Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

[The Joker]

[Silver Nemesis]

I don't like how they've made Ernie so small here. It's not as bad as the original 1984 poster, where they left him out entirely, but he's one of the classic Ghostbusters and as such he deserves prominence of place at the top. Winston and Janine should be behind Ant-Man instead of Mike from Stranger Things.

[thecolorsblend]

Would be nice if Moranis came back. He's doing a new Honey I Shrunk The Kids movie (how many of these does ANYBODY need?), so why not Ghostbusters?

[The Joker]

I don't like how they've made Ernie so small here. It's not as bad as the original 1984 poster, where they left him out entirely,

I vividly remember that being something of a pattern of behavior with the video games. The Atari (which I never played), the NES, nor the Sega Master video games featured Winston whatsoever. I think the Sega Master video game got a belated online update where Winston is now playable, but yeah, for us Winston Zeddemore fans who grew up playing these games during the '80s/'90s, we were pretty much SOL.

[Silver Nemesis]

[The Joker]

[Silver Nemesis]

[The Dark Knight]

Not surprised this is getting average reviews.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ghostbusters_frozen_empire

I won't be wasting my time. Sony should just pack up the franchise.

Looks as average as Afterlife. Lame title, lame special effects and I still can't work out if that kid is a boy or a girl. The franchise ended with Ghostbusters 2, with The Game being a tasteful tribute. This kiddy stuff is a joke. If it didn't have the Ghostbusters branding I doubt people would care all that much.

[The Joker]

SPOILER REVIEW!

Just got back from checking out "Ghostbusters Frozen Empire", and before going in, I've read people comparing this to the 80's toon, and can say without a doubt, that comparison is very apt with "Frozen Empire". As there isn't anything egregious going on, such as being dismissive of the first two films, killing off one of the OG Ghostbusters, subverting expectations, or THE MESSAGE being up front and center. Honestly, it plays out as if it was a random episode inspired by the RGB toon. Whether that's a good thing, or bad thing, is up to one's perspective. The first GB was one of those perfect films that incorporated a lot of dry humor to great effect. None of the sequels that have ever been made has replicated that sort of approach with the humor. "Afterlife" had moments of it, but it's a very easy tell in seeing how GB2 and "Frozen Empire" took the route of being much more zany and RGB inspired. As a film, it's fine to just ok for me. This is the first GB movie that wasn't directed by a Reitman, and it shows. I didn't find much of the comedy particularly funny, and felt there were WAY too many characters and subplots, but did enjoy the nostalgia callbacks with characters/locations, and seeing much more of the OG Ghostbusters this time around. Actually, I was kinda surprised just how much Dan Aykroyd was in the movie. Ernie Hudson is also in this a good bit, but not nearly as significant as Dan. If I was a betting man, I would've thought it would be the other way around, but here we are. We do see Bill Murray pop up for a scene about midway, before joining the rest of the OG Ghostbusters and new cast for the final battle. The ghost villain was alright. It's just yet another one of those RGB comparisons that can be made, as this particular ghost comes across as a villain straight outta the '80's toon. Slimer returns as well obviously, whom was noticeably absent from "Afterlife", but surprisingly he's not treated as the mascot/pet as he was depicted from the RGB toon, nor is he the mischievous comedic ally from GB2. Rather, Slimer in "Frozen Empire" is more or less, portrayed as he was in the original 1984 film. As he doesn't really help or buddy up with the Spengler family, the OG's, or Paul Rudd. Somewhat antagonistic, but still humorous. Again, basically as he was in 1984. Which is an interesting route, considering just zany the proceedings are.

Speaking of RGB, I might have to break out my firehouse dvd set, and check out some episodes. I was hoping to have the newly released set of "Extreme Ghostbusters" in my mailbox today, but got informed it wasn't expected to arrive until Sun. "Extreme Ghostbusters" was one of those '90s toons I honestly didn't pay much attention to back in the day, thus I don't have any nostalgia for it, but I'm glad it finally got a official release and I'm interested in eventually getting acquainted with the series soon.

On where I would personally rank "Frozen Empire" among the 4 film GB movie franchise, unfortunately, I would have to place it dead last. It's ok, and not offensive (abiet too bloated honestly), but unlike "Afterlife" which was a very much needed course correction for the franchise, and something of a good palate cleanser following the whole Feig travesty, "Frozen Empire" by comparison just comes across as a episodic GB film. In my mind, it's similar to Ilya Salkind's statements of "Superman III" via his commentary track, which was simply a "episode" of Superman with Chris Reeve, rather than being something of a truly epic story as "Superman: The Movie", or "Superman II" was clearly aiming for.

Since RT was brought up (God I hate giving that site any clicks whatsoever), I see that the great divide between "critics" and the audience score on "Frozen Empire" is again polar opposites. I'm not even that crazy about this particular sequel, but I'm glad that people seem to have enjoyed it more than I evidently did. Course we saw this movie already with the critical reception of "Afterlife", as opposed to Feig's 2016 tripe. Sure, the RT "critic" score would very much like to have me believe that Feig's GB was the very best since the original (LMAO!), and I don't have any illusions there are "critics" that still to this day have a stick up their *ss about "Afterlife" wiping Feig's GBs clean from the slate of ever having a sequel (I'll forever be thankful to GB Afterlife for that!), but once again, this is just the dubious, rather than judicious, nature of RT "critic" score.

So what's the takeaway, kids? Make up your own mind of course.

Score: 6/10 seems just about right to me.

[The Dark Knight]

Girlbusters is a dumpster fire however I wish neither continuation existed at this point. A new set of films with the original cast members should have been much better than what we received. I'm with the critics all the way on this score disparity. I wouldn't be surprised if fans wanted to like the new films so bad, almost convincing themselves to. But there's just not enough to get excited about IMO.

While browsing reviews I saw this example of 'the message' Frozen Expire pushes:

Phoebe stumbles into a star-crossed lovers subplot, in which she falls for a ghost girl named Melody (Doctor Sleep's Emily Alyn Lind). Swiftly, Phoebe is established as a queer character in a sapphic flirtation. Following a cliched path of coming-of-age queer stories, Phoebe feels so isolated by her friends and family — though because of ghostbusting, not her sexuality — that she's desperate to get closer to her crush.

Hard pass.