I’m of the unpopular opinion here. But I actually liked Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire a lot better than Ghostbusters: Afterlife. That movie felt like more of a retread of the first Ghostbusters movie. It’s the same way the Star Wars sequel movies, especially The Force Awakens, seemed was just like A New Hope of the foolish idea to bring Emperor Palpatine back in Rise of Skywalker. The story of Gozer seemed to be done to make all the fans happier.
But Frozen Empire, like the sequel hated by many, takes the franchise into a different route. For many people who loved the movie, I came home every day to watch the cartoon The Real Ghostbusters after school. (Filmation had the TV rights to The Ghost Busters, a 1970s live-action TV show so they decided to make a cartoon based on the TV show and called it Ghostbusters as they still owned the TV rights to the title. There’s also rumors that Columbia Pictures and its parent company Coca-Cola at the time used “Hollywood Accounting” to cheat Filmation out of residuals. So “The Real” to the title to troll Filmation. I watched both and they both had their pros and cons.)
But what made the cartoon so great was that it focused on different evil characters and legends. I remember there was a show where the Headless Horseman torments descendants of Ichabod Crane and is driving a motorcycle. Then, there was Samhain, a evil spirit with a pumpkin for a head. And there was the Boogieman, a creature from Egon Spengler’s past, that terrorizes the ghostbusters. The Boogieman with his huge head and goat-like legs was one of the memorable characters.
The cartoon series would have many episodes written by J. Michael Straczynski and Michael Reaves, who would later go on to write for Batman: The Animated Series and other shows. So, the show had a lot of talent behind the cameras including a then unknown Arsenio Hall voicing Winston Zeddemore. The series tackled more darker and serious topics than the 1984 movie while blending the wiseacre style of humor the movie had with more serious drama when needed.
Frozen Empire brings back the older characters and the newer ones in a nice way that works. The main focus is still on the Spengler family with mom, Callie (Carrie Coon), moving the family from Summerville, Okla., to the old Ghostbusters firehouse in New York City. With her is her son, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and daughter, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), and her “step-teacher” Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd). They’ve been handed the keys to the firehouse and use of the Ghostbusters by Winston (Ernie Hudson).
As the movie begins, they are chasing a sewer dragon spirit through NYC which they capture. However, the destruction of buildings, lamp posts and other items invokes the ire of Walter Peck (William Atherton), now the mayor having once worked for the Environmental Protection Agency. Peck is upset that Phoebe, only 15 is being allowed to work, and orders her be removed as a ghostbusters citing child labor laws. Peck makes it known his goal is to close down the whole operation.
Phoebe is angry as Callie and Gary try to tell her it’s best she enjoy her summer and youth doing other things. But as they try to place the dragon spirit in the ecto-containment unit, they discover it may be getting too full. Winston tells them that he has a new paranormal research center run by Dr. Lars Pinfield (James Acaster) that could possibly house the beings but it’d take years to transfer them.
Janine Melnitz (Annie Potts) and Winston say the firehouse itself has some history in connection with the paranormal. In a prologue, it’s shown a fire brigade operated out of building in 1901 that responded to a call at the meeting of an adventurers’ club who were all frozen alive when a brass orb was presented. The orb is sold to Dr. Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) by a shady New Yorker Nadeem Razmaddi (Kumail Nanjiani) after it blows the PKE meter off the chart. Ray along with Podcast (Logan Kim) are operating a web-series where people bring in their items believed to be possessed or haunted.
At the same time, while she is angry at Callie and Gary for refusing to allow her to be a ghostbuster, Phoebe strikes up a friendship with Melody (Emily Ann Lind), a teenage spirit who died in a house fire that also killed her family. Melody explains that she started the fire which may be while she remains on Earth rather than transcending into the other world. But we soon learn there’s more to Melody’s demeanor than finding another teenage girl to talk to after years of being dead.
It’s a lot to take in. To squeeze it all into a movie that run under two hours is a testament to good storytelling and even better editing. Mainly it’s because we’ve already met the vast majority of all characters, there’s none of that establishing exposition that happens in other movies. Yet, that is also the problem. There’s over a dozen characters we follow through the course of this movie.
I will admit the writers gave Callie more to do and she’s come to peace with her estrangement from Egon. She’s not as nagging this time around. And Gary is having to contend with being the adult in the situation rather than Phoebe’s teacher-friend. Trevor is still a supporting role. There’s a small subplot about him discovering Slimer living in the attics and trying to capture him. And his somewhat girlfriend, Lucky Domingo (Celeste O’Connor), appears as an intern at the paranormal center.
Since the concept of Ghostbusters was Aykroyd’s baby many years ago, Ray is given more screen time as opposed to the others. Bill Murray’s Dr. Peter Venkman screen time is used well as well as Winston and Janine. Ray is having to contend with if he’s too old or not to still be a ghostbuster as he continues to investigate the brass orb with Phoebe and Podcast taking them back to the New York Public Library. When Aykroyd was writing a script for the never produced third Ghostbusters movie, Murray questioned returning claiming they were too old and no one would want to see them near their 60s running around in the uniform chasing ghosts. This is echoed by Winston who wants Ray to enjoy his “Golden Years” doing something else.
I guess this works as a contrast with Phoebe who is told she is too young. Again this time around, Phoebe seems to be the main character. There has been some questions posed about Phoebe. Some have noted she shows signs of being on the autism spectrum. Others have theorized that she may be nonbinary. Her interactions with Melody have raised the question of if she is crushing on the teenage specter or is it just a trait with how she interacts.
I’d argue giving her age and upbringing, Phoebe like most teenage girls her age range are questioning things. She thinks she’s too old to be a child but people say she’s too young to be an adult. There’s a running gag where Trevor is upset that he isn’t taken seriously as an adult now that he’s 18. But I don’t think Phoebe’s way of dress or how she styles her hair is an indication of her sexuality. I think it’s more of a stereotype. I think Phoebe is just fascinated with Melody that she’s never met a teenage girl ghost.
This was an issue with the 2016 movie as it faced criticism for cutting out references to Kate McKinnon’s character being gay. But what does it matter if they are gay or not especially since the character didn’t have a love interest in that movie? It’s putting a lot into a movie that already has a very complex story. Gil Kenan, who made the animated movie Monster House, directs this time and co-wrote the screenplay with Jason Reitman, director of Afterlife, and son of Ivan, director of the first two movies. I think their main focus was coming up with a plot to continue to franchise.
But there’s also a problem. The main villain, Garraka, this time around is given little time considering how dangerous it is. Granted you don’t bring the shark out in the first reel of Jaws but after building the character up for about two thirds of the movie, it only seems to appear in the climax of the movie for a few minutes. For a movie with the subtitle Frozen Empire, it seems like they pulled a Jason Takes Manhattan by only having a few minutes of NYC under a frozen world and then centralizing the whole climax in and around the firehouse.
For what it’s worth, it does work. It’s nice to see Ray, Winston and Peter suit up again and Janine joins them. Grace’s performance as Phoebe is a great role even though both this movie and Afterlife have their problems. At only 18, she has proven to be an amazing child actress. Hopefully, she can keep the momentum into adulthood and not become corrupted. Rudd does his usual laid-back nice guy schtick.
But I’m just wondering if the movie’s performance at the box office and mixed reception with credits has frozen any chances with more movies. Produced on a budget of $100 million, it made about $202 million. It’s not bad but now movies like that are expected to make about half a billion to be considered successful.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 