Ghostbusters IV: Frozen Empire

[Neon Ignition]

After weeks of a multitude of elaborate cups and popcorn holders in the US cinema chains, the UK finally reveals it's offering as as usual we're completely and utterly dire at making an effort

[Yakumo]

It's being promoted over here for a 29th release. That's a Friday so I may miss the opening day but, will sure be out on Saturday.
I've not seen too much merch as of yet but I'm sure there'll be some good stuff.

[Neon Ignition]

We're booked in to see it with the missus on the 22nd, then again with the kids on the 24th

[Neon Ignition]

[Neon Ignition]

So, back from seeing it and my one word review would be that it's: Alright

Everyone has their own stance on the franchise at this point. The same talking points swirl around and around endlessly with the loudest voices, even in reviews, being from two camps. Those who stood firm behind the reboot and now **** all over Afterlife and those who are more generous to the most recent entry and dislike the reboot. Mixed in there is usually an over strong level of adoration of the original film and some post 2015 new found faux appreciation of Ghostbusters 2 as a way to try and shrug off arguments of bias when it comes to the most recent films.

My personal overview would be:

Ghostbusters - It's the best one, perhaps the least disagreed on point amongst fans. It has a perfect balance throughout but as amusing as it is it was never a straight comedy. At any age I've never laughed througout so I'm not beholden to the argument that a GB film needs to be cracking your ribs with jokes every 20 seconds. GB was a mixture fo humour, horror, adventure, mystery etc that made the film effectively part of the firing pistol that started the modern blockbuster era. A healthy mix is all I need.

Ghosbusters II - It has some good scenes but overall it's a much weaker film and it focusing on the original cast doesn't automatically now elevate higher than it ever was previously. It's very clearly the definition of a phoned in sequel and the decades of franchise dormancy have gone a long way to making GBII more palatable.

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call - The cold hard fact of life is that no new GB film can ever recreate the originals magic. It's not the early 1980's anymore, times have changed and so have audience tastes. Each new film not being like the original is the furthest thing from being a problem. This entry is easily the least like the original as much as it contains many nods. I can watch it and be entertained enough but it's very much a bright and light weak comedy. It's nothing to do with the drama, there's just a lot that is wrong about it. You could strip the GB out of it and it would still be a weak comedy. It's just easy and inoffensively there. If ranking the films I see this as the flip side of the coin of GBII. It's what goes wrong when you have some ideas for a new film but miss everything else.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife - It's the best film since the original. It swaps the humour for more of a modern MCU style tone but I've never seen that as a big deal, it's just keeping things light whilst still containing some sense of dark. It has heart too and the cast is good, it's biggest mistakes are things like the old cast feeling clumsily handled and not being confident to step away from the story beats of GB1 more but they're small on the scale of things.


For Frozen Empire I'll likely have to let it sink in with time but I'm tempted to put it distanced below GB1 and Afterlife but ahead of GB2 and ATC. It feels like it contains too many memberberries but I feel that the problem stems more from including some within a film that's setting is effectively one giant memberberry. You get the firehouse, New York, old faces returning, ghosts re-emerging, the GB's getting in trouble with the law, the original crew involved etc but these aren't nostalgia bait - they're facts of the franchises universe. There are other things that come up that are definite nostalgia bait for both GB1-2 fans and Afterlife fans and the film would be better without them. It's the most tightly packed entry, too tightly packed. Several characters should have been cut from the script, more time given to the central plot, more time given to the original crew really. Let's say you're sat with the kids at the weekend and go to passively throw an entry on to keep them quiet, I could see this being that entry because of how dense with moments it is. The central plot arc is pretty much the same as prior films also but it doesn't come together as strong. It's a brain turned off, middle of the road film that isn't the best but only really offends if you're out to be offended.

These days no film is allowed to be average, it's high praise or high trauma but FE I feel sits in that mid-range. If they get to make another one they need to axe a couple of the new peripheral characters, simplify things back down and come up with something that feels like it's a break from the norm.

[Yakumo]

Thanks for the review. I'm still going to see it when it opens next week. I just know to not expect something amazing but rather something entertaining without have to put any thought in.
Kind of like an 80s action movie 😁

[Neon Ignition]

Second viewing now complete. We took the kids yesterday, all decked out in their GB t-shirts etc and it worked out quite well. Some people where there in full costume hanging around after the film who the kids took photo/s with, our youngest convinced they're real GBers.

The film flowed better for me on the second viewing and it was a reminder of how much these things are trying to lean into new fans rather than being entirely beholden to the old ones. Some moments spooked the kids - the two youngest liked it as much as the others, our eldest thought it was the best one so a win from them.

[Colin]

Went to see it with my wife, it was fine I guess. We both really enjoyed Afterlife, but this just felt a bit flat, and a bit too long despite not being a long film. Truth be told, I nearly nodded off during it.

[CMcK]

Saw Frozen Empire this evening. It was ok. As Colin said it’s a bit flat at times but can be funny too. Might have been better without the old cast members and letting the rest handle things.

[Neon Ignition]

I've no problem with the old cast being there, it would make a lot less sense if they were absent given it's a much stronger stretch that the Spengler family is working there. Winston just needs a bit more context to his role, Ray definitely needs to be more involved (the excited reaction to the orb is the first time Dan has come across like OG Ray in decades) whilst Venkman doesn't necessarily need to be involved in the busting but should be circling it, like when he had his kooks show in GB2 - trying to profit off it all. Janine's involvement is a stretch too, ditch Lucky, Podcast and Trevor and enough room would be there to get a natural balance.

[QualityChimp]

You would think that after Gozer decimated New York, then Vigo the Carpathian drenched the city with slime, then Gozer returning in Oklahoma, the government might have invested some resources into paranormal research rather than leaving it to some geriatric failed scientists. *shrug*

[Yakumo]

You would think that after Gozer decimated New York, then Vigo the Carpathian drenched the city with slime, then Gozer returning in Oklahoma, the government might have invested some resources into paranormal research rather than leaving it to some geriatric failed scientists. *shrug*

It's true to life though. Governments doing sweet FA where it matters 😁

[QualityChimp]

It'd more realistic if they said they were looking into doing something and they were world-beating at bustin' ghosts in the bigliest way imaginable.

[Yakumo]

Well, just came out of seeing this with Dolby Atmos sound on an Imax size screen for the ultimate experience. Was I impressed? No, not really.
The movie has some good points but far too much filler. Lucy and Podcast are not needed for a start.
The comic relealf as in most cases was unwelcome too I found.

->Open Spoiler<-

the mini marshmallow men were also unnecessary. They should have also had Ray and Peter running the new Ghost research center rather than some unknown. More time should have been given expanding the relationship towards Fibi and the ghost as well. As it is, they has two breif encounters which didn't explain the feelings involved

I did like some of the unexpected camios though. Nice little touch there.

Overall it was an okay movie but deffinetly last amongst the real Ghostbusters movies. It is above that abomination that was the "3rd movie".

[QualityChimp]