Summary
The fifth Ghostbusters film forges its own path while still relying on the fuel of the past to power its proton packs. The uneasy mix results in a fun, chaotic and often haunted film that might jsut be caught in its own trap.
If it feels like the strip-mining of your nostalgia is only intensifying, you’re not imagining things. There have been more Ghostbusters films in the last eight years than there were in the previous 30. So, on the occasion of the fortieth anniversary of the original Ghostbusters the filmmakers want to let us know they are fully aware of that, quite literally unleashing the ghosts of franchise past on the city, county and state of New York.
Picking up some time after the events of 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Spengler family (Carrie Coon, Mckenna Grace, Finn Wolfhard and Paul Rudd) are now actively Ghostbusting and living out of the old firehouse. Yet when a mysterious object turns up threatening to unleash all manner of evil, the new Ghostbusters team up with remnants of the old guard (Ernie Hudson, Dan Aykroyd, Annie Potts and Bill Murray).
There is a lot going on in GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE. In many ways, it feels just as much like the reboot/sequel that its predecessor was. If Afterlife was to be praised for giving over so much time to establishing the new characters, then the same must be said for this film. Director Gil Kenan and co-writer Jason Reitman are interested in the ‘Spenglers’ as a family unit, and the new dynamic of father figure Rudd thrown into the mix. (In some ways, this isn’t so far removed from his absentee father role in the Ant-Man franchise).
Yet the original characters of Stantz, Melnitz, Zeddemore, Venkman and even Slimer are also given significantly more screen time, creating a film that’s often at war with itself. There’s the introduction of ghost character Melody (Emily Alyn Lind). A sidebar quests to see the librarian (Patton Oswalt). They establish a well-funded ghost lab run by Q-like Lars Pinfield (James Acaster). The comedy character Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) is a kind of analogue for Rick Moranis in the original (or Peter MacNicol in Ghostbusters II). Kenan and Reitman provide enough material for a whole series here. In fact, this does very much feel like a TV pilot at times, throwing the audience enough legacy bones to keep us coming back for the next episode.
Reitman, who picked up his dad’s work in Afterlife, doesn’t return to the director’s chair for this outing. Swapping roles with co-writer Gil Kenan, who returns to directing duties for the first time since A Boy Called Christmas (2021), it’s still safe to say that Reitman’s fingerprints are present on this film. Visually impressive and filled with all the right special effects, neither creative is able to fully harness all these competing threads, leading to a mildly satisfying but ultimately convoluted finale.
So, where does this all leave the Ghost Corps franchise? For the time being at least, the future is full of possibilities for the Ghostbusters. More than that, it has all the ingredients it needs to survive beyond the original characters, carving out new audiences in the process. However, until the films can conclusively break away from running on nostalgia, the ghosts of the 80s will haunt any of their successes — and keep their empire forever frozen in time.
2024 | USA | DIRECTOR: Gil Kenan | WRITER: Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman | CAST: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Emily Alyn Lind, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, Patton Oswalt | DISTRIBUTOR: Sony Pictures Releasing | RUNNING TIME: 115 minutes | RELEASE DATE: 21 March 2023 (Australia)
