Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

 

Greeting and salutations.

Once again, I’ve emerged from the darkened confines of my local movie theater.  After a great deal of anticipation on my part, I took in an early showing of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Getting down to tacks of brass I’m going to make this review short if not so sweet.

I had been eagerly awaiting the release of GFE since the first trailer drop. After the bang-up job done with Ghostbusters: After Life I expected/hoped for another home run. For my money though, this time around the Ghostbuster franchise has hit a double at best.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a film that weirdly has all the elements you can want in a Ghostbuster film in spades to make it work, yet sadly, it doesn't. Everything from cast, sets, costumes, props, locales etc. are there but never quite combine in a satisfying manner.

OGs, callbacks, homages, new faves, upgrades, great visuals.  It’s all there. But like much of the film’s humor it falls flat and fails to resonate in a manner greater than the sum of its individual parts. 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire has a runtime of only an hour fifty-five minutes, but I swear it felt closer to two and a half easily.  The pacing is rough. It pains me to say, yes, I got bored on and off throughout the film and struggled staying invested.  

Frozen Empire’s storyline is directionless and unbalanced. Many of the characters are undeveloped and have little to no cohesion with one another let alone plot.  People and things are dropped in randomly, never explained and glossed over. There’s really nothing to sink your teeth into.  

The biggest draw of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the nostalgia. As such there’s plenty of fan service which is wonderful.  The issue is there isn’t anything done with that fan service to bolster the film or move the franchise forward. You get all the elements you want except for a good story and a fun ride. Making GFE another prime example of a huge film that's all sizzle with little to no substance. Something which needs to be desperately rectified moving forward.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire the film gets a 6 from me.  The merchandising is a solid 10+

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