Director Jason Reitman delivered one of the most engaging and heartfelt reboots of the past decade with 2021’s Ghostbusters Afterlife. Unlike the underwhelming Star Wars sequels, Reitman perfectly merged the original 1984 Ghostbusters cast, who were coincidentally directed in that film by his father (Ivan Reitman), with the new cast of characters led by Paul Rudd.
Rudd was a perfect fit for the project tonally, tackling the role of a public educator named Gary who also happens to be a Ghostbusters fanatic. Gary was set up to be the love interest of Callie (Carrie Coon) and thus the future “step father” figure in the lives of her two kids — Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard).
Carrie and kids arrive in the Oklahoma farm town to go through the belongings of Dr. Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis), who passed away in his Oklahoma farm house. Having passed away in real life, Reitman wisely pays homage to Ramis’ character and builds the narrative around his character’s legacy.
The late Dr. Spengler is happens to be both an O.G. Ghostbuster and the father and grandfather of Carrie, Trevor, and Phoebe. It’s really engaging to see the kids make friends amongst the locals, building a posse as they learn about their grandfather’s life and research, and the great mystery at hand.
The film’s plot mirrors the events of the 1984 original film beautifully, which was penned by Harold Ramis and Dan Aykroyd. After four decades, it’s amazing how much audiences responded to the summoning of Gozer once again.
Luckily, the surviving O.G. Ghostbusters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson) show up in time to fight Gozer. However, they are poised for defeat until the ghost of Ramis’ Egon Spengler appears mid-battle to help his granddaughter put an end to Gozer’s rise to power.
Despite a strong ensemble, Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe was the breakout star of the film and audiences and critics were left with an appetite for more Ghostbusters films under the leadership of Jason Reitman and his father Ivan, acting as a Producer on the film.
In the lead up to making Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, sadly Ivan Reitman passed away and Jason Reitman handed off the duty of directing to his Ghostbusters Afterlife co-writer Gil Kenan. The franchise would once again return to New York city, where even more familiar faces and new characters were introduced in a jumbled sequel that never quite found its footing.
Kenan directs from a script that he co-wrote with Jason Reitman, showing Phoebe now finding love with a female ghost who ultimately betrays her only to save the day in the end against the latest horn-headed ghost that’s as forgettable as his CGI movements.
It gets too bogged down in the mythology of an ancient ghost who was trapped with fire in a metal orb thanks to Kumail Nanjiani’s ancestors. For some reason, a character is created and played by Patton Oswalt to explain the evil ghost’s origins. It would have made more sense to have Ghostbuster-in-chief Ray Stantz (Aykroyd) research it with Podcast (Logan Kim), who is severely underutilized in the follow up to Afterlife.
In truth, Frozen Empire is an overstuffed offering with too many characters, forced jokes, a lack of tonal cohesion, and obvious generic plotting. The return to New York City offered very little in terms of atmosphere, other than this new ghostly antagonist prefers to freeze everything in a mid summer heatwave.
Gary and the Spenglers have settled into the old fire station in New York, where the O.G. Ghosbusters ran their operations and stored their captured ghosts. The most engaging sequence occurs in the first act, as Phoebe, Gary, Trevor and their mom are Ghostbusting as a family. With Gary driving the trademark Ghostbusters vehicle, Phoebe shoots the lasso beams from her proton pack while riding outside the vehicle. This extendable seat-turned-gunner-position was first seen in Afterlife and remains a visual treat as a set piece.
We learn that the firehouse trap holding the ghosts is nearly full, and so Ernie Hudson’s wealthy O.G. Ghostbuster, Winston, has built a whole new facility where he runs experiments and builds cool new equipment. The film barely scratches the surface on this fascinating Bruce Wayne/Batman style facility as it as a subplot of Romance with Phoebe and a ghost girl, as well as a plot where Trevor tries to capture everyone’s favorite green ghost, Slimer. All the while Gary is wrestling with his position as step dad while living with the kids and learning the ropes of ghostbusting full time himself.
The movie has several side plots and the one must farfetched is that Kumail Nanjiani is a junk dealer who sells off the film’s main antagonist in his trap, and then must follow his family’s noble mission of protecting others and re-trap this evil force. Nanjiani is unable to find his footing in this film, though he manages to land some laughs. Nanjiani is only able to work off the page nad Kenan’s direction, and this film has no idea what tone it’s going for or what its primary genre is from scene to scene.
The remaining goodwill from Afterlife and breakout star Mckenna Grace may trigger Sony to commence a third film in this new trilogy, but Frozen Empire unfortunately cooled the heat on one of Sony’s most notable I.P.’s.
Letter Grade: C-