'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' Tries Again to Resurrect the Franchise

The Ghostbusters franchise has been valiantly trying to stay alive for years, but none of the rebooted and updated films have drawn nearly as much affection as the original comedy classic. That's unlikely to change with the latest installment, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a sequel that, according to critics, is only marginally better than its most recent predecessor. Read on for details.

Via Variety.

There is more energized ghostbusting going on in the opening scene of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” than there was in all of “Ghostbusters: Afterlife.” The new team — science wiz Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), now 15; her older brother, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard); their testy “We’re doing this? Okay, whatever!” mom, Callie (Carrie Coon); and Gary the seismologist (Paul Rudd), who is now Callie’s significant other, though he’s working hard to earn his place as a stepfather figure — are racing down Fifth Avenue in the refurbished Ectomobile, blasting their proton guns at a long thin slithery beast that pops out of the sewer and skitters through the air. (What kind of creature is it? It’s the species known as eye candy.) The scene is mostly brainless action, yet it has a family-that-busts-together-stays-together zap.

Yes, thank Gozer, the franchise is back in New York City, where Phoebe and her fam have moved into the refurbished Hook and Ladder 8 firehouse from the original “Ghostbusters.” It’s full of equipment like a Containment Unit, into which a great deal of paranormal entities have been stuffed. “This building is the finger in the dam,” says Ernie Hudson’s Winston, making it clear that the premise of the first film — the world is at stake! — has been revived, along with the weapons, suits, cheesy practical effects, and a wisp of corporate counterculture ‘tude.

“Ghostbusters,” released 40 years ago this summer, was a hash of ectoplasmic silliness, gizmo gadgetry, pulsating light-show apocalypse, and Bill Murray’s nattering meta commentary on it all, which added up to a comedy whose theme, very much of the Reagan ’80s, was: The world may be about to end, but it could hardly matter less. You’d think it might matter even less in “Frozen Empire,” yet somehow the “Ghostbusters” films have evolved into (mostly) straight-faced paranormal adventures, with just enough screen time from the original actors — Dan Aykroyd has a meaty role here, and gives it a little soul — to root the nostalgia.

“Frozen Empire” includes token appearances by our blobby old green ghost friends, who have a way of regurgitating into people’s faces, plus occasional comic relief from the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man army, which the series is trying to turn into the new Minions. Mostly, though, “Frozen Empire” dishes up a collection of occult artifacts and otherworldly forces that are treated as seriously as they would be in, say, an “Indiana Jones” movie.

There’s the Orb of Garraka, an ancient metal sphere comprised of glyph letters that sometimes fall apart, like the tops of old typewriter keys, releasing assorted spirits. There’s a very human-looking ghost, played by the winsome blonde Emily Alyn Lind, who connects with Phoebe during a nighttime chess game in Washington Square Park. For a while, the two look like they’re on their way to becoming friends (or maybe more), until it’s revealed that the ghost has another agenda. And there is Garraka himself, a 20-foot-tall emaciated ash-gray devil-mummy spirit with elongated ram horns, who has the power to kill almost anything by freezing it to death. So powerful is his ice magic that it freezes even the voltage squiggles from the proton packs, and turns Manhattan into a deathly ice palace.

Did I mention that the “Ghostbusters” series has mostly put the jokes in cold storage?

Three years ago, Jason Reitman rebooted his dad’s franchise, and the result was a movie for anyone who thought that the most entertaining part of the original “Ghostbusters” was…the science! Not Bill Murray’s tossed-off absurdist japes, not the Godzilla-size Stay Puft Marshallow Man, but all the tech-geek jibber-jabber. “Afterlife” repositioned the “Ghostbusters” brand as actual nerd sci-fi. “Science is reckless,” said Phoebe. “Totally!” replied Gary. “It’s punk rock! It’s a safety pin through the nipple of academia!” The movie was so enthralled by its fake science that Jason Reitman seemed to have all but forgotten that the original “Ghostbusters” became a classic because it was, you know, funny.

Get the rest of the story at Variety.