Such is the setup for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a fun homecoming for the franchise after its Oklahoma-set predecessor, 2021 Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The movie is jam packed with Ghostbusters, both original recipe – Aykroyd being joined by Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore and, of course, Bill Murray as Peter Venkman – and the newer generation. The film has a large ensemble and the screenplay does a mostly decent job in balancing screen time for both the original Ghostbusters and the newer generation, though there are a few places where things seems to lag under its own weight. Unfortunately, not every character gets an equal amount of time to shine. Podcast and Lucky, Phoebe and Trevor’s new friends from the last film are seemingly lost in the shuffle. Podcast (Logan Kim) is now Ray’s summer intern, so basically the character has been demoted to being a supporting character to a supporting character. Celeste O’Connor’s Lucky is also working within the Ghostbusters business, at a research facility, so she gets a bit more to do. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t really give any time to explore what became of the budding relationship we saw between her and Wolfhard’s Trevor in the last film.
The actor who really benefits here is Ernie Hudson and his character of Winston. Between the time that Hudson signed on for the original Ghostbusters film in 1983 and when cameras started rolling later that year, there had been a script rewrite that somewhat reduced his character’s role, a situation he had spoken about years after the film’s release. In Frozen Empire, though, Hudson gets to stretch his acting muscles a bit more, especially in a scene where Winston and Ray have a discussion about whether they are just getting too old to continue busting ghosts or not.
While Afterlife showed that the general concept of the Ghostbuster franchise had some malleability to it with its more emotional storyline centering on families and forgiveness, some fans found themselves wishing for more of the straightforward comedy of the previous installments. Frozen Empire does mark a return to not just familiar Ghostbusters environs in Manhattan but to its established mix of comedy with some genuine horror scares sprinkled in. The script supplies many witty lines and moments of broad slapstick. Rudd and Coon’s chemistry as they try and figure out what exactly Gary’s role will be in parenting Trevor and Phoebe is charming and fun. And some of the jokes featured in the film’s trailers that seemed flat play better within the context of the actual scenes they are from. And speaking of trailers, the film holds two entire storylines that were kept out of the marketing materials, so there are some genuine surprises that aren’t spoiled by the film’s promotion.
Frozen Empire does raise a question that often is poised when a new installment of a popular franchises debuts – What exactly is “fan service”? There are two schools of thought here. Is the inclusion of an incidental character not seen since the 1984 original film the filmmakers playing off the audience’s nostalgia and saying, “Hey remember this guy?” or is it just acknowledging that the Ghostbusters world is a continuum and some people will pop up in these stories now and again? It can be a complicated issue and at times may be indicative of an audience’s approach to the movie rather than the movie’s approach to the material. Personally, as done here, I don’t find that such fleeting moments generally impact the narrative in any way, though one’s mileage may vary as it were.
While Frozen Empire is not the best installment of the franchise, it certainly is a serviceable and entertaining one. It reminds me of the saying among some pizza connoisseurs, “Even if it’s not great pizza, it’s still pizza.” This might not be great Ghostbusters, but it’s still entertaining enough for the brand.
