PREMISE
When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.
THE GOOD STUFF
MCKENNA GRACE- Despite the fact that there are three more established names in this cast that are built above Grace, she still manages to be the emotional center and undeniable main character of this franchise. And just like in Ghostbusters: Afterlife she effortlessly carries the sections of the film that she is in.
She continues to be the real deal, and she’s proved it ever since that first film. She’s an Emmy nominee at 17 years old and continues to wildly exceed expectations in my opinion.
NOSTALGIA (GOOD)- I was a bit young when Ghostbusters came out, and even as I started to love movies I kind of never picked up on how beloved the first two movies were. As I sat there in the audience there were certain throwaway lines in this film that were said that elicited applause and laughter that were obviously callbacks to those films that I did not catch. It is quite endearing how they have flashbacks of certain scenes of those movies, and how welcomed by the audience it was whenever a character references lyrics to the theme song in casual conversation, and that the filmmakers have the presence of mind to understand that the original theme song should always open and close the film and should never be remixed or otherwise defiled in any way.
This movie also effortlessly manages to fit in the three remaining original Ghostbusters and not have them feel like glorified cameos. They are legit supporting characters in this, and that’s really nice to see.
THE BAD STUFF
IMPORTANT SECONDARY CHARACTERS- Not complaining about the performance of Kumail Nanjiani. Not complaining about the character either. What I am complaining about is this character’s place in the film. What Nanjiani plays in this film should be probably the second main character in the entire film. He is of that much importance. And yet he really doesn’t start cooking until the end of the second act. Because of that, this character very much feels like a plot device more than someone we get to know.
There is another character played by Emily Lind who is perhaps more important to the plot than most of the Ghostbusters team and is reduced even more than the Nanjiani character. There is a way to tell this story without sidelining the super important secondary characters like they do, and still have it be fun and enjoyable and all. But unfortunately, no.
THE UGLY STUFF
NOSTALGIA (BAD)- Maybe I’m in the minority here, but I actually liked that that first film was not set in New York. Simply by being set in a different location it gave the film such a different energy and made it a lot more modernized like it needed to be. There are so many Hollywood tent poles that are set in f****** New York City. So many. And to an extent, no matter what the tent pole itself is… You can only make New York feel and look a certain way after a while.
There are so many f****** films set in New York that you could probably recycle some of these establishing shots from films made in the past just to save yourself some money. I understand that certain characters in this are from New York, but I’ve been tired of NY for a long time as a setting. I bet some New Yorkers are tired of it as well.
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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is like a pizza that just has too many toppings.
You ever just had like, six toppings on a medium Pizza because your eyes were bigger than your stomach when you called in the delivery? The pizza shows up, it looks good, and it tastes nice, however, it just gets clumpy and messy because… well there’s just too much going on at once. That is kinda how I feel about this film.
We’ve all come to understand that the sequel to a financially successful film is going to have more money thrown at it, the scope is going to be bigger, and whatever the first one did right is going to be replicated twice over for a sequel. But there are too many characters here, too many different ideas going on, and it becomes readily apparent that the first one is in fact the better movie because it kept it a lot simpler.
GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE is in theaters now
