Ghostbusters Frozen Empire Movie Review A Comedy and Fantasy Film

This one actually isn't directed by Jason Reitman, though Jason Reitman has a co-writing credit on it. This is directed by Gil Keenan or Kenan. It's spelt like Keenan and Cal, so I assume Keenan. Gil Keenan. Ghostbusters: frozen Empire is the sequel to the remake Will Ghostbusters: Afterlife. A new big baddie is coming to town to freeze everyone to death, so they're going to try to stop that from happening. That is one wedge of the very full and convoluted pie that is Ghostbusters: frozen Empire, anyway. First of all, what I did like, there were some moments in which this movie balanced humor and horror really well. Moments. We'll get to some of the awkward humor later. Some solid visual creeps in the last act here. Granted, I'm pretty sure I saw those visuals on a magic card somewhere. A couple of characters did stand out. Mckenna Grace makes sense. She was a standout in the previous film. She's more pushed to the front in this one. Dan Aykroyd being back as Race Dance. This movie gave him a lot more to do this time around than the previous film, Ghostbusters Afterlife. When it was he and McKenna Grace, Egon's former colleague and Egon's granddaughter investigating what this new thing is, that's when it felt the most like a Ghostbusters story to me.

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire Movie Review

Circling around to the biggest problem this movie has, there are too many Irons in the Fire. There are too many characters here. Too many characters, most of which the movie doesn't know what to do with them. They're just annexed into this movie because they were in the previous movie. I mean, you have the family Spangler, the main characters from the previous movie, they're in here. Then you have Dan Aykroyd as Ray Stance, as well as Ernie Hudson as Winston Zedmore and his crew of scientists and their lab. Bill Murray is exactly what you think. He's a cameo in here, so they can put him on the poster. I'm sure they wrote him a solid blank check and were like, Look, it's going to be really awkward if the other two were in it and you're not. Just show up for a couple of days of filming. Make the second easiest money you've ever made short of Ghostbusters' afterlife. Then you have a couple of friends from the previous movie who clearly don't have anything to do. They're just grandfathered into this film because they were in the previous film. If you took Finn Wolfhard out of this movie, movie wouldn't change at all.

I have to think he read the script and was like, You're fucking serious with this? With that many characters and how choppy the movie feels at times, I imagine there's an extra half an hour on the cutting room floor we just didn't get to see here. I always appreciate a movie that comes in under the two-hour run time mark, but not at the expense of character development. I mean, the family dynamic from Ghostbusters Afterlife is still in here, and it's at its next phase. Paul Rudd's character is Am I their stepdad? Am I able to be a parent? Am I a friend? Weird line for me to walk because I've never walked it before. But it, like so many other things in here, just feels like an afterthought. That's what this should be called. The sequel to Ghostbusters Afterlife, Ghostbusters Afterthought. Perfect and honest marketing, a rarity in Hollywood these days. This movie feels like a series of test reels, a series of scenes involving different characters to see what lands with the audience most, to see who actually can come back for the third film. I guess it'd be the fifth film. But third in terms the remake will leave.

The Nostalga bait was very baity, and it was in it, you bet you. Not only do they have the little Baby Staypuff Marshmallow Man's back because Baby Groot and Baby Yoda, they crushed. Are we still in that phase of baby versions of IP trending online? I don't know. Let's hope so. Yeah, those references are there. Worst of all, they're obvious. You know when they're coming. You're like, Yeah, there's a character from the first Ghostbusters movie. That's forced. How big is this city? That guy still work there? Why does he work there? Also, how'd that guy get that job? But there's a scene where they're running and I was like, Oh, given the location and the nostalgia baitiness that's already been in here, there's a reference coming, and this is going to be the reference in three, two, one. Yep. Like a punch in slow motion, you'll see it coming a mile away, too. You know what one of the most interesting characters in this movie was? I found this to be baffling, was the orb, the ball, the haunted item, the device. It's the creepiest thing in the film. It has the most screen presence of anyone in the movie.

Anytime it was on screen, I was curious if not enthralled, to a degree none of the other characters actually got me to. Upstaged by a big quidditch ball. And Kumal Nanjani is in this movie to bring some not much needed slapstick. Dude, he felt like he was from a completely different movie, if not cartoon. The contrast between the slapstick of how he was and how he acted when compared to the tone of the rest of the movie is so stark. It took me out of it. Like I said, there were moments when the humor and the horror did blend in a way I found to be interesting. On the other hand, there were moments with him where I was like, Oh, man, that scene actually had tension until you did that. I've already touched on the pacing, right? The pacing being horrid. It is. The first half of this movie is boring. It's a slog. The second half is more fun than the first half, sure, but none of it feels earned. It all feels forced. It feels like Dollar Store Ghostbusters. That's what it is. Ghostbusters: frozen Empire is simply a product of its time.