‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ is a slightly improved festival of fan service

There's more to like here than in the last film, but this is still undoubtedly a franchise that's living in the past

The Ghostbusters franchise can best be understood as a classic movie that came out 40 years ago and, ever since, a series of sequels and reboots built around endless tributes to the original. 

There was 2016’s underrated all-female reboot, which underperformed and led five years later to Ghostbusters: Afterlife. That one, directed by original director Ivan Reitman’s son Jason, was an extended tribute to the late Harold Ramis, including his climactic reappearance as a ghost. That movie assembled a likable cast, led by Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon, but was set far from New York City and with practically no comedy. It sometimes felt more like a tribute to Netflix’s Stranger Things — itself a homage to the popular entertainment of the 1980s — than Ghostbusters, even bringing in that show’s costar, Finn Wolfhard. 

Now, we have a sequel, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. Much like Afterlife, the new film is about 90 percent fan service, constantly filling the frame with callbacks and references to the previous films. This one at least brings the action back to New York, adds some comedic elements, and offers a few exciting and original ideas. 

There’s an invisible ghost who can take over the team’s equipment and another who can play chess with the living. One of the original Ghostbusters is now a philanthropist who has thought of building the team a more extensive lab. 

However, on the negative side, the main plot is ridiculous, and the villain is underwhelming. The plot drops the Stranger Things tribute and makes the bad guy into a knockoff of The Night King from Game of Thrones, as a group of ghosts have a plan to freeze the entire world, something that can only be battled with, you guessed it, fire. 

As the movie starts, the central family from the last film (mom Carrie Coon, stepdad Paul Rudd, and teenagers Wolfhard and McKenna Grace) has arrived in New York and reconvened the Ghostbusters, driving the old car, wielding the old proton packs and living in the old firehouse. The three remaining original Ghostbusters are also all back. However, Bill Murray’s involvement was kept to an apparent minimum, perhaps because he’s 73 but now looks almost as old as Joe Biden. 

But my goodness, there’s a lot of pandering. Pretty much every living Ghostbusters actor who isn’t Rick Moranis — and who isn’t one of the Lady Ghostbusters — pops up here; Sigourney Weaver also took a pass, although she was in the previous movie.

 There are also nearly endless dialogue references to stuff we’re supposed to congratulate ourselves for noticing from the most popular movie of 1984. The new film has even turned the miniaturized, multiplied Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man into the Minions, complete with squeaks. 

While Wolfhard’s Trevor is given little to do, Grace’s Phoebe remains the best character in this incarnation by a mile. A teenage science genius, she even gets an interdimensional romance subplot, which I was considerably more invested in than anything involving the main ghost plot. The other kids from the last movie are also back to populate this very overcrowded movie further, including Madame Web survivor Celeste O’Connor and the kid named “Podcast.” 

The main new face is Kumail Nanjiani, playing a comic relief character who isn’t particularly funny; he’s just an obvious stand-in for Rick Moranis in the ’84 film. You’d think the filmmakers would eventually throw enough money at Rick to get him to end his long retirement and make a cameo in one of these, but it hasn’t happened yet. 

Gil Kenan, who co-wrote the last movie, is the director, while he co-wrote the script with Jason Reitman, who has moved on to make a movie about an even earlier episode of the Dan Aykroyd comedy canon, the first year of Saturday Night Live.

Original Ghostbusters director Ivan Reitman has passed away between movies, and the new film is dedicated to him. He doesn’t appear as a ghost or anything like that, but his daughter Catherine Reitman’s Netflix series, Workin’ Moms, wrapped up last year with a tribute to her late father, in which Aykroyd played him. 

So yes, Frozen Empire is an improvement on Afterlife, but aside from a few good ideas, it’s still chasing the fumes of the original movie.