Verdict
Summary
A solid enough follow-up to Ghostbusters Afterlife, Frozen Empire has about two or three too many characters in the mix, and the movie is all buildup to a rather abrupt and unsatisfying climax. The movie has more than what it needs to be a really good entry in the 40 year-old franchise, but it ends up being my least favorite of the bunch, aside from the all-women entry that I don’t really consider part of the series
Plot:
The Ghostbusters – new team and old team – get together again to bust some ghosts that threaten to freeze the world.
Review:
A hustler named Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) has had an artifact in his family for generations, but thinking it’s just junk to pawn he sells it and it ends up on the desk of former ghostbuster Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) who has become somewhat of a talking head on a YouTube channel that debunks weird objects. Turns out that the object – a sphere – is the only thing keeping an ancient demon from escaping and frosting the world over, and after the thing breaks apart, all hell is unleashed! Compounding the issue is that the old firehouse where the original ghostbusters kept all the ghosts they ever caught is in disrepair, and its new owners (and new ghostbusters), the Spengler family which includes Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) and spunky kids Trevor and Phoebe (Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace) is in for a major surprise when the ghost prison is about to bust open. Enter Winston Zedmore (Ernie Hudson) – original ghostbuster – who has the means to transfer all the stored ghosts into a high tech facility he helped fund, but the process is complicated and becomes nearly impossible when the ice demon gets loose, paving the way for all the other ghosts to follow suit. It’s time for ALL the ghostbusters to unite once again and to add Nadeem to the fold because much to everyone’s surprise he turns out to be a sacred guardian of the flame, which could be the only thing that can help the ghostbusters seal the ice demon in prison (or kill it) once and for all.
A solid enough follow-up to Ghostbusters Afterlife, Frozen Empire has about two or three too many characters in the mix, and the movie is all buildup to a rather abrupt and unsatisfying climax. The movie has more than what it needs to be a really good entry in the 40 year-old franchise, but it ends up being my least favorite of the bunch, aside from the all-women entry that I don’t really consider part of the series. Bill Murray shows up towards the end, which is nice, but I guess not really essential (though he always gets the best lines), and once again this movie belongs to the kids and Paul Rudd. Director Gil Kenan does what he can with the script he co-wrote with Jason Reitman, but it’s not a slam-dunk.
Ghostbusters: The Frozen Empire is out on 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray next week on June 25th, and the disc comes with deleted and extended scenes, an Easter egg, six making-of features, one of which highlights the cool score by Dario Marianelli, and an audio commentary by Kenan. The Blu-ray edition comes with a DVD and a digital code.
