Ghostbusters Frozen Empire – REVIEW

While watching Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire moviegoers may ponder whether the purpose of this sequel is to continue the magic of the franchise or whether it’s just to milk the brand. Unfortunately, in true Hollywood style, it’s the latter.

It’s been 40 years since the original supernatural comedy hit Ghostbusters spooked in cinemas, and this latest addition is the fifth in the franchise. All the pivotal actors have reprised their roles from the previous chapter Ghostbusters: Afterlife, with returning actors from previous movies including Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and Annie Potts.

The premise of this latest addition is simplistic yet unoriginal. The Spengler family return to the New York City firehouse and must fight the unleashing of a new ghost invasion with the original ghostbusters to save Earth from another Ice Age.

Will they succeed or be vaporized by the evil ghosts? There are two more sequels planned so you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that out.

Once the lights dimmed in the cinema and the movie commenced, the anticipation quickly subsided and for very good reason. After a quick ghostbusting exercise which was supposed to set the mood, the movie flatlined. The cheesiness and silly dialogue compounded by all the dull moments and the encompassing feeling that we’ve seen it all before delivered a very unsatisfying cinematic experience.

There were humorous moments and some visually stunning CGI but nothing could compensate for the lack of originality which did nothing to stimulate interest.

What was painful to watch was the subplot where the ghostbusters were headed for a shutdown owing to the damage they had created in protecting the city from the ghosts. Who was going to pay for the damage? Sound familiar? It’s the same storyline utilized in The Incredibles 2 and another of those blockbuster superhero flicks.

An obvious observation was the deplorable acting by Finn Wolfhard who was one of the original cast members from Stranger Things. He portrayed a character who simply had no purpose but was probably cast owing to his favourable repute from this high rating Netflix series.

A question which may be pondered by the more astute moviegoer is, were the original cast members returned for nostalgic reasons only or because the producers felt that a push of sorts was required to get moviegoers, who may have “Ghostbusters fatigue”, to return to cinemas for the latest instalment?

This wasn’t a complete trainwreck; it was basically just a rehash of all the previous movies, and it was difficult to shake that underwhelming feeling that much more was expected.

Aside from the fan base this movie is strictly for non-judgmental big kids and little kids.

★★1/2

In cinemas now