Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

[Spider-Fan]

Call me crazy, but I kind of enjoyed the ‘overstuffed’ aspect of the movie. It was nice to see this universe populated with fun characters, and I felt like the bouncing between them kept the pace of the movie breezy while still pushing the main story forward.

Could you have cut a few characters and had a tighter movie? Absolutely. Did it ruin the movie for me that it was so crowded? Not at all. Especially when Phoebe, Gary and Ray were clearly the anchors of the movie.

I think from a world-building perspective, I just enjoy that you have so many pieces on the board now to play with. Some characters will inevitably recede more to the background, but some could come more to the forefront. You could have Kumail’s character come back and play a bigger role in a future story for instance. The thing I appreciated about what Afterlife setup was it created this open-ended feel of where this franchise can go. You can’t keep doing the Amblin thing obviously, because the kids will quickly age out of it. This movie was kind of in a bit of an in between. But by the next film, they can pretty much treat Phoebe like a young adult, which can change the whole nature of the story/tone. If there is a next film of course…we shall see.

If all you care about is world building, maybe I can see this perspective. But I don't care as much about world building as I do good stories. I do think the overstuffed world building harmed the stories. It's great to develop a world, but you have to care about what's going on in the story. If you don't, what does the world building matter?

 

[antsman41]

It all felt superfluous... the plot, the retcons, the characters motives/actions.

Felt very, your homework is due Monday morning and it is Sunday evening.

 

[antsman41]

question...

Spoiler

what was the deal with the Mom and Mr. Grooberson ? unless I missed something they didn't really clearly defined their relationship... but, he made reference to being a step-father fugue to the kids... an that line an the end when she called him "Dad" out of nowhere... so, were they just still dating at this point or were they suppose to be marred/engaged? that whole dynamic seemed inconsistent

Carrie Coons has more chemistry with her brother character in The Leftovers than with Paul Rudd in these past two films.

It's not her fault. Coons is stunning and one of the best actors around right now.

Paul just can't convey desire or anything emotional beyond 'gee wiz' these days. I miss his Clueless vibes...

 

[BeserkerHilf]

Carrie Coons has more chemistry with her brother character in The Leftovers than with Paul Rudd in these past two films.

It's not her fault. Coons is stunning and one of the best actors around right now.

Paul just can't convey desire or anything emotional beyond 'gee wiz' these days. I miss his Clueless vibes...

My issue with Paul Rudd is he's more interested in being the anti-IP dude in the big IP movie. He brings the same David Wain attitude of "taking the piss out of a film genre" as Ant-Man and the vibe suffers from it. It's fun for a while, but it verges on reading as bored or resentful of booking the job. When he buckles down and takes it seriously, I'm glad he's there, oddly.

 

[TheVileOne]

I like all the world building and mythology stuff, but that wasn't the movie's problem. The main characters weren't serviced enough.

 

[BatLobster]

If all you care about is world building, maybe I can see this perspective. But I don't care as much about world building as I do good stories. I do think the overstuffed world building harmed the stories. It's great to develop a world, but you have to care about what's going on in the story. If you don't, what does the world building matter?

It's not that I usually only care about worldbuilding over a great story. 9 times out of 10 I would fault a movie for that, and I can understand why people are faulting this for it. It's just that in the case of this particular franchise, this movie scratched an itch that I've always had, in a number of ways. So that just softened me to it, plus I never felt like it lost the plot or took any long detours that felt irrelevant. Most of it all tied back in. I just embraced this movie of more of a large ensemble type of story. And I was invested, I never stopped caring about what was on screen even as it bounced around. Hearing the reviews/reactions, I kind of went into it dreading that moment where I go "Oh...this is why people think it sucks...", but before I knew it the movie was over and that moment never came for me haha.

Plus I think part of what makes a good sequel is expanding the world (which I think this did better than any previous GB sequel), so I think it had the right idea even if they took it a little too far for the under 2 hour runtime. I totally get that the film has its flaws, just expressing why I still personally had a lot of fun with it and was able to forgive those flaws.

 

[henzINNIT]

Focusing on kids makes the returning OGs seem so much sadder and older. It would be a great, on-brand joke to have Ray hiring young talent and it being a bunch of middle-aged schlubs. I'm sick of Patton Oswalt but he was pretty good in this and worked great with Dan Aykroyd. If I'm being honest, a team with that type of cast has always been my preference and still is.

I like the family well enough though. They needed more time in Frozen Empire. The film lacks a core, and they are obviously it. Most scenes are just motionless exposition, not even plot, because that gets started shockingly late on. I think the most deceptive thing about the marketing in the general impression that there will be some kind of "frozen empire". That shot of the family together, in their new winter suits, staring out at a frozen NYC isn't even in the film.

 

[DyeLorean]

No Extended Cut on home video, apparently. But there are gonna be deleted scenes.

 

[henzINNIT]

I love me some deleted scenes. Not sure an extended cut would fix this film's issues anyway tbh.

 

[Spider-Fan]

An extended cut I think would only help if it added like 20 mins or something that allowed the plots to be properly fleshed out.

 

[DyeLorean]

An extended cut I think would only help if it added like 20 mins or something that allowed the plots to be properly fleshed out.

According to him, the deleted scenes are mostly from the third act.

 

[Spider-Fan]

According to him, the deleted scenes are mostly from the third act.

Then really wouldn't help lol!!!

 

[DyeLorean]

I know it's a small thing, but it really bothers me that they teased these red parkas everywhere and they were hardly used or shown. It was the one coolest new thing and... nothing.
Is like getting that GBII poster and then not really using the slime blowers in the third act.

 

[SJD]

I know it's a small thing, but it really bothers me that they teased these red parkas everywhere and they were hardly used or shown. It was the one coolest new thing and... nothing.
Is like getting that GBII poster and then not really using the slime blowers in the third act.

This movie seems like it got chopped up quite a bit in the editing process. The third act was hands down the best part of the whole movie, but it seems like they trimmed a lot to keep it under two hours.

 

[Dave McFly]

the song is still awesome tho

 

[AVEITWITHJAMON]

Well, I liked this movie quite a bit. Like Afterlife I think the critics have been I overly harsh. I have criticisms of course and this wasn't as good as Afterlife but I liked this movie at the same time.

It carried on the story of Phoebe and even added to it with her friendship with Melody which really pays off at the end. Even Trevor and Gary got some nice follow up with Callie trying to hold it all together as the mother.

I really liked the new villain also, he had some cool lore behind him, I just wish we had got more of him. His breakout scene should have been in the first hour rather than the second, but I loved what we got.

I did like the OG's here as well and they weren't as nostalgia baiting as last time, but they didn't get much to do in the finale.

Speaking of the finale, it was he best part of the movie. I think Reitmans hands were missed in the directors chair sorely, and I am not sure we needed both Kumal and Patton in there, merging them or Ray taking Patton's place as exposition on the bad guy would have given this movie a bit more room to breathe. There also wasn't enough Podcast for my liking.

7/10

 

[Dave McFly]

little continuity error there you see the glowing ghost trap opened up on the drone flying along the car before it is deployed

after seeing the movie that was the rc car trap they did not deploy the drone one yet lol I thought it was a error

 

[DyeLorean]

There are many more shots that I didn't even know about.

 

[BeserkerHilf]

Man, I do love a whiny manchild who lays blame without even a hint of insider access.

 

[GREEN =w= DAY]

Just getting back from watching GB: Frozen Empire and I enjoyed it a lot. The new characters were great additions but I feel it did take more screen time away from Trevor, Lucky, and Podcast. The villain was creepy and reminded me of something we’d see in The Real Ghostbusters series from the 80s

This movie had more comedic moments than Afterlife and I enjoyed the family aspect even more this time around. The OG characters had great supporting roles and weren’t just stuffed in for nostalgia sake

Overall I’d give this movie a 7.5/10. The biggest faults for me was less screen time for Trevor, Podcast, and Lucky especially, and also wish the villain could have been fleshed out more

Look forward to the next movie though I do feel a series on a streaming platform would be even better

 

[Mysteryman]

the song is still awesome tho

Some Things Never Change.

 

[Steyin]

Afterlife is the better film by far. This one was just fine. It wasn't bad, it wasn't great, it was just in the middle. I don't expect much from a GB film, so this sufficed well enough. As others have said it definitely could have been tighter in many spots. It does feel like it tried too hard at points, and the nostalgia/reference factor was more prevalent this time around. A solid 6/7, but for me the bigger factor is the rewatchability. Ranks dead last in that department for myself.

 

[Sithborg]

Guess we are going to find out how desperate Sony is to make this a franchise.

 

[Broseph44]

I really enjoyed this I had a lot of fun with it. I like the use of the OG’s and I enjoy the new cast a lot. Crazy to see how much they’ve grown up since Afterlife. Really think they’ve done a great job with both of these films. I am hoping we get a third one. Also thought Garraka was an awesome villain.

 

[henzINNIT]

I really enjoyed this I had a lot of fun with it. I like the use of the OG’s and I enjoy the new cast a lot. Crazy to see how much they’ve grown up since Afterlife. Really think they’ve done a great job with both of these films. I am hoping we get a third one. Also thought Garraka was an awesome villain.

Afterlife was one of those Covid movies where it came out in 2021 but was shot in 2019. It was 4 long years between movie shoots. The kid playing Podcast was damn-near unrecognisable haha.