Jonah Naplan   March 23, 2024

The double-demographic appeal of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” stems from the fact that it features both a duo of current child stars and a quartet of oldies but goodies that the parents will remember with a smile. Watching bright new talents like Mckenna Grace and Finn Wolfhard bust ghosts alongside genre greats like Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson (and Annie Potts watching from the sidelines), is no doubt a powerful image bestowed upon the different family generations this movie appeals to. It’s the heart and soul of the newest entry into the “Ghostbusters” franchise, and keeps the movie chugging along at a respectable clip. But this marketing power comes with a consequence; all these characters are fun to watch onscreen together, yes, but there’s so many of them that “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” too often feels crowded and incoherent when it should be exciting and emotionally dense. 

Now of course, the movie exists to deliver more of the same fan service as its predecessor, the inferior “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” of 2021, and this film is perfectly content with scooting by merely by serving up callback after callback of iconic lines and visits to trademark locations instead of offering up real narrative stakes. But it’s also wildly entertaining in surprise chunks without being so hyper and dumb that it leans too much into frenetic territory. It helps that the entire ensemble is dedicated to their roles and Grace and Wolfhard, in particular, seem to be putting in way more effort than they probably needed to in order to make a hit of this project. But it’s that very commitment that makes the entire experience a thoroughly charming one, for all generations.

Director Gil Kenan and co-writer Jason Reitman picks up our set of characters from the last movie and moves them from Oklahoma to the iconic Ghostbusters firehouse in New York City. The descendants of the beloved Egon Spengler—his daughter Callie (Carrie Coon) and her two children Phoebe (Grace) and Trevor (Wolfhard)—along with Callie’s boyfriend/Phoebe’s former science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd) have assumed the role of the Ghostbusters, chasing and capturing local apparitions in the trusty Ecto-1 and causing significant city property damage in the process, which angers the mayor (William Atherton), who’s made it his personal mission to shut the Ghostbusters down for good.

The main plot is set into motion when a clueless dunderhead played entertainingly by Kumail Nanjiani tries to sell a mysterious metal orb to Ray Stantz (Aykroyd), ultimately unleashing the ancient, evil monster imprisoned inside into the mortal world. It’s up to the Ghostbusters, both new and old, to stop this archaic threat and prevent decades of captured ghosts from breaking free which would cause a permanent ice age. But before they can jump into action, there’s much housekeeping to be done for every character. Phoebe is grappling with the fact that she’s only 15 and how her strict mother won’t allow her to bust ghosts, while Trevor, given frustratingly little to do, faces a similar problem; at 18, he still feels babied and underestimated by adults. Neither one of the kids have entirely accepted Gary into the family, and Gary is trying really hard to hopefully change that.

There’s a couple of side plots, one involving Phoebe’s relationship with a teenage ghost she discovered named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) while playing chess alone in Washington Square Park, and another about a paranormal investigation lab created by Winston Zeddemore (Hudson) and his crew—Lars Pinfield (James Acaster) and Lucky (Celeste O’Connor)—dedicated to getting a closer look at ghosts and other scary apparitions. And of course, little side runs from Annie Potts and a languages expert at the New York Public Library played by Patton Oswalt are charming touches. Ironically, Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman gets the least amount of screentime out of all the original cast members, but still gets a couple of fleeting chances to bumble around like we love to see him do.

The combined force of all these characters is way too much for this one movie to handle, and you feel that weight the most in the third act which can barely give even its primary characters enough satisfying moments to shine. The undeniable standout here, both organically and intentionally, is Grace’s Phoebe who is sort of the Rey to this movie’s “Star Wars” or the Owen Grady to its “Jurassic World.” She’s the type of character intended to carry the “franchise torch,” as it was, with a similar nuance to the founding generations but also a modernity specific to current teens who’d otherwise be dissuaded from watching the movie.

She’s the clear spotlight of all the film’s action sequences, whether ghosts are being blasted by proton packs or chased after by vehicles of all classification. The good thing is that she’s at least a very compelling lead (we’ve been conditioned to be intrigued by curious, rebellious children), and seems to be a direct product of the 80s, which is probably the point. The common tendency to place the unlikely hero front and center doesn’t feel as mechanical here as it might in some inferior entertainment, but it’s also not a very original choice either, and you’re watching the movie wondering what’s going on with other, more interesting characters. The CGI-heavy climax suffers not just from that issue but also from the fact that the visual effects spectacle seems to exist in place of real emotional beats and narrative complexity.

At the same time, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” somehow expands this world in a way no other Ghostbusters movie ever has, being that each one prior seemed to want to undo and disregard everything the previous one had established. In several necessary ways, this movie creates more to work with in places you probably wouldn’t expect (i.e. the little Stay-Puft marshmallow men who are prone to lighting themselves on fire, crushing each other under heavy objects, and finding other unique ways to harm themselves and the everlasting camaraderie between the original bunch who continue to mourn the loss of Spengler while still moving on emotionally in their own ways).

Within the great moments in which “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” is wildly entertaining and fun, there’s a glimpse of a film less distracted by delivering the fan service we’ve come to expect and more focused on the theatrical elements of a big-budget blockbuster that unites people of all generations at the movie theater. I wished that movie came out to play more often, because when it does, something rare and beautiful pours forth. Multiple generations busting ghosts together has power, but whether that power can ever be channeled in a way that’s completely satisfying poses the difference between a whisper and a scream.

Now playing in theaters.