Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review: Reconnecting To The Original Style Of The Saga
Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton
Directed: Gil Kenan
Where to Watch: In Theaters
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3/5 (three stars)
With Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, coming after the even more menacing and hard-to-break ice of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, we’re in real trouble. Jason Reitman and Gil Kenan are in trouble, still together as screenwriters, but with an exchange of directing/producing roles. We observers or critics are also in trouble, resigned to being crushed by the army of nerds and/or cosplayers, ready to accuse us of a haughty distance from the visceral love they feel for the world of Ghostbusters. It was 2021 when Ghostbusters: Afterlife brought one of the most iconic cinematic stories of all time back to the big screen, but attempted, unlike in the past, to take the reins into its own hands by continuing along a path that was both new and canonical. The idea behind an expansion of the genre, obviously, immediately made inroads among the ranks of fans who, driven by curiosity, experienced the return of their all-time favorite films with a general interest fueled by both confirmations and denials in the work signed at the time by Jason Reitman.
The general uncertainty, however, has in no way slowed down the underlying idea, ready to return to cinemas worldwide on 11 April 2024 with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. We continue, therefore, following the story of the new protagonists who, in contact with the iconic faces of a never forgotten cast, will have to deal with a new evil entity different from everything we have seen so far in this saga, at least on the big screen, further expanding a story that still certainly has something to say in our present, making use of models, references and a nostalgia that is both cumbersome and fitting. The past and the present, therefore, find themselves arm in arm again in an adventure that tries with all its strength to look beyond, exploiting a series of iconic references and quotes that support its ideas, entertaining the hearts and eyes of the most attentive and passionate.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review: The Story Plot
Following the events seen in the previous film, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire catapults us directly into the purest action, finding all the faces we have come to know in 2021, with some welcome returns from the 80s. Right from the opening sequence, it is possible to see the energy and narrative essence of a film that stands out both in tone and approach compared to the previous chapter, immediately pressing on the accelerator and bringing to mind some iconic shots directly from the first two films released at the cinema. So we find ourselves alongside the Spengler family, the only ones perhaps worthy of inheriting the activity of the original Ghostbusters, moving to the legendary barracks where it all began, and taking their place in every way in the present.
Training has now become fixed, as has the use of professional vehicles and machinery from the past. Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and Podcast (Logan Kim) have grown up, with Gary (Paul Rudd) and Callie (Carrie Coon) joining them in the fight against the supernatural, in New York with both a new and extremely familiar flavor. As already happened before Ghostbusters, however, the work of the Ghostbusters is never simple or easily identifiable by the authorities, nor is it easy to manage in terms of guarantee and security. From all this, this newfound family unit will have to face the difficulties of a profession disconnected from any definition or legislative rule, and at the same time deal with a threat that finds its origins in the most forgotten and obscure antiquity.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review and Analysis
The first thing that catches your eye when watching Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, as mentioned before, is the general change of gear in terms of writing for images and action. Gil Kenan’s hand is very different from that of Jason Reitman, preparing a formal construction that is immediately colorful, fast, and lively, and focusing much of the attention on the confrontation with ghosts in a city in constant turmoil. It is no coincidence that the film is fragmented into two specific dimensions: that of the paranormal and the encounter/clash with even varied entities to deal with, and the more intimate one of the family. A writing of this kind (remember that the screenplay is written by the director himself supported by his previous colleague behind the camera) manages right from the start to get us into the main mood of a story that stuns and above all entertains from start to finish, reserving the audience in the room with a pace that is rarely tired or slowed down, but rather stimulated by the dialogues and ongoing events.
In the construction of a background story with legendary features, and the confrontation with something enormous, we also find specific attention towards the current cast, supported by the iconic original lineup, in a crescendo of moments that want to investigate their current situation and the relationship with a context that is certainly fascinating as it is difficult to manage and yet to be discovered. Discovery is a central element in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, a film that attempts to draw from the past to transform, expand, and deepen some narrative elements that fans know well. Starting from all this, the film manages to bring new developments to the saga, connecting to both known and unknown elements, and then pushing forward a story that seems to want to soar on its own wings, without ever completely succeeding.
Nostalgia once again returns to being central in every single development and shot, peppering the feature film with many quotes and Easter eggs that will surely please the most attentive and prepared. Is this necessarily bad? Not, even if some reflection on the matter is a must, given that the great and iconic weight of the past still manages to make a difference even years later in this case. The past in contact with the present, therefore, returns to make the difference in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, outlining a narrative with carefree and raucous tones, in some situations, with the sole apparent objective of entertaining from start to finish, dragging an adventure with colorful and light tones. What makes the difference, then, is a fundamental and certainly impactful change of setting in the choice to transport the story to New York City. The Big Apple is closely linked to the stories of the Ghostbusters and has always represented their home and part of their undeniable identity.
In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire she returns to being a character in her own right in the main narrative. Not a detached outline, but a set of voices capable of enveloping and enhancing the narrative material in progress (also in this case some iconic places return to make the difference), giving new life to a story with both recognizable and new features. If you are a timeless Ghostbusters fan, the answer is obviously yes. Don’t get us wrong though, it’s not a perfect film at all, on the contrary. The doubts about some narrative ideas, in terms of writing and development, remain something that we cannot overlook (we will not go into detail to avoid heavy spoilers), as do some simplifications in terms of character characterization.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is a film that tries with all its might to find its own dimension of belonging, while remaining strongly linked to its past, perhaps too much in some situations. In the general simplicity of its progress, however, we find a film that knows how to entertain through jokes, quotes, and hilarious moments, outlining a lively adventure that still seems to have something to say today. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is unfortunately colorless and tasteless. It tries to play with thrills a bit but then gets lost in forced laughter and a story that can make the hearts of only the most resistant fans beat. The legendary Ghostbusters barracks have been recovered. The mayor of New York tries as always to hinder our heroes in their work. Meanwhile, the Spengler family tries to bond, to make their relationships even more visceral. On one side there are the children, now teenagers, on the other the parents in pursuit of a positive dialogue. The generational clash has served its purpose, but it never seems to take off.
The screenplay of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, from this perspective, alternates jokes with more intimate moments, transforming the hyperbolic (and fantastic) action into the common thread that holds the entire operation together; but it stages all this in a fragmentary and rhapsodic frame, revealing in front of the camera a theory of old and new characters that are not very functional to the development of the story and of a thin plot that chases objectives and themes. The family is the cornerstone around which this new film develops – from a dramaturgical point of view: evoked above all in didactic terms, the script does not fail to repeat it in every moment of stalemate, in every pause that the story it takes hold of a pressing event, slowing down its pace. Furthermore, the effort to make the actions (but also the intentions) of countless characters credible involves a weak suspension of disbelief, functional to the development of the blockbuster but which is hardly able to drag the spectator (especially the most astute and savvy one) into the heart of a great sleight of hand in horror and fantasy style, which moves between amarcord moments, lightning jokes, ghosts and menacing divinities who have returned to take revenge on the human race.
The weaknesses of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire are, once again, those of an entire generation of blockbusters destined for the big screen, no more and no less: undoubtedly returning to the atmosphere of a haunted New York, between ectoplasmic apparitions and eccentric devices (with so much with channeling flows and proton backpacks), it is always a pleasure enough to outline it as a sort of comfort zone for the mind of the more adult spectator. Furthermore, there is no shortage of more intimate and interesting moments, such as the digression on the meaning of the very concept of “afterlife”, which disturbs the theory of quantum physics according to which, once our energy leaves the physical body after death, this is reabsorbed into the cosmic fabric of the universe. And so once again the Ghostbusters franchise, behind its patina of pop culture icons fresh from a glorious season (like the 80s), manages to exorcise some of the themes that the more they shake the human conscience: death and the meaning of life, wondering whether the passage of biological time is just a chain of events that follow one another on this earth or a bridge towards “other”, a spiritual or simply… spiritual elsewhere.
Even from a technical point of view, it is difficult to completely criticize the entire operation carried out by Gil Kenan, Reitman, and the technical crew: it is clear that at the helm there is a craftsman who knows the medium well, the cinema machine capable of create grand illusions; not an author with a well-defined and unmistakable personality (like the late Ivan Reitman, to whom the film is dedicated), but a technical director, a craftsman of the trade capable of orchestrating a saraband of faces, characters, stories and quotes without turn them into a mere pastiche. The only technical note that can be made on the direction perhaps concerns some choices related to CGI, now more of a plague than a resource for large productions; this is because instead of helping to suspend disbelief it does nothing but increase that gap, increasing that fracture between what is real (at least on the screen) and what ends up not being real, in a hyper-realistic suspension of technological perfection far from reality or its simple illusion.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review: The Last Words
Ghostbusters brings back to the cinema a series of characters who have contributed to fueling the most current global pop history in this sense. Perfectly aware of this, it uses the steps of the previous chapter to create an easy, light, and nostalgic cinematic experience, reconnecting to the original style of the saga, and then attempting a personal path. Going beyond the more nostalgic emotionality of the feature film, it is precisely from the point of view of the writing that unfortunately it is not entirely convincing, restoring the colors of a fun adventure in which the general simplicity takes over even certain developments and small things, without affecting them never the general identity.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Review: Reconnecting To The Original Style Of The Saga - Filmyhype
Director: Gil Kenan
Date Created: 2024-03-22 18:36
3
Pros
- The fact of holding firm to the original identity of the saga
- The choice to set the story in New York
- The underlying ideas to expand the main dynamics of history as we know it and will eventually know it
Cons
- Nostalgia is both fun and exciting and quite cumbersome
- The writing and simplistic characterization of some specific developments
