Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire keeps a tired franchise going, but it's better off dead
Is Ghostbusters Frozen Empire the sequel we expected?
It's not really clear who the Ghostbusters series is for anymore. In Jason Reitman's 2021 sequel/reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, it seemed like the series had a clear trajectory and that he was aiming to finally make it the children's franchise that the Halloween costume companies always dreamed it could be. But the latest entry, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, clings so tightly to the franchise's past that it's hard to see how it could appeal to anyone at all.
Frozen Empire is a direct sequel to Afterlife, featuring the Spengler family – Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), her mother Callie (Carrie Coon), brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Callie's maybe-now-boyfriend? Greg (Paul Rudd), beats ghosts in New York City. It's not really clear how long they've been doing this, but after they do a job, the family is quickly shut down by the town's mayor, former environmental protection agent Walter Peck (William Atherton, returning from Ghostbusters 1984, because nothing in this franchise is allowed to age gracefully).
When Atherton appears, the film pauses so Reitman can congratulate himself on bringing in another Ghostbusters legacy character. He almost asks the fans to applaud. Even more off-putting, however, is that the new cast reacts as if they've seen the original film as well. They roll their eyes at his tantrums and somehow perfectly understand his year-long vendetta against the Ghostbusters, as if to say the family is in on the joke with us.
