'Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire' is the 5th theatrical Ghostbusters movie and the 4th in its continuity. That's not an enviable place to be, especially given how beloved the first film is. Even taking into account the unenviable task, creatively and expectations wise of making yet another Ghostbusters film, the final product, and I emphasize the word "product" because that's what this is more then it's a movie, well its both too much and not enough.
Take a look at that poster, there are 11 lead characters there, original cast, carry overs from the 2021 film and new additions. This is an overcrowded film, even when they don't give many of these characters much of anything to do. The plot feels like a bad guy of the week story from the old Ghostbusters cartoon series, with too much of the plot conventions of the original film grafted on. This whole franchise has had a real problem in coming up with new ideas since the original film 40 years ago, it all feels rather tired.
New addition Kumail Ali Naniiani and to a lesser extent Patton Oswalt are the only ones displaying old school Ghostbusters energy here. The plot, which concerns a malevolent ancient god with freezing powers and the ability to mind control other ghosts, is well enough put together if kind of blah. The most inventive new angle is the relationship between Phobe Spanger (McKenna Grace) and a ghost girl played by Emily Alyn Lind, which has a carefully constructed ambiguity to it, it can be read as mere friendship or as would be romance depending on the needs of the viewer. All in all competent, but depressingly mediocre. **
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