GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE | REVIEW

28MF...5MUD

7 Apr 2024

APRIL 7, 2024 THEFILM.BLOG LEAVE A COMMENT
★★
There’s a parallel universe out there in which audiences didn’t sleep on Paul Feig’s gender-switched Ghostbusters reboot. Misogyny does not exist on this spectral plane. Inevitably, the female ‘busters would have united with the original gang by now, in some nostalgia porn sequel, but 2021’s Afterlife would never have happened. To think what might have been. Instead, here is Frozen Empire, a fair but largely phoned-in fifth entry in a franchise struggling to proving itself more than the sum of its theme tune. Apologies, fourth entry. In this universe, the powers that be remain keen to pretend 2016 never happened (aren’t we all?). A return to New York here puts the nail in Feig’s coffin.
To its credit, Frozen Empire is a less maudlin affair than was Afterlife. There’s still a whiff of unnecessary but co-writers Ivan Reitman and Gil Kenan, who takes over directorial duties, do well to remember the want for fun and abject silliness. That’s not to say their script is actively good – truly original thought remains an alien concept to the pair – but you can’t go too far wrong with possessed pizzas, kooky gadgets and an on-form Kumail Nanijani. Frozen Empire even dabbles in genuine chills. It’s a strong opening act that climaxes with a frostbitten fist still winding a gramophone post-amputation from the arm of its frozen owner. Brrr.
Somewhat spuriously, that scene takes place a century earlier than the rest of the film. Best not to question. Fast forward to the here and now and it’s all go in Manhattan. The iconic Ecto-1, as driven by Paul Rudd’s likeably Paul Rudd-ish Gary Grooberson, is hot on the scales of the Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon. Carrie Coon’s Callie pilots a drone to his left, while the third generation Spenglers – Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) – wield proton packs from the rear. They catch the spook but at a price. One time EPA inspector, now mayor, Walter Peck (William Atherton) wants the whole operation shut down…again. Something about infrastructural liability.
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It’s a smart move that keeps Grace front and centre second time around. Phoebe was easily the best newbie in Afterlife and remains so here. When Peck has her ousted from the team, on age grounds, Phoebe is drawn down a path of metaphysical questioning, alongside a twinkly Dan Akroyd, whose Ray Stantz hasn’t lost the old spark. He’s semi-retired but the emphasis is on the semi: ‘This is how I want to spend my golden years, this is what I love.’ Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts, too, enjoy returns, albeit with smaller parts, while Bill Murray could hardly look less interested in reprising Venkman if he tried. If Murray’s zingers looked lame on the page, they die in the delivery.
Truth be told, there’s rather too much going on here for the film’s own good. Too much and too little sense. Certainly, Frozen Empire suffers some truly frightful leaps of logic, not to mention the odd ghoulish plot hole. It’s akin to story being scribed around a series of preconceived set pieces; visual ideas joined up with a dot to dot narrative. Surely this explains the rote villain too? A skeletal familiar with glowing blue eyes and the ability to conjure ice simply because…wouldn’t New York would look really cool – ahem – frozen?! They weren’t wrong, it does.
Not that looking cool is ever really enough, of course. While much of Frozen Empire looks the part, it is but a chaotic veneer on a substance lacking exactly that. Substance. One could say, Reitman and Kenan’s toy box lands heavily on thin ice. Perhaps they get away with it this time but there’s no mileage. An icy foe might find itself beaten today but the reception can only get frostier from here on.
T.S.