Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)
March 23, 2024 3:16 PM - Subscribe
When the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second ice age.
In theaters now.
In theaters now.
I took my son to see this last night. I thought it was entertaining enough, and my son loved it.
posted by Fleebnork at 3:58 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
posted by Fleebnork at 3:58 PM on March 23 [1 favorite]
We enjoyed it, in a summer movie sort of way. I had two spots where I had major continuity bugs, though. One with the pole that I've seen mentioned elsewhere, but another when Phoebe is left alone and then her mother comes to find her in the basement? It seemed like there was a weird bit of time-skipping that wasn't addressed? Was I just really tired (it was a late show.)
Enjoyed the animated sequence! I got a little nostalgic, despite that linguistics weirdness*, when the big ol' folio got hauled out - I remember using those gigantic pre-WW2 folios to look at drawings of engravings back when I was in undergrad for archaeology.
*Sumerian is a language isolate and it would be really weird for someone to know Indus Valley languages AND Sumerian.
posted by cobaltnine at 9:00 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
Enjoyed the animated sequence! I got a little nostalgic, despite that linguistics weirdness*, when the big ol' folio got hauled out - I remember using those gigantic pre-WW2 folios to look at drawings of engravings back when I was in undergrad for archaeology.
*Sumerian is a language isolate and it would be really weird for someone to know Indus Valley languages AND Sumerian.
posted by cobaltnine at 9:00 PM on March 24 [1 favorite]
I completely enjoyed this. It was just the kind of fun I needed. Ghostbusters has been a favorite of mine since I was a kid. I have a collection of memorabilia and my wife insisted we display my old perfect-condition Real Ghostbusters toys on shelves in the bedroom. I met Dan Aykroyd in 2014 and he autographed my DVD of the first film. I've been to the hotel that stood in for the Hotel Sedgewick were Slimer used to haunt and was "embedded" with the effects team that worked on the 2009 video game so I could write articles and record podcasts about it for the gaming site I worked for at the time. So, yes, I'm a fan.
I've also been going through chemo treatments for cancer since last September which means I can't go anywhere or do much of anything because of my weakened immune system. I needed to get out for a bit, and working with my doctor we came up with safe theater conditions so my wife and I could go see the movie. To escape into the world of Ghostbusters for two hours and forget about everything else weighing on my mind did me a world of good. I could listen to Aykroyd talk paranormal exposition all day, talking about selenium girders and possessed paintings and frozen gods. I'm thrilled they are making these movies again. Bring on the Blu-ray with the deleted scenes!
posted by Servo5678 at 7:46 AM on March 25 [11 favorites]
I've also been going through chemo treatments for cancer since last September which means I can't go anywhere or do much of anything because of my weakened immune system. I needed to get out for a bit, and working with my doctor we came up with safe theater conditions so my wife and I could go see the movie. To escape into the world of Ghostbusters for two hours and forget about everything else weighing on my mind did me a world of good. I could listen to Aykroyd talk paranormal exposition all day, talking about selenium girders and possessed paintings and frozen gods. I'm thrilled they are making these movies again. Bring on the Blu-ray with the deleted scenes!
posted by Servo5678 at 7:46 AM on March 25 [11 favorites]
Having not seen this yet but saw the prior one - did they manage to make this newest iteration funny at all? Because the last one was 'generic family movie funny' at best, and a profoundly underwhelming heap of mawkish sentimentality by the end, which is a tragic failure to follow up on the original - one of the funniest films put to celluloid. And the trailer for this one looks very much the same - I don't think there's even an attempt to show something like a joke or comedic beat the entire time, aside from a bit of Paul Rudd mugging.
Say what you like about how the Lady Ghostbusters film landed, at least it knew full-well that it was a comedy as well as a supernatural action flick, and was written as such.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:54 AM on March 27
Say what you like about how the Lady Ghostbusters film landed, at least it knew full-well that it was a comedy as well as a supernatural action flick, and was written as such.
posted by FatherDagon at 7:54 AM on March 27
Passable summer movie. I like poor weird Phoebe with her catastrophic first crush. I'm guessing a more limited budget meant we weren't subjected to a 45-minute final battle, which is fine by me, but they could've used that time to fill in a bit more character work. Like I thought for sure we were going to hear that Melody blamed herself for not saving her family, hence setting herself free by her actions at the end, but...no?
The funniest shot was the very last one, in the mid-credits scene. But I'm not sure Millennials and younger will even get it!
posted by praemunire at 10:08 PM on April 3
The funniest shot was the very last one, in the mid-credits scene. But I'm not sure Millennials and younger will even get it!
posted by praemunire at 10:08 PM on April 3
This was such a mediocre trifle. I was really disappointed in it. I really needed a moment that made the audience want to stand up and cheer, but we never got one.
Two things I would have changed:
(1) We know Melody wants to see her family again, but we never really feel the weight of that. A scene where we see the house on fire and her family's ghosts, one-by-one ascend to the afterlife while Melody is stuck on the ground, calling out for them, would have made a huge difference. I probably would have made that the opening of the movie.
(2) I think Nadeem was really badly written. He's such a pointless nothing of a character, and it's hard to buy the move to being the FireMaster (or whatever that title is). A few minutes of better backstory for him--Grandma keeps telling him that this is his destiny, but he's a skeptical teen and ignores it. She tries to show him what a FireMaster can do, but he thinks it's just a gimmick. She warns him that Garraka could return someday and the world will need him, but he doesn't believe that mumbo-jumbo. Then she dies, and he decides to sell all that stuff off to someone who believes in it like she did. In this version, it's not that he's slacker who never paid attention--he knows the legend forward and backward. He knows what FireMasters are supposedly able to do. He just dismisses it as superstition.
That gives him a better arc--when Garraka shows up, he can't deny that Grandma was right all along, and all those hours she spend with him as a kid, making him practice using fire, suddenly come back to him. This is his moment, and it give him some closure. (Maybe we ever see Grandma's spirit, making the moves alongside him?) And when Melody betrays Phoebe, we understand exactly why, and we feel the weight of it when she turns on Garraka, and we feel relief when she's able to join her family.
Honestly, one week of re-writes would have made this a much more impactful movie, without sacrificing the humor.
Hollywood execs, I'm available to doctor your scripts at a very reasonable cost.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:02 AM on April 4
Two things I would have changed:
(1) We know Melody wants to see her family again, but we never really feel the weight of that. A scene where we see the house on fire and her family's ghosts, one-by-one ascend to the afterlife while Melody is stuck on the ground, calling out for them, would have made a huge difference. I probably would have made that the opening of the movie.
(2) I think Nadeem was really badly written. He's such a pointless nothing of a character, and it's hard to buy the move to being the FireMaster (or whatever that title is). A few minutes of better backstory for him--Grandma keeps telling him that this is his destiny, but he's a skeptical teen and ignores it. She tries to show him what a FireMaster can do, but he thinks it's just a gimmick. She warns him that Garraka could return someday and the world will need him, but he doesn't believe that mumbo-jumbo. Then she dies, and he decides to sell all that stuff off to someone who believes in it like she did. In this version, it's not that he's slacker who never paid attention--he knows the legend forward and backward. He knows what FireMasters are supposedly able to do. He just dismisses it as superstition.
That gives him a better arc--when Garraka shows up, he can't deny that Grandma was right all along, and all those hours she spend with him as a kid, making him practice using fire, suddenly come back to him. This is his moment, and it give him some closure. (Maybe we ever see Grandma's spirit, making the moves alongside him?) And when Melody betrays Phoebe, we understand exactly why, and we feel the weight of it when she turns on Garraka, and we feel relief when she's able to join her family.
Honestly, one week of re-writes would have made this a much more impactful movie, without sacrificing the humor.
Hollywood execs, I'm available to doctor your scripts at a very reasonable cost.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 11:02 AM on April 4
I don’t think the shambolic humor of the original movie is ever coming back — it couldn’t even come back for the sequel. Even so, here the beats felt so very telegraphed — they look at the cute little ghost, they say “aw, isn’t he cute?” then the ghost hits them with a vomity blast of slime. Everything is like that. There’s just zero chance of a laugh there.
Also, the family isn’t funny. Not even Paul Rudd is funny. (His moment of talking the song lyrics to Carrie Coons was utterly painful.) The Ghostbusters were funny, which let the movie ride on banter and byplay and Bill Murray’s unpredictable timing. Here it’s on the shoulders on a kind of dull family whose tribulations are both well-contained and expected to carry the movie.
Still; entertaining; a movie happened and it was never abrasive or “off,” it just had no reason to exist.
(And i wish they’d had the nerve to let Phoebe and Melody have a clear romance instead of the implication of one.)
posted by argybarg at 9:58 PM on April 19
Also, the family isn’t funny. Not even Paul Rudd is funny. (His moment of talking the song lyrics to Carrie Coons was utterly painful.) The Ghostbusters were funny, which let the movie ride on banter and byplay and Bill Murray’s unpredictable timing. Here it’s on the shoulders on a kind of dull family whose tribulations are both well-contained and expected to carry the movie.
Still; entertaining; a movie happened and it was never abrasive or “off,” it just had no reason to exist.
(And i wish they’d had the nerve to let Phoebe and Melody have a clear romance instead of the implication of one.)
posted by argybarg at 9:58 PM on April 19
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by cupcakeninja at 3:22 PM on March 23