Admittedly, I found this film more enjoyable simply because I am a die hard fan of Ghostbusters. That being said, I still think this is not a bad film to see in theaters. It just feels like it could have been much better.
The Good Stuff The film has several strong points. For one, it really makes you feel as if you are inside of the firehouse. It transports the audience from floor to floor, showing you new areas and also showing you how the firehouse is connected- which is cool if you're a GB nerd.
Frozen Empire is also fairly good at creating a "lived in" world feel of a Ghostbusters New York. I didn't necessarily mind the brief cameos of returning characters. I know some will say they only function as nostalgia bait (which yeah- that's a bit true) , but I also think they provide the sense that the Ghostbusters have a history in this version of New York- and it oddly gave a nice sense of escapism.
Also, I have to say that the old cast (especially Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson) really shine in this film. Despite the fact that they are all up there in age, they injected a life and spirit to the story that at times felt sorely lacking when they weren't there.
The Plot I found that the plot is where this film really struggles. Much of this can be attributed to the ridiculous number of characters it boasts. On top of almost all of the original characters from Afterlife returning, we have several new characters unique to this film as well as much larger roles for members of the original cast. I liked certain characters from Afterlife, but the ways they're shoe horned into the film really make you wonder why they have to be in this particular story. At the very least it would have made more sense for Winston to have created a "Junior" Ghostbusters summer internship ( for all of them) as opposed to the various ways these characters come to New York City.
The sheer number of characters creates a lot of subplots - many of which fell quite flat for me. Despite the fact that it starts with a car chase through New York, the film feels like it's clearing its throat for the majority of its 2 hour run time rather than hitting its stride.
The editing of this film ( basically all of the various subplots put together) gave me the feeling that I was watching a loose collection of scenes that were pasted together- almost as if different versions of the script were put together to make this final version. The leads to a tonally inconsistent feeling. Frozen Empire often feels like it's veering from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon to Twilight to quirky Marvel-esque kind of humor. I hate to say, but I think a lot of the jokes in Frozen Empire fell flat because of this.
The Sense of Realism
Though it was admittedly a story about scientists catching ghosts, the original Ghostbusters had a sense of realism to ground it just enough . You felt that they were starting this fantastical business in the real world.
This film at times is more reflective of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and Ghostbusters 2 as opposed to the original. There are certain events that happen early on in this film that detract from the more grounded tone of Afterlife and the original. I want to be perfectly clear that I am referring to the human side of events and not ghosts.
Essentially, there are a number of pretty blatant plot contrivances that hurt the film. I know the audience for this will be children, but I found certain things just blatantly didn't make sense as to how they were able to happen- and made the world seem inconsistent.
The Ending (NO SPOILERS just what ifs)
Okay, so again, NO SPOILERS will be included in this section. The ending felt underwhelming. To be vague, certain things happen that have happened before- and I felt like the story doesn't do enough to make me see why this time it would be much worse. Plus, I personally think we should have gotten to the frozen-ness side of things much earlier on in the script. Instead we get very little of the big bad, and two contrived ( well what if we do this?) solutions that kind of feel like the writers pulled them out of their arse as opposed to their arsenal.
It would have been neat to see the GB team split up into groups to traverse a frozen, paranormal New York City- teaming up together to fight the big bad at the end.
Sadly that didn't happen.
Final Conclusion
I would really like to say more about this movie, but I want to avoid spoilers. Despite my complaining, I still enjoyed it and hope Jason Reitman is able to make one more. It would be nice if he directed a third film instead of Gil Kenan.
This film's main weakness is that it felt like it could have been so much more than what was released. Even with an almost 2 hour run time, there is often too much happening and a serious lack of cohesion. I would hope that a third film could be a lot tighter and have less characters- even if that meant we don't see some of our friends from Afterlife the next time around.
The Good Stuff The film has several strong points. For one, it really makes you feel as if you are inside of the firehouse. It transports the audience from floor to floor, showing you new areas and also showing you how the firehouse is connected- which is cool if you're a GB nerd.
Frozen Empire is also fairly good at creating a "lived in" world feel of a Ghostbusters New York. I didn't necessarily mind the brief cameos of returning characters. I know some will say they only function as nostalgia bait (which yeah- that's a bit true) , but I also think they provide the sense that the Ghostbusters have a history in this version of New York- and it oddly gave a nice sense of escapism.
Also, I have to say that the old cast (especially Dan Aykroyd and Ernie Hudson) really shine in this film. Despite the fact that they are all up there in age, they injected a life and spirit to the story that at times felt sorely lacking when they weren't there.
The Plot I found that the plot is where this film really struggles. Much of this can be attributed to the ridiculous number of characters it boasts. On top of almost all of the original characters from Afterlife returning, we have several new characters unique to this film as well as much larger roles for members of the original cast. I liked certain characters from Afterlife, but the ways they're shoe horned into the film really make you wonder why they have to be in this particular story. At the very least it would have made more sense for Winston to have created a "Junior" Ghostbusters summer internship ( for all of them) as opposed to the various ways these characters come to New York City.
The sheer number of characters creates a lot of subplots - many of which fell quite flat for me. Despite the fact that it starts with a car chase through New York, the film feels like it's clearing its throat for the majority of its 2 hour run time rather than hitting its stride.
The editing of this film ( basically all of the various subplots put together) gave me the feeling that I was watching a loose collection of scenes that were pasted together- almost as if different versions of the script were put together to make this final version. The leads to a tonally inconsistent feeling. Frozen Empire often feels like it's veering from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon to Twilight to quirky Marvel-esque kind of humor. I hate to say, but I think a lot of the jokes in Frozen Empire fell flat because of this.
The Sense of Realism
Though it was admittedly a story about scientists catching ghosts, the original Ghostbusters had a sense of realism to ground it just enough . You felt that they were starting this fantastical business in the real world.
This film at times is more reflective of the Real Ghostbusters cartoon and Ghostbusters 2 as opposed to the original. There are certain events that happen early on in this film that detract from the more grounded tone of Afterlife and the original. I want to be perfectly clear that I am referring to the human side of events and not ghosts.
Essentially, there are a number of pretty blatant plot contrivances that hurt the film. I know the audience for this will be children, but I found certain things just blatantly didn't make sense as to how they were able to happen- and made the world seem inconsistent.
The Ending (NO SPOILERS just what ifs)
Okay, so again, NO SPOILERS will be included in this section. The ending felt underwhelming. To be vague, certain things happen that have happened before- and I felt like the story doesn't do enough to make me see why this time it would be much worse. Plus, I personally think we should have gotten to the frozen-ness side of things much earlier on in the script. Instead we get very little of the big bad, and two contrived ( well what if we do this?) solutions that kind of feel like the writers pulled them out of their arse as opposed to their arsenal.
It would have been neat to see the GB team split up into groups to traverse a frozen, paranormal New York City- teaming up together to fight the big bad at the end.
Sadly that didn't happen.
Final Conclusion
I would really like to say more about this movie, but I want to avoid spoilers. Despite my complaining, I still enjoyed it and hope Jason Reitman is able to make one more. It would be nice if he directed a third film instead of Gil Kenan.
This film's main weakness is that it felt like it could have been so much more than what was released. Even with an almost 2 hour run time, there is often too much happening and a serious lack of cohesion. I would hope that a third film could be a lot tighter and have less characters- even if that meant we don't see some of our friends from Afterlife the next time around.