Three years ago, Ghostbusters: Afterlife infuriated film critics along with the mainstream media because the film became a direct sequel to Ghostbusters 2 which turned the feminist 2016 Ghostbusters movie into a noncanon adventure. 

The Paul Feig project got memory holed but the 2016 film was so bad, Jason Reitman had to step in and save his father’s Legacy while attempting to reinvigorate a scorned fan base. Ghostbusters: Afterlife was full of fanservice and callbacks which was a return to form for a franchise that has been starving for a positive move forward for the last 35 years.  

While Ghostbusters: Afterlife succeeded by leaving Ghostbusters fans with a much better taste in their mouth than they got in 2016,  the question became where does the Ghostbusters franchise move forward from here?

If the purpose of Ghostbusters’ afterlife was to get back into the good graces of its fan base then what is the goal of Ghostbusters Frozen Empire?  Every time Hollywood takes one step forward they immediately find a way to take eight steps back and there is no better example of this than the latest film from Sony Pictures.

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire returns to the franchise from the sticks of Oklahoma to its roots in New York City. The Spangler family is back at the old Ghostbusters headquarters in New York City doing ghostbusting as a family… sort of. 

Gary (Paul Rudd), Callie (Carrie Coon) are now a serious couple which has drawn the ire of Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) who isn’t ready for a new stepfather in her life.  The teenager doesn’t like the fact that people are still treating her as a kid even though she’s only 15 years old and wants to take the ghostbusting business more seriously.

As Phoebe is fighting for some respect, things in the city begin to go haywire after a supernatural Force threatens humanity’s existence.  An ancient demon that has been locked away for thousands of years is threatening to find a way out and its very existence causes people to be frozen to death. 

The newer and younger Ghostbusters must band together and stop this entity from Gathering every ghost that has ever been captured in New York and Waging War against the world.

Ghostbusters Frozen Empire is the latest Soulless attempt by Sony to placate Ghostbusters fans with member berries while trying to ship the franchise in a young adult Direction. The film lives and breathes with two aspects, Nostalgia baiting the old-school fans of the franchise hoping that some of their Goodwill from the last movie carries over to this one. 

All of your favorite surviving Ghostbusters are back in their ’80s and their presence in the film gives the old-school fans the legitimacy that this is still the franchise that they love from 1984 even though they’re appearance is nothing more than window dressing.

When they’re not playing up to member berries, the film Produces typical Hollywood humor in the sense that none of the jokes are funny but they think that the audience is laughing along. Paul Rudd is in the film playing essentially Paul Rudd and the only difference between his performance in this movie versus his performance in movies such as Ant-Man is that in this movie he doesn’t shrink and grow at will.

Mckenna Grace It’s still the focus of this movie even if it’s by the fault but Frozen Empire turns her character into nothing more than a rebellious teenage girl dealing with mommy issues and possibly falling into lesbianism along the way. The film cannot find a creative middle ground between its 40 to 60 year old core audience and the generation Z crowd it is trying to pull in by pushing younger actors. 

For a movie that went so far as to ignore the 2016 Ghostbusters movie Frozen Empire is a film that reverts to every Flaw that audiences hated about the prior films to the point that by the time you get to the end credits all of the Goodwill that was set up with the previous installment will be completely wiped away. 

For a movie with about a dozen new characters thrown into the mix, the audiences will have a tough time liking any of them let alone remembering their names in the process.Then again, it’s not like seeing Bill Murray or Dan Aykroyd at this stage of their careers is helping anyone either.

Take away the Nostalgia and the sad attempts at making the Ghostbusters Universe hip and cool for a new audience.  Ghostbusters Frozen Empire is a dull uninspiring Mess of a film. If Ghostbusters Afterlife is the Best Ghostbusters Film In The Last 8 Years, Frozen Empire that could easily go down the powerful pound worst Ghostbusters movie to date, yes that includes the movie with Kate McKinnon. 

1/5

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