Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

 

“If there’s something strange, if there’s something weird, who are people going to call?”

Silly, goofy, and fun, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire doesn’t take itself too seriously, with a thin plot, nostalgic fan service and bloated ensemble, but does manage to entertain with a fair share of fun ghost chases, emotional heart-to-hearts and a few chills here and there, in a lightweight busting-makes-you-feel-good time. 

Discussion Points:

I’ll be honest. I really enjoyed this. Far far more than I was expecting to. It’s not great. It falls apart very quickly if you try and think about any of the plot too hard, and the characters are all relatively thin as the ensemble is so bloated but it’s also genuinely just fun. Not all the jokes land, but a decent amount do. The action is solid. The visual effects and puppets are great. The heart is in the right place. I was someone who was pleasantly surprised by Afterlife, and appreciated how it felt fresh yet familiar. This one certainly cranks up the familiarity over the freshness bringing the action back to New York and the iconic firehouse, but I honestly didn’t mind that. This just feels like a solid Ghostbusters movie. It’s not reinventing the wheel. It’s not trying to contemporise the franchise. It feels like good ol’ fashioned Ghostbusting and damn did it make me feel good and at under two hours it’s refreshingly short. It definitely feels rushed towards the end, and there’s no actual stakes (I kept waiting for someone to get shish kebabed by an icicle but it never happened) but I genuinely don’t think it’s that bad. I was pleasantly entertained and endeared.