Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) Review

RATING: 5/10

AFTER the unexpected hit that was Ghostbusters: Afterlife, fans of the beloved comedy franchise were high director Gil Kenan and head writer Jason Reitman, son of the late Ivan Reitman, could continue the Ghostbuster's legacy. However, numerous plot holes and a severe lack of impactful jokes have caused this promising reboot to just slip-up on its own frozen empire.

An ancient threat (of course, ghost related) has once again struck New York City, leaving new Ghostbusters Gary (Paul Rudd), Callie (Carrie Coon), Phoebe (McKenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) to put a stop to it. But in order to do it, the Spengler family will have to team-up with their new-found friends from the previous film; Peter (Bill Murray), Ray (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston (Ernie Hudson): the original Ghostbusters.

Continuity is usually a good thing, and Frozen Empire attempts to carry on the legacy of the original team without overshadowing the new age team by allowing them to answer the call of ghostbusting. The only problem with this philosophy is that between an over-expanded cast of sub-characters, on top of a needlessly bloated plot, the Spenglers feel like afterthoughts in what is supposed to be their true coming-out party after showing great potential in 2021's Afterlife.

A complaint many people had with the previous film was that the copious amount of references were overbearing and tiresome. Frozen Empire is no different, once again cramming in unnecessary member-berries such as Slimer, Stay Puft Marshmallow Men, on top of the original Ghostbusters who seem to be slowing down with every passing movie; a fact which they do embrace to the film's credit. But these references aren't enough to carry what is supposed to be a new beginning for the franchise, especially when the moments of genuine greatness the newcomers show are few and far between when compared to jokes and references we've been seeing for the past 40 years. Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon possess wonderful chemistry with one another and their on-screen children Finn Wolfhard and McKenna Grace, injecting refreshing jokes into a franchise nearing comedic stagnation.

When Ghostbusters: Afterlife was announced, fans were expecting the movie to be a shallow cash-grab which relied on the success of the 80s original to succeed. After being pleasantly surprised with the 2021 triumph, turns out fans just had to wait a few more years to answer the call of disappointment. While not a failure like 2016's soulless reboot, Frozen Empire's lack of meaningful story beats and jokes that continually miss the mark results in a follow-up that feels like one step forward and two steps backwards for this new group of Ghostbusters.