Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review

https://www.cgmagonline.com/review/movie/ghostbusters-frozen-empire-review/

40 years ago, A group of young, established comedians from popular shows like Saturday Night Live and SCTV teamed with a Canadian Director with some cult hits under his belt and created the beginning of a franchise that has transcended film. It became a successful cartoon and a massive merchandise line, and it birthed one of pop culture’s most loyal fandoms. It has also spawned a sequel, a spinoff, and two more films that continue the story, the most recent of which, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, could be considered a new beginning for the franchise.

Ghostbuster: Frozen Empire features the return of the core cast, including McKenna Grace (The Handmaid’s Tale, Gifted) as the brilliant teen, Phoebe Spengler, Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things, It) as her older brother, Trevor, Carrie Coon (Gone Girl, Avengers: Infinity War) as their mother (and daughter of the late Ghostbuster, Egon), Callie, Paul Rudd (Ant-Man, Anchorman) as former science teacher turned Ghostbuster, Gary, Celeste O’Connor (Madame Web, Irreplaceable You) as Lucky and Logan Kim (The Walking Dead: Dead City) as Podcast. Added to the cast are Kumail Nanjiani (The Big Sick, Silicon Valley) as Nadeem, Patton Oswalt (Ratatouille, MODOK) as Dr. Hubert Wartzki and Emily Alyn Lind (Gossip Girl, Doctor Sleep) as Melody.

Also returning to the franchise are the OGs, namely the three surviving Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson, as well as Annie Potts. Also returning from the original film is character actor William Atherton (Die Hard, Real Genius) as EPA Inspector turned Mayor Walter Peck. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is Directed by Ghostbusters: Afterlife co-writer Gil Kenan (Monster House, Poltergeist) and is co-written by Kenan and ‘Afterlife’ Director Jason Reitman, both of whom co-produced the film. Ivan Reitman, the original film’s Director and co-producer of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was given a producer credit despite having passed away in 2022, only a few months after the release of the previous film.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire finds its core cast having left Oklahoma for New York, officially busting ghosts out of the iconic headquarters, Hook and Ladder 8, being bankrolled by retired Ghostbuster and Philanthropist Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). Discovery of an ancient artifact puts the world in paranormal peril, and it brings all of the Ghostbusters, old and new, together to solve the problem before it’s too late.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire starts with a cold open (pun intended) that sets a tone that lets you know that, while this is still a Ghostbusters movie, it is going to skew a little darker. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire does a great job riding that line to give you a scary (but not too scary) ghost picture while maintaining the comedy you expect. They also did a better job at balancing the audience, making it feel a little less of a movie for the young (despite the nostalgia) and creating a movie that can capture any audience.

What’s more, however, is that Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a film that has been refocused. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was very much framed as an homage to the recently passed Harold Ramis, and rightfully so, but the franchise could have ended there, and people would have understood. ‘Frozen Empire’ comes at it a little differently. While it does pay tribute to Ivan Reitman both in the credits and a fun little easter egg in the film, its focus is aimed more at laying the foundation to continue the franchise, if not expand it into its own cinematic universe. New characters, more tech and ideas laid out in the film let you know that they are looking to the future.

The actors’ performances across the board were great. They were mainly grounded within an obviously larger-than-life story. Paul Rudd leads the way with his signature comedic sensibility without going too big, Finn Wolfhard was given more opportunity to be comic relief rather than the awkward teen of the previous film and McKenna Grace, the heart of this generation of the franchise, is the MVP with a sympathetic, very real performance, even in the strangest of situations.

Patton Oswalt and Kumail Nanjiani, both self-confessed nerds, focused their love and enthusiasm for the Ghostbusters franchise into perfect supporting performances, which I hope will lead to larger roles should more sequels be greenlit. The original cast members offer more than just a journey back to your childhood, as well.

Dan Aykroyd plays a bit of a mirror to McKenna Grace’s Phoebe, with one being too old to bust ghosts and the other being too young, despite their passion. Bill Murray is Bill Murray. He is a walking home run, and Ernie Hudson’s role as de facto leader of the Ghostbusters (consistent with the lore that continued in other properties) is a fantastic turn for the man who was treated as more or less an afterthought in the original Ghostbusters.

Beyond the quality of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the personal experience that comes with it. I take a little pride that two of my picks to be the new generation of Ghostbusters that I made over 10 years ago, Paul Rudd and Patton Oswalt, are in this film together (Bill Hader and Tracey Morgan were my other picks), but the theatre where I watched this film in IMAX was filled not with reviewers, but with adults in full Ghostbusters attire, including film-accurate proton packs.

This was likely a contingent of the Ontario Ghostbusters, one of many Ghostbusters costuming groups across the world whose loyalty to the film has created a wonderful community that I was thrilled to be amidst for this experience. Add to them the kids in the audience, many of whom may have been having their first Ghostbusters experience, and the shared joy between old and new viewers alike was a clear indicator of how this story has not only survived but thrived for four decades.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire releases on March 22 in theatres everywhere and is also available on IMAX and other large format screens. I see this instalment as a true Ghostbusters 3, with Ghostbusters: Afterlife being a part 2.5, establishing the characters and backstories that get us to this latest story presented before us. It is full of nods to its history and teases for a future that I, frankly, am quite excited to see come to fruition.