Tag: Jason Reitman

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review: Too Many Characters Creates a Scattered Film.

I quite enjoyed the 2021 Ghostbusters reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
It brought a smile to my face, as it lovingly paid tribute to what came before, while paving a road for a new set of characters.
After watching the sequel, however, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, I can say that it was lacking a lot of that charm.
Directed by Gil Kenan, and written by him and Jason Reitman, Frozen Empire picks up three years after Afterlife.
The Spengler family has now taken on the role of the Ghostbusters in New York, with the original team helping them out.
After being sold a mysterious orb, the team slowly begins to realize it holds a powerful spirit, capable of freezing the world. 

The ice age comes to New York in Frozen Empire.

And so, the Ghostbusters, new and old, have to unite to take on this latest threat.
This, naturally, means there are a lot of characters to follow in this movie, which is Frozen Empire’s biggest problem.
Some of these characters do have good storylines, don’t get me wrong.
Just like in Afterlife, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) has the best story, with her befriending a ghost girl, and Paul Rudd is still a lot of fun as Gary.
Kumail Nanjiani also has a fun presence, and his character received most of the few laughs from the audience I saw the film with.
But there are just simply too many characters to follow in this movie, resulting in many of them having next to no story and thus feeling entirely unnecessary.
Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), Lucky (Celeste O’Connor), and Podcast (Logan Kim) all just feel like they are there because they were in Afterlife. 

If half the cast from the previous movie had not returned, then I feel like Frozen Empire’s plot could have been more succinct.

As for the original Ghostbusters, while their return at the end of Afterlife was a well-done moment of fan service, some of them just feel like they are here to whip up nostalgia, most notably Bill Murray’s Peter Venkman. 
Having all of these characters to follow, many of them with pointless storylines or no storylines at all, makes the film quite jumbled.
This is not to say my opinion of Frozen Empire is entirely negative, though.
The villain feels unique, even if it does suffer a bit from the trope of standing around too much, giving the heroes time to fight back.

The antagonist at least feels somewhat intimidating.

There were some good storylines, like with the already mentioned Phoebe, Gary and Nadeem.
There were also a couple good laughs here and there, even if a lot of the jokes did miss the mark.
Overall, I would say Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a fine movie.
It is one you can watch to pass the time for a bit.
Certainly not as good as Afterlife but thankfully nowhere near as bad as Ghostbusters 2016.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife Review: Bringing a Smile to my Face.

The Ghostbusters franchise has an interesting history, with the first one being considered a classic by many and its sequel also being enjoyed, although thought to be not as good.
Personally, it’s been a while since I saw the second one, but I do remember quite liking the first one.
Unfortunately this was not the case for the 2016 reboot, which I found to be quite bad and unfunny, apart from a few moments that made me chuckle.
Coming into the latest film in the franchise, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, I was actually pretty optimistic since it’s directed by Jason Reitman, the son of the director of the first two film’s, Ivan Reitman.
Sure enough, Afterlife is a charming movie which I am sure a lot of fans of the first two Ghostbusters films will enjoy. 

I found myself smiling a lot watching Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

The movie follows a struggling family who move to the small remote town of Summerville to live in their dead grandfather’s rundown farm.
However, after strange happenings, the daughter of the family, Phoebe, begins to realize that something paranormal is going on in Summerville, something which their grandfather had been trying to stop, as he may have been a Ghostbuster.
Phoebe is without a doubt the heart and soul of this movie, with McKenna Grace delivering an excellent performance as the quirky and courageous kid.

I hope McKenna Grace’s career takes off after this film because she is excellent in it.

Phoebe’s mother Callie (Carrie Coon), and her new science teacher Gary Grooberson are also interesting characters, and I actually wish Gary got more screen time, since I enjoyed Paul Rudd’s performance.
The one exception to all this is the son of the family, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), whose story I quickly became disinterested in and felt that it was kind of out of place with the rest of the narrative.
Said narrative is also entirely predictable and full of fan service.
However, I am not saying that either of those things are bad things.
Sure, I guessed where the story was going pretty easily as I was watching, but the story was so charming that I was just along for the ride.
As for the fanservice, we already know from Spiderman: No Way Home that it can be used excellently, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife is another example of this.
I remember grinning from ear to ear during one exciting chase sequence in the film.
It made me feel the same level of enjoyment that I remember feeling when watching the original Ghostbusters all those years ago. 

And this chase is not the only scene in the movie that brought me joy seeing.

This all culminates in a heartfelt ending that really pays respect to the old cast, both those still with us and one who has tragically passed.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife is a perfectly enjoyable movie with a lot of charm and I would recommend it to any fan of the franchise who has somehow not seen it yet.