeking anything more than nostalgia and a tame horror film for their kids.

The good news is that this new Ghostbusters film doesn’t have the baggage of past films. Having gotten to know a new cast of characters in Afterlife, this film can proceed with the family unit of the Spenglers already established as Ghostbusters in New York City. They occupy the old firehouse and are introduced with a fast-paced dose of zapping a ghost dragon through the city streets. They run afoul of the government with Walter Peck (William Atherton) again, trying to shut down those pesky Ghostbusters in the name of city order. They also have the backup of the previous Ghostbusters (Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Bill Murray, Annie Potts), who all pitch in with new ghost-containing developments and research on tracking down new evil entities. Some new allies are even thrown into the mix, as with a nerdy tech (James Acaster) and a misfit seller (Kumail Nanjiani).

But doesn’t that sound like too many characters? This crowding of the screen barely gives the central figures a chance to shine. There are some compelling arcs worth exploring about the Spengler family and how they try to fight for acceptance. The youngest daughter, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), wants to prove herself as a Ghostbuster but is sidelined, leading to her forming a bond with the ghost teenager, Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). The matriarch of Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) struggles to assert her dominance over her kids, and her new love interest, the returning Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), desperately wants to assume the role of a dad. There’s so little time to explore this that the Spengler son, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), is reduced to hunting in the firehouse for Slimer to fill time and give him something to do. But wait, doesn’t Trevor already have a returning friendship with Lucky (Celeste O'Connor) to maintain? There’s just too much on this plate.

The bigger plot of saving New York also eats up any time for meaningful character development that doesn’t feel rushed with no time for jokes. To the film’s credit, at least the villain is an interesting one in concept. It’s an ancient god capable of freezing the world and was contained through ancient ghost-trapping technology. The lore is neat, and the villain's full-form design is terrifying. Watching this new threat present a challenge for the Ghostbusters gave off the same vibes as watching an episode of The Real Ghostbusters. However, while a plot in that cartoon would suffice for half an hour, this film needs some extra time to cover all its bases more extensively. There is such a rush to get through all this that some Easter Eggs are brutally forced. Some of them are subtle, as with the brief background glimpses of the Love Slime from Ghostbusters 2, but others, like the ghost in the library, require the film to stop dead in its tracks to revive an old bit.

Frozen Empire can best be summed up with an exchange between elder Ghostbusters Ray and Winston. The two of them argue about how they want to spend their golden years. Ray says he enjoys ghostbusting and wants that to be his golden years, leading Winston to agree slightly but recommend that they find a way to do it that doesn’t kill him. And that’s exactly what Frozen Empire is. It’s a Ghostbusters film with firm guardrails, restrained to be tame enough for the kids and nostalgia-baity enough for the adults. Despite some cute moments and minor cleverness here and there, this Ghostbusters film only ends up being a bland return. It’s better than the sputtering nature of 2016’s reboot and the gross nostalgic retreads of Afterlife, but that’s a low bar to cross.