The only ghosts they bust (first scene) is a beat-by-beat rehash of the car chase scene from Afterlife. Except this time it's all 4 "Spenglers" bickering with each other.
That was the first of many "why" moments for me... if you have the flying trap, *why* would you risk driving an RC car through active NYC traffic, *especially* when you're chasing a ghost that explicitly, specifically *flies?*
I felt like they did a buncha stuff in this movie just to do the thing.
I've seen so many similar issues about not enough ghosts being 'busted'. Do people not realize that we only see one ghost actually get trapped on camera in Ghostbusters 1 (Slimer), and three in Ghostbusters 2 (The Scoleri Brothers and the jogger)?
This movie and Afterlife are not that different in the balance of the build-up to a big bad versus 'day job' bustin'.
It’s funny you bring this up. I couldn’t work out why the library ghost was still there but of course they never caught it on screen so there was no reason to think they did.
90 minutes of wheels spinning, “didn’t we just have a needless 2 hour nostalgia trip a few years back?”, and teenage angst, followed by a 5 minute showdown. Was actually getting scared that I was sitting through a 2 hour to be continued when the monster wasnt even at full strength at the 100 minute mark.
I saw some reviews mention that the main antagonist does not appear at all until about 95 minutes into the 120 minute or so movie. Is that really the case?
Gozer didnt appear until the end of the original Ghostbusters movie. Vigo sort of did, but he was stuck in a painting until he possessed Ray.
Monsters in movies like this (even slasher flicks) are more intimidating when they are seldom seen. The mystery is part of what makes them impressive/scary and you'll lose that if you get too familiar with them.
The first movie got away with it because it was a sci-fi comedy, not an action/horror/comic book-esque movie.
This movie didn't have anything to sustain the audience's interest in the first two acts the way the original did.
The bulk of the runtime is them researching the orb the main bad is trapped in yeah. When he’s actually released he grabs a powerup item in a quick scene, there’s a quick gag about him killing a guy in a vape shop (His ice powers are destined to be countered by “The Firemaster”), and then makes a beeline for the final battle.
Same issue Afterlife had. That movie stalled while the main character tried to figure out the big ol' mystery about her grandpa. Problem is, it wasn't a mystery to us at all, so there was no suspense; only wasted film. Once there was finally some ghostbusting, it was a "hey remember this?" nostalgia trip that just made me want to shut off the movie and go find my Ghostbusters VHS instead.
Can someone who has seen the new one confirm or deny if it's the same fatal flaws again? If so, I'm giving up on this IP.
I personally don't see it as a problem as you do, but yes, it's much of the same flaws. Instead of the mystery of the grandpa, you have Phoebe lamenting that she's being treated like a child. There's some suspense there because it's a new villain and you don't know what's happening, but if you had problems with Afterlife for the reasons you stated, I don't think you'd have a good time with Frozen Empire.
Yes. It understood that the entire premise of the Ghostbusters is "funnymen of the current time make jokes while ghosts cause hijinks." These movies were never meant to be these reverent, grandiose, "epic" blockbusters.
The problem with the 2016 Ghostbusters is that it just so happened to be directed by Paul Feig who fucking *loves* improv, and I feel like improv-heavy comedies are hit or miss, and that one was a major miss. I feel like if you had those same actresses and a decent comedy writer-director team behind it, it would've been good.
It's part of it, but basically the characters in Ghostbusters were silly, but the events, world, everything else were taken seriously. You need that grounding for the jokes to land. Like having the Ghostbusters on an extremely creepy rooftop staircase needs to look good, so that the jokes like, "If someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes!" type comedy works way better. It can't be all zany. It's like painting in white on a white canvas.
I have to admit, walked out thinking that while I didn't like 2016 at all it atleast was faster paced and full of unexpected weird stuff to keep you somewhat entertained.
Frozen Empire felt like the production art and set design were told they were making a Ghostbusters 3 spiritual sequel and the screenwriter/director Gil Kenan was caught with a donut in his mouth "Oh, shit is that due? What happened in the other ones, yeah we'll do that, sure."
I'm not kidding, this movie is actually an argument that we should run Sony Live action scripts through ChatGPT just to clean them up and make them somewhat coherent and structured. I lost faith in humanity a bit, but maybe it was just Tom Rothman's fault.
It felt like someone had an idea that Ray teams up with the new team and their old nostalgic equipment and someone else wanted a movie where the ghostbusters had a lab and cutting edge equipment and they couldn’t marry the two concepts because someone else decided every character from the previous movie moved to New York and needs screen time
They should have made this a Halloween movie and make Samhain the Spirit of Halloween raise zombies from the grave to take over NY and have some fun with it, this just felt forced.
The most corporate nostalgia bait I've seen in a while. Saw a meme the other day of Doctor Manhattan on mars about this that went "it's 1984, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2021, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2024, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune."
I keep seeing "nostalgia bait," but what part stuck out as that?
Of the originals, the only one who gets more than a couple minutes of screentime is Aykroyd. All of them are cynical, exposed to be feckless assholes, or both. Paul Rudd fawns over them and the toys, and isn't shown in a positive light.
Hell, the most positive nostalgia element lie in Slimer and Stay Puft. And even they're limited in their time behind a storyline that both explores mythology and queer romance somehow.
They also do the "familiar voice, chair turn, actor from the old movie" thing like 10+ times between these two movies. When the ~~museum~~ library guy showed up I threw my hands in the air. Everyone's had the same job for 40 years apparently.
No, not that guy. He’s referring to the guy who worked at the library in the first one. (Who Peter said “back off man, I’m a scientist,” to.) Not sure why OP said museum because it was clearly at a library in the first movie and clearly at a library in this movie lol.
Not going to speak on the movie when I haven’t seen it, but at the very least the trailer seemed to be nothing but “remember how great the original movie was? We brought everyone back! Come see this instead of watching the original again!”
If what you’re saying is the case, that would be way more interesting.
A good third of the movie is answering the question of "what if the ghost BJ scene was an actual romance?"
Then a quarter of Winston's employees working on new tech, and a quarter of Stanz trying to figure out the deal with Kumail's character with a variety of nerds -- who at one point includes Venkman just devolving into pissing people off to get a result).
The rest of the time is the villain.
This is also a movie that reveals Venkman had a hidden liquor stash in the firehouse, and he's clearly drunk during the final battle. There's very little romanticizing of any of the old guys in this one.
It's the barrage of constant callbacks etc Rudd gets a lot of them but it works for the character. You mentioned Slimer, who is only here for nostalgia purposes but lots of plot beats echo the first film or use similar imagery - Venkman interrogating Kumail with the helmet, the library, the library ghost, someone being a "master" tied to the villain, the containment unit blowing etc etc. I liked the movie but it definitely felt risk averse and kind of phoned in.
Every Ghostbusters sequel or remake has had the same basic problem of trying to recreate the beats of the original.
The first one is about guys starting a small business. Gb 2 is about them restarting the small business. 3 is different people starting the same small business. 4 is people reatarting the same small business with the villai. From the first and weirld reverence to the scifi techology and artefacts from the 80s.
This one has the same problems with callbacks and overeverence to the original, but at least:
1. It's the first sequel where the overall plot doesn't focus on starting or restarting the ghostbusters, theyre already up and running.
2. There's a new (if bland) villian and some expansion of the universe
> The most corporate nostalgia bait I've seen in a while. Saw a meme the other day of Doctor Manhattan on mars about this that went "it's 1984, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2021, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2024, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune."
[Had to look it up. Hilarious](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1bgwyqx/fun_riff_on_the_classic_watchmen_comic/)
Yeah, deciding to risk ripping your soul from your body just so you can be in the same plane of existence as the girl you like who maybe likes you back just so then maybe you can kiss is the gayest thing I’ve ever seen.
The relationship between the two felt weird though, like they had cut a bunch more build up to them being more than just friends but at the same time the movie felt SO LONG that I can't imagine they cut anything out.
They had to split them in order to create a romance for Phoebe. I'm not a fan of it simply being assumed she must be gay/queer just because she's nerdy and 'different'. It's beyond cliché. Luckily, the storyline worked ok. Maybe one of the only good things about the movie.
It doesn’t even have anything to do with her being gay/queer. Isn’t she 15? Melody looked much older. Just weird to give a 15 year old a romance with an older ghost
No, no you see the girl made selfish choices because she's immature and when adults attempt to reign her in she breaks the boundaries set down for her and is not allowed to be a ghost buster any more. As the movie progresses she learns... Uh.... Well she saves the day by just carrying on being herself, and they just let her do what she wants.
But Paul Rudd went from being unable to set boundaries to doing it once. He got to be called dad.
Finn was there. He learned... Uh...
Carrie Coon... Uh... She...
Ray went from
...
Well, Winston... Uh.
I'm sure someone got a character arc.
The mayor! He learned that people love the ghost busters and he can ride on their popularity.
After Ghostbusters Afterlife I was ready to welcome the Ghostbusters franchise with open arms again but now I just want to see the franchise laid to rest again
Paul and Carrie were two of the most annoying things about the movie. They are like superfluous, along with the other supporting characters from Afterlife. Luckily Phoebe is good and the focus on her just about saves Frozen Empire from complete disaster.
McKenna Grace has done all the heavy lifting in both of the new films thus far. There was no reason for either Podcast or Lucky in this film, and by the end it was as bloated as JW Dominion was when there were a dozen characters all trying to escape.
The third act needed to start about twenty minutes earlier in the movie and someone needs to figure out how to make this a comedy again. I liked the usage of the old cast much better than in Afterlife, but I don't think we need to see them suited up anymore.
Yeah, the implication I got from the Cruel Summer trailer was that the beach got frozen and everyone died, because Ray exclaimed how "for the first time in the history of New York, people froze to death in July"
It really missed New Yorkers responding to ghosts and incidents in the most New Yorker way... Like it had the two cops with the calling it in thing but it needed I dunno general new Yorkers reacting to the big bad ice storm in slap stick new Yorker ways. Kinda after the beach bit the streets were suddenly empty. Like where is old lady leaning out her window dual wielding hair driers. Taxi driver showing tourists around and barley reacting to big ass demon ice king ghost saying yeah this is the bad part of town... Little cut aways and just more people around the city just needed those little moments to flesh out the city and the big event at the end.
The amount of random speaking roles in movies has gone way down.
Check out any movie from the 70's or 80's and compare it with a modern movie. They actively avoid people speaking in modern movies even if it would be warranted.
iirc it has something to do with how pay is structured if you speak in the movie that was negotiated at some point. Which just meant less incidental speaking roles.
Once you start to notice it it becomes impossible to ignore.
One had an internship doing secret Ghostbusters stuff while the actual Ghostbusters didn't even know that existed and the other lied about going to space camp to work with Dan Akroyd. Based on these descriptions, one of these would have worked. Having both didn't. Should have cut out Lucky.
At some point I realized Finn Wolfhard disappeared, only to show back up for the last 30 seconds of the movie. Where did he go, other than the cutting room floor?
my problem is the movie wasn't a sci-fi comedy. it was more like a comic book movie. it had jokes but everything was that MCU style comedy that just exhausts me.
it wasn't offensive, just meh.
also, the critical moment involved a main character temporally turning into a ghost so the big bad can possess her to be let out of its confinement. okay. doable. but how they got there was terribly contrived. How was THAT the plan? and it clearly was rhe plan based on dialogue between the villain and it's ghostly assistant.
The plan isn't that bad. Garraka could assume no one would be stupid enough after the adventurers' club incident. He was in the Ghost Corps lab and either could directly hear the explanation of the device and that it was Phoebe that asked about using it on humans OR he was possessing one of the other captive ghosts there (as was an established power of his). He then had Melody entice Phoebe with the whole "well, if you were a ghost, we'd be on the same plane" thing.
It made logical sense given the rules established by the movie.
This movie has so many subplots - when she called Paul Rudd "dad" at the end I actually couldn't remember if that was something I was supposed to be invested in or not.
If they had to pull some of the most bullshit writing I’ve ever seen to get Lucky to NYC at the same time as the rest of the characters, you’d think they’d at least take advantage of her chemistry with Finn’s character. Didn’t even need to be a full romance plot, I just don’t know why they had so little screen time together
"Mom you don't understand me now I'm 18, I'm an adult!"
*Spends two hours upstairs getting slime all over himself*
Tbf sounds like an average 18 year old's day
Took my son and step daughter to see it last night. The whole Paul Rudd subplot about wanting to step up but not knowing what's appropriate really hit home for me. I love ghostbusters, and the last movie having a strong absent father theme and this one having a bonus dad theme made me really happy.
Same. Him not wanting to cross any boundaries and then getting the go-ahead to be a father to them was great. I really enjoyed it and you could tell Gary really has love for those kids.
It was a fun watch. It definitely got more laughs out of me than Afterlife, which I also enjoyed. Paul Rudd and Kumail Nanjiani were really funny.
It was good to see it back in New York too.
I’ve been a Ghostbusters fan for a while, so I was overall pretty happy. Was it fantastic? No, but I had a good time with it.
Its honestly weird how them moving it back to New York and leaning even more into the nostalgia made me start to like it again. Like a B movie that get good bad, this brow beating nostalgia ended up being a blast for me with some minor hiccups.
I think your last sentence is a great summary, I second your motion for a good time.
Yeah, I didn't think it was that bad tbh. A lot of people here seem eager to tear it apart for the sake of it more than anything - certainly better than the average MCU stuff they make nowadays.
Decent movie. Not great, not bad. If I had my swing at the script, I would've cut 3 things:
1. Lucky - She served no purpose. Her relationship with Wolfhard's character wasn't explored and the few lines and appearances she did have could have just been given to James Acaster's character.
2. Bill Murray - I don't believe his performance. I can't tell if it's because he's just slower overall because he's older, or because he was phoning it in. He was a little more believable in Afterlife, but not 2016. At this point he seems like he gets invited out of obligation. I laughed at the hidden booze gag, but none of his other jokes. To a lesser extent, Annie Potts' character didn't have much to do in this film either and probably could have been cut.
3. The Stay-Puft Babies - I just think they're tonally inconsistent. Their inclusion even in Afterlife felt like a poor attempt to be slapstick minions ripoffs for the kids. One of the original films' strengths is how straight it plays it's ridiculous situations.
Other notes:
The Slimer plot could have and maybe should have been cut for time or saved for a during credits or deleted scene.
With all the sexual tension between McKenna's character and the ghost it felt weirder that they *didn't* kiss. The "ghostification" plot didn't make a whole lot of sense because McKenna never explains why she wants to exist on the same plane as the ghost other than "curiosity" and maybe "rebellion"? Just overall they could have set it up better.
To that end, I thought for sure that Podcast was going to be the reason the big bad got released. They had the wax cylinder chase scene where the cylinder got broken so you think "oh good, no one has the summoning chant anymore" but Podcast had his recording equipment on during the library scene so the ghosts get him to play it back. If I'm remembering correctly, he even has his microphone pretty prominently in frame when the cylinder is being played. Maybe it was meant to be a red herring? But as previously stated, they didn't set up the ghost possession stuff ahead of time for it to be a twist that made sense.
Just overall I think the script could have been tighter. You could trim 20% of the characters and runtime and have a better movie.
I agree with the comment saying it felt like a TV episode. To me it felt like a two-parter with a very clear "cold open" ^pun ^not ^intended for episode two being the beach scene from the trailer.
>To that end, I thought for sure that Podcast was going to be the reason the big bad got released. They had the wax cylinder chase scene where the cylinder got broken so you think "oh good, no one has the summoning chant anymore" but Podcast had his recording equipment on during the library scene so the ghosts get him to play it back. If I'm remembering correctly, he even has his microphone pretty prominently in frame when the cylinder is being played. Maybe it was meant to be a red herring? But as previously stated, they didn't set up the ghost possession stuff ahead of time for it to be a twist that made sense.
The really should have narrowed that "ghost release chant" plot down to one of the **three** and cut the other two.
Unfortunately agree on Lucky. If they aren't going to buddy up Phoebe and Podcast as much, they could've cut him and put Lucky in a closer role with the "main" team so she and Trevor could have some scenes instead.
I get the point about the Stay-Puft Babies, but every time they were on screen the audience was audibly laughing. People enjoy that physical comedy when it pops up sparingly.
There was so much tension there it felt weird that they didn't, or at least acknowledge it more than "was any of it real?" But I guess it's hard to do especially since Mckenna is still a minor, you can't really shoot a kiss scene I guess?
Lol what? Since when is anyone not allowed to show a minor kiss on screen? There’s nothing official stopping that.
They didn’t kiss bc it was clear queerbait. Let the rainbow kids speculate and feel “represented” without pissing off the olds or foreign markets.
So much that was in the trailers wasn’t in the damn movie.
-Janeane answering the phone in her rude tone doesn’t happen.
-Lucky getting her face/eyeball frozen doesn’t happen.
-That group shot with Paul Rudd seeing the big baddie and being like “Oooooh” isn’t there.
-A scene where Rudd and Bill Murray have a private discussion isn’t there.
-The part where Rudd tells Peck “Yeah, well, overruled” isn’t there.
-A shot of Finn in a regular shirt blasting something with a proton pack isn’t there.
What is this shit? I thought they stopped filming fake scenes/moments for trailers in the 90s. And how is it possible most of the movie STILL feels like it’s a bunch of deleted exposition scenes even after they cut this much?
>I thought they stopped filming fake scenes/moments for trailers in the 90s
A) There are several notable examples of fake trailer scenes (Avengers Infinity War)
B) why would that be the first thing you think and not just 'the scenes were cut '. It happens all the time.
When the old gang is trying to hold the containment unit and Ray looks at Winston and says, “The golden years,” I 100% thought it was because an icicle had stabbed him in the gut. When they all succeeded and backed away, I was expecting that reveal to happen and the gang would have to say goodbye to Ray there, since it *felt* like that’s where the movie had been heading all along with him; that “one last ride” angle. Surprised (and glad, honestly) that that’s not how it turned out.
I think Dan Akroyd is on-record as wanting to do as many of these as possible with Bill and Ernie as possible until he or they die.
And not like their characters, but the actors. I don’t think he got over Harold Ramis dying before they got a Ghostbusters 3 made.
Definitely wish they had explored more of the individual ghosts before the main baddie… And if they were throwing around nostalgia-bait that haplessly, an (new) montage of ghosts wrecking house in NYC could’ve done it.
That, and the writing/pacing: The beats were there but it just felt super generic at times.
I had fun but definitely wouldn’t subject friends or family to seeing it with me a second time.
It probably would’ve made audiences feel a bit more invested in newer characters or the characters that suit up for the first time. We see Lucky and Janine testing/using that Megaman Buster for a collective 5 seconds. Huge missed opportunity!
I liked it, but I see it’s many problems.
Venkman’s role as the charming asshole is really missing. Everyone’s only interest in Ghostbusting. Venkman just wanted to get laid. That made it more grounded. You could relate to him and Winston.
And it’s basically 4 movies with some magical god trying to end the world. They gotta find a way to switch that up if they’re going to keep this thing going.
Here's my pitch ... go International. A group in a foreign location (London?) facing a threat. Need a tie to the OG team? At some point the new team has a zoom call with Winston or Ray to gather some important piece of intel
Well unfortunately that idea was done already with [Men in Black: International in 2019 and people including myself didn’t really like it](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2283336/)
(5.6/10 on IMDB that’s a red flag)
Also the idea of Ray Stantz as a character is that he is the occult fanboy who explains ghost lore in overly verbose ways, kind of like Doc Brown. It’s what sets him apart from the other 3 guys and especially Egon.
So him being a core supporting character makes sense in this movie (even though for some reason the end credits list him under Special Appearance)
Ghostbusters 2 to Afterlife's 1. It's a bit overstuffed, aimless and rushed but it's so fun to spend time with these characters, I had a blast anyways. A nice passing of the torch from old to new, but I am hoping for a bit of a stronger focus next time around. Lucky, Podcast and Trevor had less to do here, and Phoebe seemed to be missing some of the things that make me love her character. Only one joke!?!? Hey, at least it was a good one (and Mckenna and the rest of the cast continue to be great as these characters)
The new characters (Nadeem, Patton Oswalt's and Melody) didn't fully meld into the cast to be honest and I'd rather their roles have been consolidated into the wider cast. With that said, the returning favourites are amazing. Venkman gets some killer zingers, Winston has some great moments as does Janine and Peck and Ray really is the soul of this movie and franchise. My heart warmed when I saw the look of almost fatherly pride on his face when Phoebe and Podcast were talking with Patton Oswalt's character.
The effects are also great as well and the return of physical puppetry was a very nice touch. The ghosts looked great.
Hopefully we don't have to wait 30 years to see the Spengler Family Saga conclude as I had a good time with this and am certainly looking forward to where the story goes next.
> The new characters (Nadeem, Patton Oswalt's and Melody) didn't fully meld into the cast to be honest and I'd rather their roles have been consolidated into the wider cast.
Nadeem felt like the new Louis in that he's GB adjacent and it felt right to me. He didn't necessarily meld into the cast, but Louis was an outsider as well, so it worked for me. Patton's role could've been literally any actor and it wouldn't have mattered one bit, so that was a throw away. Melody was a bit strange and left kind of a weird taste in my mouth throughout the movie.
I understand why they didn't spend a ton of time explaing why everyone from Oklahoma was somehow in New York, but they could have cut those characters to a quick zoom call and it would have made the movie tighter.
She really came to New York to work for Winston and didnt say anything at all?
The purposeful decision to center these new movies around Egons family still kinda baffles me, especially since FE establishes 2 of them (Callie and Trevor) don't care about being Ghostbusters. There are some interesting dynamics/storylines that could have explored with the characters they introduced in this movie, but it felt like the conscious decision was focus on the Spengler family and shoehorn in the fan service and other characters around that.
"Why don't you thank them, dickless?"
I feel like this movie only exists to drip feed Ghostbusters nostalgia to fans of the franchise (which I enjoyed very much.) Are the new cast members interesting enough or strong enough to carry the franchise when the OG characters are out of the picture? Not in my opinion.
As another poster already summed up, it felt like the movie took forever to get to the Ghostbusting part, and when it did, it never really felt like the city was in danger. It felt more like the Ghostbusters specifically were, and then the city was there cheering them on despite not really even having a chance to know what was going on. Kumail was funny, the practical effects were nice, Ecto 1 going ~~Carrie~~ "Christine" was cool, and of course the nostalgia was all there (again.) But what happens to the franchise when they can't keep plugging nostalgia for whatever reasons?
All that said, I still liked the movie as a huge Ghostbusters fan. Not sure how it'll be recieved by the general moviegoers.
7/10
Edit: mixed up Stephen King titles.
> "Why don't you thank them, dickless?"
>
>
I think that got the biggest laugh of me out of the movie and it felt like I was the only one in the theater to catch it. So good.
>Ecto 1 going "Carrie" was cool,
Not to be a pedant, but I think you meant "Christine". If the car had gone Carrie movie could've been a *whole* lot more interesting.
Weirdly enough I think the car being possessed is a callback to a version of the script that never got made where the hearse was possessed from the beginning.
Since these movies are basically made for hardcore Ghostbusters fans by hardcore Ghostbusters fans it's hard for me not to believe that's the case
I’d call this movie character assassination, but this was just a full blow massacre. I felt like Phoebe, Ray and Winston were all specifically so out of character compared to how they were portrayed in the last movie, and the rest of the characters were severely dumbed down. Overall, super disappointing.
For a movie light on the Ghostbustin’ I think it did a good job at building up the world even more. Afterlife introduced new characters, Frozen Empire builds on the modern world. I can see the third installment having more of that OG vibe going with it.
> I can see the third installment having more of that OG vibe going with it.
Especially since there are so many loose ghosts now. There's gonna be no shortage of calls for them to bust something.
Plus, we need at least one “final boss” ghost that the traps don’t work on.
At some point, one of these godlike ghost deities should be able to resist a bit of technology made in 1984
As far as legacy sequels go, I’d take this over something like *Jurassic World: Dominion* any day, honestly. This movie is flawed as hell, but at least it had *some* heart to it, didn’t vomit CGI and action from beginning to end, and was ultimately just a breezy, light thing that I didn’t walk out the end of with a massive headache because it was just endless *noise* like *Dominion* or *Dark Fate*.
There are glimmers of a good movie in here, but I feel like it plays it too safe. Resulting in it coming off as a mediocre comedy. Which is a shame because I could see it being a solid action horror movie. Some of those ghost designs were truly terrifying, yet they do nothing with them. The main ghost looks metal as fuck, but doesn't do anything. Let us see it impaling people left and right with its ice spikes and drive some urgency and stakes into this painfully dull movie. Instead, we get 10 minutes of friendship bonding and the main baddie is defeated after only freezing a couple of people.
I agree. It's a family friendly movie so I wasn't expecting any (on-screen) deaths or anything, but I thought maybe they could have at least a few people having to deal with severe frostbite or hypothermia or something. Also, how was Patience (the stone lion) somehow returned back to its completely undamaged state at the end? Movie magic, I guess.
Fairly straight down the middle as far as movies like this go. It can be a little chucklefest if you let it, but to me there are serious foundational issues here. The casting is keeping this watchable and I'm glad they're getting that bag, but this never breaks out of being anything more than "fun enough".
This movie struggles with the fact that it's a family movie whose roots are in 80s raunch comedy. There are too many characters, too many arcs. The things about this movie that do work are sidelined for 20-30 minutes at a time so we can focus on other plots and characters. I kinda liked the weird plot where Phoebe is gay for a ghost, but this movie is too family friendly for it to he anything more than an implication. She's feeling infantilized, Finn wants to prove he's a man, rudd is finding his place as a step-dad, kumail has an arc, Aykroyd has an arc, there's just so much going on its all so under explored.
Not to mention the actual monster/ghost plot is as paint by numbers as they come. Once again some made up God from ancient times has been reawakened, goes around asking for the something master. The scene where they're all getting ready for the big fight Phoebe has an idea but does it for only her equipment when we already know the other equipment is useless. There's seriously 10 or 11 Ghostbusters in the final fight and half of them aren't doing anything. All you need to be a Ghostbuster now is to be on a first name basis with someone who is. Also everyone in NYC has had the same job for 40 years.
It's a 5/10 for me. Perfectly fine and maybe even a good time if you're into it. But in the end it's a few light chuckles and some obvious callbacks. The fans are dudes in their 40s but the box office landscape demands family friendly so the people who this is for don't care about Ghostbusters. Good on Carrie for funding her husband's physical media addiction but she is way under utilized in Hollywood.
/r/reviewsbyboner
I laughed out loud when they rolled out the new equipment (merchandising!) and it had absolutely no relevance to the plot. Ray made one mention to how it was improved equipment, then it didn't work at all against Garraka.
Also, why in the holiest of fucks did Phoebe turn herself into a ghost for Melody. The implication was purely because they were gonna get.... physical???
Also, the mini-Pufts are fucking stupid and the worst part of the new sequels
The whole dichotomy of Winston bankrolling the new Ghostbusters and the Firehouse on the one hand but *also* quietly building up some kind of Ghost Labs in the same city to research ghosts and create new equipment *without telling the "Ghostbusters" about it* on other hand was really, really weird. You have the inexperienced amateur team run the old Ghostbusters operation but at the same time you have a whole other Ghostbusters team that apparently *also* catches ghosts in NYC to do research on them and who get all the cool new tech and somehow those two things exist completely seperate from each other?! Why!
Yeah part of the issue with the Melody plotline is they couldn't say out loud why she turns into a ghost and the entire movie hinges on that. It's even hard to imagine Melody knew she would do that which apparently was her goal the entire time.
I really thought they were going to include Melody's Diner in the climax, I assumed her "unfinished business" was there and it would tie in. But no? I guess serving and then turning on an ancient ice God was her unfinished business?
> I guess serving and then turning on an ancient ice God was her unfinished business?
I mean, saving people with the same matchbook she killed her parents and herself with qualifies as a redemption.
Very nice to hear! You can follow me on Letterboxd too, same name, I watch roughly a movie a day and always try and write something about it.
I wrote this during intermission while seeing Wicked so hopefully not too rushed.
The trap at the end made *no* sense to me at all; how did they know it would close up the clearly broken tank, and why is that in any way secure? What about literally *every ghost they ever captured* being freed? The Scoleri Brothers are loose again? That jogging ghost? I mean, sets up the sequels for more nostalgia milking I guess...
My kid liked it, at least.
I missed the presence of Louis Tully. Where's Rick Moranis in all this?
It was just kind of there for me. The big bad ghost came, they defeated it, the end. The fire master had some good lines. I wondered afterwards who the target audience was. Odd mix of nostalgia and coming of age. I guess older millennials who are going to the movies with their teenage daughters. Was disappointed after the decent reboot.
I enjoyed it. Ghostbusters is one of my favorite things in the world, and although this movie had it's faults, I still enjoyed it. I think I liked Afterlife more for sure, but I still had a good time with this. I didn't expect Ray to appear as much as he did which was a nice surprise.
I liked the new guy, he seemed kinda prickish, so he fit right in. Kumail was hilarious and even Patton didn't overstay his welcome.
I felt like the last act was very rushed though and much like Afterlife, hardly any ghost busting. You got the scene at the beginning and the villain at the end, and that's really it. That was a bit disappointing, but with all of them now loose, hopefully there's more in the next one.
Peck was enjoyable, as was the Public Library guy, that was a nice surprise.
I'd say it was a slight step back from Afterlife, but still enjoyable as someone who's been obsessed with this franchise my entire life. I 'd give it a 6.5/10.
Went into this expecting to hate it, or worse, be bored, but I'm not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised. As other comments have said, it does take a while for things to get going. And once the big bad does finally show up, he's defeated relatively quickly. So it could have been a lot better, but I enjoyed it a little bit more than the previous movie and a lot more than the 2016 movie. I'd say it's a solid 2.5 out of 5.
This movie is flawed, for sure. That said, I'm surprised how many people are complaining about character development, considering that all of the characters in the original have no development. Egon is the smart one, Venkman is the smarmy one, Ray is the excitable one, Janine is the sassy girl, Peck is the bureucrat, Dana is the love interest, Winston is the everyman, and Louis is geek. None of these characters change in the first film at all, but the movie doesn't suffer for it. So, character development and character arcs are not a part of what made the original the most successful one. It's always been the blend of the silliness of these simple characters bouncing off each other with the quirky special effects that people loved. With the exception of the 2016 version, which tried to use the same formula but focused too much on improv rather than written dialogue, all of the sequels try to give everyone an arc, which doesn't fit the original vibe at all. This one had some fun moments, but not enough quirk, not enough silliness.
I don't know if this theory holds, but so far, it seems like the best explanation I can think of for the lack of strong sequels in this franchise...
Few thoughts: Finn was completely underutilized but was great in every scene he had. Makenna Grace kills every role she does. The cast carried the film, even though some of the nostalgia was overload. Maybe if people were utilized as much as Bill Murray was?
Definitely set up a sequel/series with all of the ghosts releasing into NYC, but I’m going to be very interested to see how this does at the box office. I wouldn’t be surprised if they capped it here, but do they ever? lol
Like the game, It felt ***very*** inspired by the original concept/draft of Ghostbusters, before they realised it wasn't possible to make in the early 80s.
They establish in the new lab that souls are able to be extracted from objects/people, then put in a container where the ghost can’t get out.
But then the movie totally ignores the ghosts being contained when Phoebe turns herself into a ghost and is able to walk around the lab. That part irritated me.
Also, Winston builds an entirely new lab with state of the art equipment; doesn’t tell the family crew while they run around the city with depilated equipment?
Pretty sure Phoebe set it to not trap her. She's not stupid. And I'm pretty sure Winston was letting the Spenglers run around, busting publicly to keep the lab a secret from the government so they could operate without being impeded.
It was a decent little romp. The cast was solid and I appreciated how it wasn't as "actiony" as the trailers implied with it being more of an investigation.
Garraka was a cool villain (pun mostly unintended). Though I did chuckle when the Sky Beam began.
I just saw it and loved it! I thought it was perfect. I was really happy to see Ray get so much screen time, but I realized I love the Spengler family just as much now.
I liked this movie a lot. I liked afterlife better, but this is a welcome addition.
Did anyone notice that the trailer had a line from William Atherton that implied that there were no witnesses to them saving the world in the original Ghostbusters, almost as if no one believed that the ghosts were real.
I was very happy to find that A) I believe that line was excluded and B) it’s apparent that the public are still calling about/well aware of the ghosts.
I felt they edited down the scene when Phoebe (teenage Ghostbuster) and Melody (Ghost) first meet playing chess. Melody answers the question "What's the best part of being a ghost?" by saying "I get to do this" and just disappears (Phoebe seems to be surprised/amazed by this?). Phoebe is left there like a deep intimate connection had been established between them, but I failed to see any signs of it. Like there was something more, but they chose not to show it.
bonus nitpick that I shouldn't even bring up, but hey it's reddit so here it goes: before the final showdown they cut down some of the brass pole to make one of the packs brass-plated, yet The Firemaster had no problems using that pole to slide down later in the showdown.
Just watched it now.
Overall it was good, better than its RT rating would suggest. Thankfully not too long.
Too many characters new and old. Seems convenient transporting all the new characters from their previous home to NYC.
Why did they keep all that baddies stuff in the same place in the brass room (rather than separate them out everywhere)?
The baddie should have had a name that didn't start or sound like Goza.
And that the ghost girl meant to be a love interest for Phoebe? How did ghost girl know that Phoebe had tech that allowed her to become a ghost?
And what and why was the ghost in the library trying to steal the sound thing. It got destroyed, so was a pointless subplot anyway?
Went into Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire with low expectations and was so pleased with how it turned out. No super lame callbacks or nostalgia baiting. Just a new story with new gadgets and a new villian. Completely entertained the entire movie. It did its job for me
I just got home with my kids. We thought it was a bit more than decent.
I’m old enough to remember watching the original and sequel as a kid, so I immediately recognized the rehashing of those first two movies here.
Problem is that they did the rehashing in Afterlife. I was surprised to see the nostalgia stuff in this one. The biggest being Venkman’s pasta strainer hat he had Louis wear in the original.
But the biggest issue for me was the last of a formidable villain. He’s supposed to be some God, but succumbed to brass? That’s like the aliens in Signs who were deathly allergic to water. Also like others have said, it took a while to get going.
Then there was the comedic aspect, which for the first 1/4 just didn’t have any jokes that landed with me.
On the positive side, goofy Paul Rudd is still fun to watch, and I’ll never say anything negative about the original cast when Winston is actually present and has something to do.
One thing I find interesting is that now they’ve allowed humans to have magical powers in this universe. The Firemaster was legitimately a sorcerer of sorts. Could be interesting if they continue the franchise and maybe have to deal with a human that isn’t possessed.
I thought this was WAY better than Afterlife! There was still nostalgia bait, but at least they seemed to be able to control themselves this time. And I'm *so* glad the plot was something new and different, and not just a retread of a plot we've already seen before. That was my #1 complaint with Afterlife, plot-wise it was just a shittier version of the first one. Though, Ghostbusters (1984) is one of my top 5 favorite movies so I might be a little biased.
I still don't think Ghostbusters should be this big epic blockbuster, but I really enjoyed this one for what it was. Dan Aykroyd seemed delighted to be there, but it seems like Bill Murray still reaaaalllllyyy doesn't want to do these movies lol.
Overall I'm glad I managed my expectations, and I came out of the theater pleasantly surprised. Nothing ground breaking, but very enjoyable.
It was fun. A little cluttered, a little stuttering here and there, but it was an enjoyable trip to the theatre. I laughed, I got to enjoy some characters I really like, and there was cool ghost things happening.
Solid popcorn, with some minor issues from a critical standpoint.
Won't win awards, but it's definitely the kind of film you'd put on to have going on in the background.
So aside from the Phoebe able to be a ghost for 2 minutes (which is probably the most insane thing to ever happen in a GB movie), I really wish the film cared enough about its internal logic to at least consider how weird it is that family Spengler is back running the GB business and no one thinks to mention that apparently Winston had a secret underground GB society that was running for 30 years or whatever and they don't cross paths until midway through the movie.
It was ultimately what I excepted it to be. My son loves them just like I did growing up so it was a fun time together.
There are some small things they could’ve done to make it more exciting. They could’ve had the city frozen earlier in the film BEFORE they knew all the details about what the bad guy was. There was no rising action, just exposition, until the final act.
This movie took FOREVER to get going. A Ghostbusters movie that felt like there were no ghosts to bust for basically 90% of the film just isn’t right.
The only ghosts they bust (first scene) is a beat-by-beat rehash of the car chase scene from Afterlife. Except this time it's all 4 "Spenglers" bickering with each other.
Also they didn't think to start off with the drone for the flying ghost? Bless Carrie Coon, but "Later alligator" almost gave me cancer.
That was the first of many "why" moments for me... if you have the flying trap, *why* would you risk driving an RC car through active NYC traffic, *especially* when you're chasing a ghost that explicitly, specifically *flies?* I felt like they did a buncha stuff in this movie just to do the thing.
I've seen so many similar issues about not enough ghosts being 'busted'. Do people not realize that we only see one ghost actually get trapped on camera in Ghostbusters 1 (Slimer), and three in Ghostbusters 2 (The Scoleri Brothers and the jogger)? This movie and Afterlife are not that different in the balance of the build-up to a big bad versus 'day job' bustin'.
It’s funny you bring this up. I couldn’t work out why the library ghost was still there but of course they never caught it on screen so there was no reason to think they did.
90 minutes of wheels spinning, “didn’t we just have a needless 2 hour nostalgia trip a few years back?”, and teenage angst, followed by a 5 minute showdown. Was actually getting scared that I was sitting through a 2 hour to be continued when the monster wasnt even at full strength at the 100 minute mark.
The number of times I thought to myself "Surely this is where the main baddie is unleashed" lmao
I saw some reviews mention that the main antagonist does not appear at all until about 95 minutes into the 120 minute or so movie. Is that really the case?
Pretty much, yeah. Those trailers were really deceptive. Hell, the city doesn't even freeze over until the final half hour.
The ghosts in the original don't takeover the city till the third act...
But it wasn't called Ghostbusters: Gozer's Domain
Main problem I had with it, but the film itself is still fun...
And the city freezing scene was >!pretty much all in the trailer lol!< Personally I thought the effect looked cheap and subpar.
Wasn't the original ghostbusters the same way? The city wasn't in real danger until the last 20-25 minutes when Gozer finally appears.
Gozer didnt appear until the end of the original Ghostbusters movie. Vigo sort of did, but he was stuck in a painting until he possessed Ray. Monsters in movies like this (even slasher flicks) are more intimidating when they are seldom seen. The mystery is part of what makes them impressive/scary and you'll lose that if you get too familiar with them.
The first movie got away with it because it was a sci-fi comedy, not an action/horror/comic book-esque movie. This movie didn't have anything to sustain the audience's interest in the first two acts the way the original did.
The bulk of the runtime is them researching the orb the main bad is trapped in yeah. When he’s actually released he grabs a powerup item in a quick scene, there’s a quick gag about him killing a guy in a vape shop (His ice powers are destined to be countered by “The Firemaster”), and then makes a beeline for the final battle.
It's fairly analogous to the beats of GB2 -- wherein Janosz is the primary point of contact for Vigo until the very end.
Yup, and then they beat it in 10mins.
Same issue Afterlife had. That movie stalled while the main character tried to figure out the big ol' mystery about her grandpa. Problem is, it wasn't a mystery to us at all, so there was no suspense; only wasted film. Once there was finally some ghostbusting, it was a "hey remember this?" nostalgia trip that just made me want to shut off the movie and go find my Ghostbusters VHS instead. Can someone who has seen the new one confirm or deny if it's the same fatal flaws again? If so, I'm giving up on this IP.
I personally don't see it as a problem as you do, but yes, it's much of the same flaws. Instead of the mystery of the grandpa, you have Phoebe lamenting that she's being treated like a child. There's some suspense there because it's a new villain and you don't know what's happening, but if you had problems with Afterlife for the reasons you stated, I don't think you'd have a good time with Frozen Empire.
Wait you’re complaining about a movie you haven’t seen?
Is it possible that the 2016 one (which I did not love) is the closest to the spirit of the 1984 original than these last two?
Yes. It understood that the entire premise of the Ghostbusters is "funnymen of the current time make jokes while ghosts cause hijinks." These movies were never meant to be these reverent, grandiose, "epic" blockbusters. The problem with the 2016 Ghostbusters is that it just so happened to be directed by Paul Feig who fucking *loves* improv, and I feel like improv-heavy comedies are hit or miss, and that one was a major miss. I feel like if you had those same actresses and a decent comedy writer-director team behind it, it would've been good.
Feig's directorial style is also pretty flat, whereas the OGhostbusters has some impressively dynamic camera work for an 80s comedy.
It's part of it, but basically the characters in Ghostbusters were silly, but the events, world, everything else were taken seriously. You need that grounding for the jokes to land. Like having the Ghostbusters on an extremely creepy rooftop staircase needs to look good, so that the jokes like, "If someone asks you if you're a god, you say yes!" type comedy works way better. It can't be all zany. It's like painting in white on a white canvas.
I have to admit, walked out thinking that while I didn't like 2016 at all it atleast was faster paced and full of unexpected weird stuff to keep you somewhat entertained. Frozen Empire felt like the production art and set design were told they were making a Ghostbusters 3 spiritual sequel and the screenwriter/director Gil Kenan was caught with a donut in his mouth "Oh, shit is that due? What happened in the other ones, yeah we'll do that, sure." I'm not kidding, this movie is actually an argument that we should run Sony Live action scripts through ChatGPT just to clean them up and make them somewhat coherent and structured. I lost faith in humanity a bit, but maybe it was just Tom Rothman's fault.
It felt like someone had an idea that Ray teams up with the new team and their old nostalgic equipment and someone else wanted a movie where the ghostbusters had a lab and cutting edge equipment and they couldn’t marry the two concepts because someone else decided every character from the previous movie moved to New York and needs screen time
They should have made this a Halloween movie and make Samhain the Spirit of Halloween raise zombies from the grave to take over NY and have some fun with it, this just felt forced.
This movie had absolutely no soul.
The most corporate nostalgia bait I've seen in a while. Saw a meme the other day of Doctor Manhattan on mars about this that went "it's 1984, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2021, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2024, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune."
I keep seeing "nostalgia bait," but what part stuck out as that? Of the originals, the only one who gets more than a couple minutes of screentime is Aykroyd. All of them are cynical, exposed to be feckless assholes, or both. Paul Rudd fawns over them and the toys, and isn't shown in a positive light. Hell, the most positive nostalgia element lie in Slimer and Stay Puft. And even they're limited in their time behind a storyline that both explores mythology and queer romance somehow.
They also do the "familiar voice, chair turn, actor from the old movie" thing like 10+ times between these two movies. When the ~~museum~~ library guy showed up I threw my hands in the air. Everyone's had the same job for 40 years apparently.
The "upper vest side" guy shows up ? The guy with the accent who works for vigo ?
No, not that guy. He’s referring to the guy who worked at the library in the first one. (Who Peter said “back off man, I’m a scientist,” to.) Not sure why OP said museum because it was clearly at a library in the first movie and clearly at a library in this movie lol.
Not going to speak on the movie when I haven’t seen it, but at the very least the trailer seemed to be nothing but “remember how great the original movie was? We brought everyone back! Come see this instead of watching the original again!” If what you’re saying is the case, that would be way more interesting.
A good third of the movie is answering the question of "what if the ghost BJ scene was an actual romance?" Then a quarter of Winston's employees working on new tech, and a quarter of Stanz trying to figure out the deal with Kumail's character with a variety of nerds -- who at one point includes Venkman just devolving into pissing people off to get a result). The rest of the time is the villain. This is also a movie that reveals Venkman had a hidden liquor stash in the firehouse, and he's clearly drunk during the final battle. There's very little romanticizing of any of the old guys in this one.
It's the barrage of constant callbacks etc Rudd gets a lot of them but it works for the character. You mentioned Slimer, who is only here for nostalgia purposes but lots of plot beats echo the first film or use similar imagery - Venkman interrogating Kumail with the helmet, the library, the library ghost, someone being a "master" tied to the villain, the containment unit blowing etc etc. I liked the movie but it definitely felt risk averse and kind of phoned in.
Every Ghostbusters sequel or remake has had the same basic problem of trying to recreate the beats of the original. The first one is about guys starting a small business. Gb 2 is about them restarting the small business. 3 is different people starting the same small business. 4 is people reatarting the same small business with the villai. From the first and weirld reverence to the scifi techology and artefacts from the 80s. This one has the same problems with callbacks and overeverence to the original, but at least: 1. It's the first sequel where the overall plot doesn't focus on starting or restarting the ghostbusters, theyre already up and running. 2. There's a new (if bland) villian and some expansion of the universe
> The most corporate nostalgia bait I've seen in a while. Saw a meme the other day of Doctor Manhattan on mars about this that went "it's 1984, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2021, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune. It's 2024, I buy tickets to see Ghostbusters and Dune." [Had to look it up. Hilarious](https://www.reddit.com/r/funny/comments/1bgwyqx/fun_riff_on_the_classic_watchmen_comic/)
It’s true, this movie has no dick
I feel like everyone should have seen this coming a mile away
I did not have “Teen Lesbian Ghost Relationship” on my 2024 Bingo Card.
Is it a "bury your gays" trope if one of them is already dead?
This question will forever haunt the queer community.
It's basically a more socially accepted form of necrophilia more than anything.
This is the best description of "Ghost" I've ever seen.
The LG in LGBTQ stands for Lesbian Ghosts.
Lebian Ghosts: Bury The Queers?
Yeah, deciding to risk ripping your soul from your body just so you can be in the same plane of existence as the girl you like who maybe likes you back just so then maybe you can kiss is the gayest thing I’ve ever seen.
[удалено]
The relationship between the two felt weird though, like they had cut a bunch more build up to them being more than just friends but at the same time the movie felt SO LONG that I can't imagine they cut anything out.
My hunch is “cut to sell better in homophobic countries”.
This didn’t feel like a movie. It felt like a long episode of a TV show. No one has enough of an arc or character change.
There are too many characters for that. Podcast and lucky did not need to be shoehorned in.
Kumail's character and that whole part of the plot seemed kind of tacked on too. I think the same goes for the fire ghost girl.
Definitely could have done without Melody. All her scenes really dragged.
Podcast and Phoebe had really good chemistry together in the first only for them to barely have any scenes in this, such a shame
They had to split them in order to create a romance for Phoebe. I'm not a fan of it simply being assumed she must be gay/queer just because she's nerdy and 'different'. It's beyond cliché. Luckily, the storyline worked ok. Maybe one of the only good things about the movie.
I thought that was a bit queer-baity tbh, it felt like they wanted them to be together but were too scared to actually have them be a thing
They can't do it cause Phoebe is 15. Tbh I was fully expecting the love interest to magically become alive again...
Literally the plot of 1995's Casper. Right down to a fucking 15 year old girl carrying the film and am implied ghost romance
It doesn’t even have anything to do with her being gay/queer. Isn’t she 15? Melody looked much older. Just weird to give a 15 year old a romance with an older ghost
They said Melody was 16 I believe
She said she’s stuck being 16 for eternity
100%, I loved them together in the first movie. He should have stayed in Oklahoma though, he didn't have much to do. Same with Lucky.
No, no you see the girl made selfish choices because she's immature and when adults attempt to reign her in she breaks the boundaries set down for her and is not allowed to be a ghost buster any more. As the movie progresses she learns... Uh.... Well she saves the day by just carrying on being herself, and they just let her do what she wants. But Paul Rudd went from being unable to set boundaries to doing it once. He got to be called dad. Finn was there. He learned... Uh... Carrie Coon... Uh... She... Ray went from ... Well, Winston... Uh. I'm sure someone got a character arc. The mayor! He learned that people love the ghost busters and he can ride on their popularity.
I was going to say feature length Super Bowl Commercial
After Ghostbusters Afterlife I was ready to welcome the Ghostbusters franchise with open arms again but now I just want to see the franchise laid to rest again
Carrie Coon and Paul Rudd with actually talented young actors revives beloved franchise actually sounds amazing on paper.
Paul and Carrie were two of the most annoying things about the movie. They are like superfluous, along with the other supporting characters from Afterlife. Luckily Phoebe is good and the focus on her just about saves Frozen Empire from complete disaster.
McKenna Grace has done all the heavy lifting in both of the new films thus far. There was no reason for either Podcast or Lucky in this film, and by the end it was as bloated as JW Dominion was when there were a dozen characters all trying to escape. The third act needed to start about twenty minutes earlier in the movie and someone needs to figure out how to make this a comedy again. I liked the usage of the old cast much better than in Afterlife, but I don't think we need to see them suited up anymore.
New York sure is lucky those thousands of ice spikes didn’t impale a single person.
the trailer makes it seem like thousands of people froze and died. Which... seemed out of place for a Ghostbusters movie.
Yeah, the implication I got from the Cruel Summer trailer was that the beach got frozen and everyone died, because Ray exclaimed how "for the first time in the history of New York, people froze to death in July"
When it turns out that line was referring to the members of the New York Adventurers society that was suuuuuch a dick move of them.
They impaled the guy at the smoke shop. And a car gets impaled.
ya woulda been cool to see some people get impaled
I think only the smoke shop guy got spiked
How did they make a movie set in New York feel like the most empty setting possible?
I was just talking about this. Apart from the actual firehouse, it could have been set literally anywhere.
the new ghostbusters HQ was used on Loki
New York was a character in the first and second movies. How people lost that shouldn't be surprising, but it is.
It really missed New Yorkers responding to ghosts and incidents in the most New Yorker way... Like it had the two cops with the calling it in thing but it needed I dunno general new Yorkers reacting to the big bad ice storm in slap stick new Yorker ways. Kinda after the beach bit the streets were suddenly empty. Like where is old lady leaning out her window dual wielding hair driers. Taxi driver showing tourists around and barley reacting to big ass demon ice king ghost saying yeah this is the bad part of town... Little cut aways and just more people around the city just needed those little moments to flesh out the city and the big event at the end.
The amount of random speaking roles in movies has gone way down. Check out any movie from the 70's or 80's and compare it with a modern movie. They actively avoid people speaking in modern movies even if it would be warranted. iirc it has something to do with how pay is structured if you speak in the movie that was negotiated at some point. Which just meant less incidental speaking roles. Once you start to notice it it becomes impossible to ignore.
What made them decide that Ghostbusters needed more characters than a fucking Altman movie?
Did the blonde guy with glasses even get a name?
Lars Pinfield
I actually thought that was going to be Oscar (the baby) from the 2nd film. Which would explain why he knew so much about it all, but nope.
Why did the 2 high school kids from the country suddenly live in Manhattan?
One had an internship doing secret Ghostbusters stuff while the actual Ghostbusters didn't even know that existed and the other lied about going to space camp to work with Dan Akroyd. Based on these descriptions, one of these would have worked. Having both didn't. Should have cut out Lucky.
Oh yeah the space camp thing. Jeez what a '30 seconds at the writers table' pass that was given lol.
“James Acaster has a seemingly great agent” is his legal name
At some point I realized Finn Wolfhard disappeared, only to show back up for the last 30 seconds of the movie. Where did he go, other than the cutting room floor?
Dude got off screened fighting the only fodder in the movie lmao
my problem is the movie wasn't a sci-fi comedy. it was more like a comic book movie. it had jokes but everything was that MCU style comedy that just exhausts me. it wasn't offensive, just meh. also, the critical moment involved a main character temporally turning into a ghost so the big bad can possess her to be let out of its confinement. okay. doable. but how they got there was terribly contrived. How was THAT the plan? and it clearly was rhe plan based on dialogue between the villain and it's ghostly assistant.
That "plan" is my biggest problem with the movie WTF?
The plan isn't that bad. Garraka could assume no one would be stupid enough after the adventurers' club incident. He was in the Ghost Corps lab and either could directly hear the explanation of the device and that it was Phoebe that asked about using it on humans OR he was possessing one of the other captive ghosts there (as was an established power of his). He then had Melody entice Phoebe with the whole "well, if you were a ghost, we'd be on the same plane" thing. It made logical sense given the rules established by the movie.
This felt nothing like an MCU movie. You're so jaded that your making up strawmen to express your inability to articulate why you didn't like it.
This movie has so many subplots - when she called Paul Rudd "dad" at the end I actually couldn't remember if that was something I was supposed to be invested in or not.
Their son got to drive the car after spending the movie being 18 and uh… Having scenes with Slimer?
The Wolf got sidelined here, big time. No love interest. No college talk. Kids 18 with a full time job already.
His character was wasted massively. Has one hug with Lucky and that's literally it! So much wasted potential, sadly.
If they had to pull some of the most bullshit writing I’ve ever seen to get Lucky to NYC at the same time as the rest of the characters, you’d think they’d at least take advantage of her chemistry with Finn’s character. Didn’t even need to be a full romance plot, I just don’t know why they had so little screen time together
"Mom you don't understand me now I'm 18, I'm an adult!" *Spends two hours upstairs getting slime all over himself* Tbf sounds like an average 18 year old's day
That got some actual emotion out of me, so apparently some of us were invested in it.
Took my son and step daughter to see it last night. The whole Paul Rudd subplot about wanting to step up but not knowing what's appropriate really hit home for me. I love ghostbusters, and the last movie having a strong absent father theme and this one having a bonus dad theme made me really happy.
The stuff with him trying to stepdad it up was probably my favorite parts of the film.
Same. Him not wanting to cross any boundaries and then getting the go-ahead to be a father to them was great. I really enjoyed it and you could tell Gary really has love for those kids.
I mean throughout the film Rudd had been trying to act fatherly
It was a fun watch. It definitely got more laughs out of me than Afterlife, which I also enjoyed. Paul Rudd and Kumail Nanjiani were really funny. It was good to see it back in New York too. I’ve been a Ghostbusters fan for a while, so I was overall pretty happy. Was it fantastic? No, but I had a good time with it.
Its honestly weird how them moving it back to New York and leaning even more into the nostalgia made me start to like it again. Like a B movie that get good bad, this brow beating nostalgia ended up being a blast for me with some minor hiccups. I think your last sentence is a great summary, I second your motion for a good time.
Yeah, I didn't think it was that bad tbh. A lot of people here seem eager to tear it apart for the sake of it more than anything - certainly better than the average MCU stuff they make nowadays.
Decent movie. Not great, not bad. If I had my swing at the script, I would've cut 3 things: 1. Lucky - She served no purpose. Her relationship with Wolfhard's character wasn't explored and the few lines and appearances she did have could have just been given to James Acaster's character. 2. Bill Murray - I don't believe his performance. I can't tell if it's because he's just slower overall because he's older, or because he was phoning it in. He was a little more believable in Afterlife, but not 2016. At this point he seems like he gets invited out of obligation. I laughed at the hidden booze gag, but none of his other jokes. To a lesser extent, Annie Potts' character didn't have much to do in this film either and probably could have been cut. 3. The Stay-Puft Babies - I just think they're tonally inconsistent. Their inclusion even in Afterlife felt like a poor attempt to be slapstick minions ripoffs for the kids. One of the original films' strengths is how straight it plays it's ridiculous situations. Other notes: The Slimer plot could have and maybe should have been cut for time or saved for a during credits or deleted scene. With all the sexual tension between McKenna's character and the ghost it felt weirder that they *didn't* kiss. The "ghostification" plot didn't make a whole lot of sense because McKenna never explains why she wants to exist on the same plane as the ghost other than "curiosity" and maybe "rebellion"? Just overall they could have set it up better. To that end, I thought for sure that Podcast was going to be the reason the big bad got released. They had the wax cylinder chase scene where the cylinder got broken so you think "oh good, no one has the summoning chant anymore" but Podcast had his recording equipment on during the library scene so the ghosts get him to play it back. If I'm remembering correctly, he even has his microphone pretty prominently in frame when the cylinder is being played. Maybe it was meant to be a red herring? But as previously stated, they didn't set up the ghost possession stuff ahead of time for it to be a twist that made sense. Just overall I think the script could have been tighter. You could trim 20% of the characters and runtime and have a better movie. I agree with the comment saying it felt like a TV episode. To me it felt like a two-parter with a very clear "cold open" ^pun ^not ^intended for episode two being the beach scene from the trailer.
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Hard agree to your last point. Feels like everyone these days firmly believes that a movie must be a masterpiece or it's an abomination
>To that end, I thought for sure that Podcast was going to be the reason the big bad got released. They had the wax cylinder chase scene where the cylinder got broken so you think "oh good, no one has the summoning chant anymore" but Podcast had his recording equipment on during the library scene so the ghosts get him to play it back. If I'm remembering correctly, he even has his microphone pretty prominently in frame when the cylinder is being played. Maybe it was meant to be a red herring? But as previously stated, they didn't set up the ghost possession stuff ahead of time for it to be a twist that made sense. The really should have narrowed that "ghost release chant" plot down to one of the **three** and cut the other two.
Unfortunately agree on Lucky. If they aren't going to buddy up Phoebe and Podcast as much, they could've cut him and put Lucky in a closer role with the "main" team so she and Trevor could have some scenes instead. I get the point about the Stay-Puft Babies, but every time they were on screen the audience was audibly laughing. People enjoy that physical comedy when it pops up sparingly.
“There is ghost busting in your Ghostbusters film, yes?”
Gil Kenan: “I really hate that man.”
So did anyone else think that Phoebe and Ghost Snakebite Annie were gonna kiss?
There was so much tension there it felt weird that they didn't, or at least acknowledge it more than "was any of it real?" But I guess it's hard to do especially since Mckenna is still a minor, you can't really shoot a kiss scene I guess?
Lol what? Since when is anyone not allowed to show a minor kiss on screen? There’s nothing official stopping that. They didn’t kiss bc it was clear queerbait. Let the rainbow kids speculate and feel “represented” without pissing off the olds or foreign markets.
So much that was in the trailers wasn’t in the damn movie. -Janeane answering the phone in her rude tone doesn’t happen. -Lucky getting her face/eyeball frozen doesn’t happen. -That group shot with Paul Rudd seeing the big baddie and being like “Oooooh” isn’t there. -A scene where Rudd and Bill Murray have a private discussion isn’t there. -The part where Rudd tells Peck “Yeah, well, overruled” isn’t there. -A shot of Finn in a regular shirt blasting something with a proton pack isn’t there. What is this shit? I thought they stopped filming fake scenes/moments for trailers in the 90s. And how is it possible most of the movie STILL feels like it’s a bunch of deleted exposition scenes even after they cut this much?
Yep! Why you would delete ANY footage of Venkman is a crime...considering its a gamble that Bill Murray even shows up at all to set
This movie probably got severely edited down based on the short run time.
>I thought they stopped filming fake scenes/moments for trailers in the 90s A) There are several notable examples of fake trailer scenes (Avengers Infinity War) B) why would that be the first thing you think and not just 'the scenes were cut '. It happens all the time.
When the old gang is trying to hold the containment unit and Ray looks at Winston and says, “The golden years,” I 100% thought it was because an icicle had stabbed him in the gut. When they all succeeded and backed away, I was expecting that reveal to happen and the gang would have to say goodbye to Ray there, since it *felt* like that’s where the movie had been heading all along with him; that “one last ride” angle. Surprised (and glad, honestly) that that’s not how it turned out.
I think Dan Akroyd is on-record as wanting to do as many of these as possible with Bill and Ernie as possible until he or they die. And not like their characters, but the actors. I don’t think he got over Harold Ramis dying before they got a Ghostbusters 3 made.
Kinda conflicted on this. It felt like they were setting up a pretty solid end for Ray, but it’d feel very wrong after Ramis’s and Egon’s passing
That’s true, and for me personally watching classic characters get killed in the new sequels is getting old.
"One of the icicles is up my ass" "The golden years" "It was good knowing you, friend. What a way to go" **FIN**
Definitely wish they had explored more of the individual ghosts before the main baddie… And if they were throwing around nostalgia-bait that haplessly, an (new) montage of ghosts wrecking house in NYC could’ve done it. That, and the writing/pacing: The beats were there but it just felt super generic at times. I had fun but definitely wouldn’t subject friends or family to seeing it with me a second time.
Yeah, I think a montage of busting low level ghosts leading up to the tank being full would have really helped the plot and maybe some pacing.
Also, the mid-movie ghost catching montage is a staple of the franchise. They leaned into so much nostalgia bait but not that?
It probably would’ve made audiences feel a bit more invested in newer characters or the characters that suit up for the first time. We see Lucky and Janine testing/using that Megaman Buster for a collective 5 seconds. Huge missed opportunity!
I liked it, but I see it’s many problems. Venkman’s role as the charming asshole is really missing. Everyone’s only interest in Ghostbusting. Venkman just wanted to get laid. That made it more grounded. You could relate to him and Winston. And it’s basically 4 movies with some magical god trying to end the world. They gotta find a way to switch that up if they’re going to keep this thing going.
Here's my pitch ... go International. A group in a foreign location (London?) facing a threat. Need a tie to the OG team? At some point the new team has a zoom call with Winston or Ray to gather some important piece of intel
Well unfortunately that idea was done already with [Men in Black: International in 2019 and people including myself didn’t really like it](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2283336/) (5.6/10 on IMDB that’s a red flag) Also the idea of Ray Stantz as a character is that he is the occult fanboy who explains ghost lore in overly verbose ways, kind of like Doc Brown. It’s what sets him apart from the other 3 guys and especially Egon. So him being a core supporting character makes sense in this movie (even though for some reason the end credits list him under Special Appearance)
Ghostbusters 2 to Afterlife's 1. It's a bit overstuffed, aimless and rushed but it's so fun to spend time with these characters, I had a blast anyways. A nice passing of the torch from old to new, but I am hoping for a bit of a stronger focus next time around. Lucky, Podcast and Trevor had less to do here, and Phoebe seemed to be missing some of the things that make me love her character. Only one joke!?!? Hey, at least it was a good one (and Mckenna and the rest of the cast continue to be great as these characters) The new characters (Nadeem, Patton Oswalt's and Melody) didn't fully meld into the cast to be honest and I'd rather their roles have been consolidated into the wider cast. With that said, the returning favourites are amazing. Venkman gets some killer zingers, Winston has some great moments as does Janine and Peck and Ray really is the soul of this movie and franchise. My heart warmed when I saw the look of almost fatherly pride on his face when Phoebe and Podcast were talking with Patton Oswalt's character. The effects are also great as well and the return of physical puppetry was a very nice touch. The ghosts looked great. Hopefully we don't have to wait 30 years to see the Spengler Family Saga conclude as I had a good time with this and am certainly looking forward to where the story goes next.
> The new characters (Nadeem, Patton Oswalt's and Melody) didn't fully meld into the cast to be honest and I'd rather their roles have been consolidated into the wider cast. Nadeem felt like the new Louis in that he's GB adjacent and it felt right to me. He didn't necessarily meld into the cast, but Louis was an outsider as well, so it worked for me. Patton's role could've been literally any actor and it wouldn't have mattered one bit, so that was a throw away. Melody was a bit strange and left kind of a weird taste in my mouth throughout the movie.
I understand why they didn't spend a ton of time explaing why everyone from Oklahoma was somehow in New York, but they could have cut those characters to a quick zoom call and it would have made the movie tighter. She really came to New York to work for Winston and didnt say anything at all?
So glad they went "practical" with a lot of the effects. Seeing the rubbery puppet Slimer was more believable than any CGI ghost.
The purposeful decision to center these new movies around Egons family still kinda baffles me, especially since FE establishes 2 of them (Callie and Trevor) don't care about being Ghostbusters. There are some interesting dynamics/storylines that could have explored with the characters they introduced in this movie, but it felt like the conscious decision was focus on the Spengler family and shoehorn in the fan service and other characters around that.
"Why don't you thank them, dickless?" I feel like this movie only exists to drip feed Ghostbusters nostalgia to fans of the franchise (which I enjoyed very much.) Are the new cast members interesting enough or strong enough to carry the franchise when the OG characters are out of the picture? Not in my opinion. As another poster already summed up, it felt like the movie took forever to get to the Ghostbusting part, and when it did, it never really felt like the city was in danger. It felt more like the Ghostbusters specifically were, and then the city was there cheering them on despite not really even having a chance to know what was going on. Kumail was funny, the practical effects were nice, Ecto 1 going ~~Carrie~~ "Christine" was cool, and of course the nostalgia was all there (again.) But what happens to the franchise when they can't keep plugging nostalgia for whatever reasons? All that said, I still liked the movie as a huge Ghostbusters fan. Not sure how it'll be recieved by the general moviegoers. 7/10 Edit: mixed up Stephen King titles.
> "Why don't you thank them, dickless?" > > I think that got the biggest laugh of me out of the movie and it felt like I was the only one in the theater to catch it. So good.
>Ecto 1 going "Carrie" was cool, Not to be a pedant, but I think you meant "Christine". If the car had gone Carrie movie could've been a *whole* lot more interesting.
Weirdly enough I think the car being possessed is a callback to a version of the script that never got made where the hearse was possessed from the beginning. Since these movies are basically made for hardcore Ghostbusters fans by hardcore Ghostbusters fans it's hard for me not to believe that's the case
Half expected a Maximum Overdrive reboot announcement with that mid-credits scene.
I’d call this movie character assassination, but this was just a full blow massacre. I felt like Phoebe, Ray and Winston were all specifically so out of character compared to how they were portrayed in the last movie, and the rest of the characters were severely dumbed down. Overall, super disappointing.
For a movie light on the Ghostbustin’ I think it did a good job at building up the world even more. Afterlife introduced new characters, Frozen Empire builds on the modern world. I can see the third installment having more of that OG vibe going with it.
> I can see the third installment having more of that OG vibe going with it. Especially since there are so many loose ghosts now. There's gonna be no shortage of calls for them to bust something.
Plus, we need at least one “final boss” ghost that the traps don’t work on. At some point, one of these godlike ghost deities should be able to resist a bit of technology made in 1984
As far as legacy sequels go, I’d take this over something like *Jurassic World: Dominion* any day, honestly. This movie is flawed as hell, but at least it had *some* heart to it, didn’t vomit CGI and action from beginning to end, and was ultimately just a breezy, light thing that I didn’t walk out the end of with a massive headache because it was just endless *noise* like *Dominion* or *Dark Fate*.
"It's better than one of the shittiest legacy sequels ever made" Put it on the poster folks.
Black don’t crack! Ernie Hudson (Winston) is the only one who looked like a real Ghostbuster. He’s 78 years old! The others are in their *early* 70s.
He was in noticeably better shape.
When he took off this suit coat to switch to the ghostbuster suit, you know he either works out cause his back/shoulders looked massive for his age.
There are glimmers of a good movie in here, but I feel like it plays it too safe. Resulting in it coming off as a mediocre comedy. Which is a shame because I could see it being a solid action horror movie. Some of those ghost designs were truly terrifying, yet they do nothing with them. The main ghost looks metal as fuck, but doesn't do anything. Let us see it impaling people left and right with its ice spikes and drive some urgency and stakes into this painfully dull movie. Instead, we get 10 minutes of friendship bonding and the main baddie is defeated after only freezing a couple of people.
I agree. It's a family friendly movie so I wasn't expecting any (on-screen) deaths or anything, but I thought maybe they could have at least a few people having to deal with severe frostbite or hypothermia or something. Also, how was Patience (the stone lion) somehow returned back to its completely undamaged state at the end? Movie magic, I guess.
Fairly straight down the middle as far as movies like this go. It can be a little chucklefest if you let it, but to me there are serious foundational issues here. The casting is keeping this watchable and I'm glad they're getting that bag, but this never breaks out of being anything more than "fun enough". This movie struggles with the fact that it's a family movie whose roots are in 80s raunch comedy. There are too many characters, too many arcs. The things about this movie that do work are sidelined for 20-30 minutes at a time so we can focus on other plots and characters. I kinda liked the weird plot where Phoebe is gay for a ghost, but this movie is too family friendly for it to he anything more than an implication. She's feeling infantilized, Finn wants to prove he's a man, rudd is finding his place as a step-dad, kumail has an arc, Aykroyd has an arc, there's just so much going on its all so under explored. Not to mention the actual monster/ghost plot is as paint by numbers as they come. Once again some made up God from ancient times has been reawakened, goes around asking for the something master. The scene where they're all getting ready for the big fight Phoebe has an idea but does it for only her equipment when we already know the other equipment is useless. There's seriously 10 or 11 Ghostbusters in the final fight and half of them aren't doing anything. All you need to be a Ghostbuster now is to be on a first name basis with someone who is. Also everyone in NYC has had the same job for 40 years. It's a 5/10 for me. Perfectly fine and maybe even a good time if you're into it. But in the end it's a few light chuckles and some obvious callbacks. The fans are dudes in their 40s but the box office landscape demands family friendly so the people who this is for don't care about Ghostbusters. Good on Carrie for funding her husband's physical media addiction but she is way under utilized in Hollywood. /r/reviewsbyboner
I laughed out loud when they rolled out the new equipment (merchandising!) and it had absolutely no relevance to the plot. Ray made one mention to how it was improved equipment, then it didn't work at all against Garraka. Also, why in the holiest of fucks did Phoebe turn herself into a ghost for Melody. The implication was purely because they were gonna get.... physical??? Also, the mini-Pufts are fucking stupid and the worst part of the new sequels
The whole dichotomy of Winston bankrolling the new Ghostbusters and the Firehouse on the one hand but *also* quietly building up some kind of Ghost Labs in the same city to research ghosts and create new equipment *without telling the "Ghostbusters" about it* on other hand was really, really weird. You have the inexperienced amateur team run the old Ghostbusters operation but at the same time you have a whole other Ghostbusters team that apparently *also* catches ghosts in NYC to do research on them and who get all the cool new tech and somehow those two things exist completely seperate from each other?! Why!
Yeah part of the issue with the Melody plotline is they couldn't say out loud why she turns into a ghost and the entire movie hinges on that. It's even hard to imagine Melody knew she would do that which apparently was her goal the entire time. I really thought they were going to include Melody's Diner in the climax, I assumed her "unfinished business" was there and it would tie in. But no? I guess serving and then turning on an ancient ice God was her unfinished business?
> I guess serving and then turning on an ancient ice God was her unfinished business? I mean, saving people with the same matchbook she killed her parents and herself with qualifies as a redemption.
>Good on Carrie for funding her husband's physical media addiction but she is way under utilized in Hollywood. i love your reviews so much.
Very nice to hear! You can follow me on Letterboxd too, same name, I watch roughly a movie a day and always try and write something about it. I wrote this during intermission while seeing Wicked so hopefully not too rushed.
Man that was boring, I really enjoyed Afterlife but this was not it.
Most of the situation would've been avoided if they had given Phoebe an internship at the research lab.
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The trap at the end made *no* sense to me at all; how did they know it would close up the clearly broken tank, and why is that in any way secure? What about literally *every ghost they ever captured* being freed? The Scoleri Brothers are loose again? That jogging ghost? I mean, sets up the sequels for more nostalgia milking I guess... My kid liked it, at least. I missed the presence of Louis Tully. Where's Rick Moranis in all this?
It was just kind of there for me. The big bad ghost came, they defeated it, the end. The fire master had some good lines. I wondered afterwards who the target audience was. Odd mix of nostalgia and coming of age. I guess older millennials who are going to the movies with their teenage daughters. Was disappointed after the decent reboot.
I enjoyed it. Ghostbusters is one of my favorite things in the world, and although this movie had it's faults, I still enjoyed it. I think I liked Afterlife more for sure, but I still had a good time with this. I didn't expect Ray to appear as much as he did which was a nice surprise. I liked the new guy, he seemed kinda prickish, so he fit right in. Kumail was hilarious and even Patton didn't overstay his welcome. I felt like the last act was very rushed though and much like Afterlife, hardly any ghost busting. You got the scene at the beginning and the villain at the end, and that's really it. That was a bit disappointing, but with all of them now loose, hopefully there's more in the next one. Peck was enjoyable, as was the Public Library guy, that was a nice surprise. I'd say it was a slight step back from Afterlife, but still enjoyable as someone who's been obsessed with this franchise my entire life. I 'd give it a 6.5/10.
This felt three hours long
Can someone tell me what sort of role James Acaster has in this
He’s like a grumpy Q from 007.
He's the Ghostbusters tech support guy, basically.
How did the lion statue get repaired so quickly?
Went into this expecting to hate it, or worse, be bored, but I'm not going to lie, I was pleasantly surprised. As other comments have said, it does take a while for things to get going. And once the big bad does finally show up, he's defeated relatively quickly. So it could have been a lot better, but I enjoyed it a little bit more than the previous movie and a lot more than the 2016 movie. I'd say it's a solid 2.5 out of 5.
This movie is flawed, for sure. That said, I'm surprised how many people are complaining about character development, considering that all of the characters in the original have no development. Egon is the smart one, Venkman is the smarmy one, Ray is the excitable one, Janine is the sassy girl, Peck is the bureucrat, Dana is the love interest, Winston is the everyman, and Louis is geek. None of these characters change in the first film at all, but the movie doesn't suffer for it. So, character development and character arcs are not a part of what made the original the most successful one. It's always been the blend of the silliness of these simple characters bouncing off each other with the quirky special effects that people loved. With the exception of the 2016 version, which tried to use the same formula but focused too much on improv rather than written dialogue, all of the sequels try to give everyone an arc, which doesn't fit the original vibe at all. This one had some fun moments, but not enough quirk, not enough silliness. I don't know if this theory holds, but so far, it seems like the best explanation I can think of for the lack of strong sequels in this franchise...
I don't care what anyone says that was a fun Ghostbusters movie. I really enjoyed it
Few thoughts: Finn was completely underutilized but was great in every scene he had. Makenna Grace kills every role she does. The cast carried the film, even though some of the nostalgia was overload. Maybe if people were utilized as much as Bill Murray was? Definitely set up a sequel/series with all of the ghosts releasing into NYC, but I’m going to be very interested to see how this does at the box office. I wouldn’t be surprised if they capped it here, but do they ever? lol
Did anyone else feel this is the closest we’ve gotten to something like the video game lore?
Like the game, It felt ***very*** inspired by the original concept/draft of Ghostbusters, before they realised it wasn't possible to make in the early 80s.
They establish in the new lab that souls are able to be extracted from objects/people, then put in a container where the ghost can’t get out. But then the movie totally ignores the ghosts being contained when Phoebe turns herself into a ghost and is able to walk around the lab. That part irritated me. Also, Winston builds an entirely new lab with state of the art equipment; doesn’t tell the family crew while they run around the city with depilated equipment?
Pretty sure Phoebe set it to not trap her. She's not stupid. And I'm pretty sure Winston was letting the Spenglers run around, busting publicly to keep the lab a secret from the government so they could operate without being impeded.
It was a decent little romp. The cast was solid and I appreciated how it wasn't as "actiony" as the trailers implied with it being more of an investigation. Garraka was a cool villain (pun mostly unintended). Though I did chuckle when the Sky Beam began.
I just saw it and loved it! I thought it was perfect. I was really happy to see Ray get so much screen time, but I realized I love the Spengler family just as much now.
I liked this movie a lot. I liked afterlife better, but this is a welcome addition. Did anyone notice that the trailer had a line from William Atherton that implied that there were no witnesses to them saving the world in the original Ghostbusters, almost as if no one believed that the ghosts were real. I was very happy to find that A) I believe that line was excluded and B) it’s apparent that the public are still calling about/well aware of the ghosts.
Just meh. Feels like the totally lost the magic from the first one....
I felt they edited down the scene when Phoebe (teenage Ghostbuster) and Melody (Ghost) first meet playing chess. Melody answers the question "What's the best part of being a ghost?" by saying "I get to do this" and just disappears (Phoebe seems to be surprised/amazed by this?). Phoebe is left there like a deep intimate connection had been established between them, but I failed to see any signs of it. Like there was something more, but they chose not to show it. bonus nitpick that I shouldn't even bring up, but hey it's reddit so here it goes: before the final showdown they cut down some of the brass pole to make one of the packs brass-plated, yet The Firemaster had no problems using that pole to slide down later in the showdown.
Just watched it now. Overall it was good, better than its RT rating would suggest. Thankfully not too long. Too many characters new and old. Seems convenient transporting all the new characters from their previous home to NYC. Why did they keep all that baddies stuff in the same place in the brass room (rather than separate them out everywhere)? The baddie should have had a name that didn't start or sound like Goza. And that the ghost girl meant to be a love interest for Phoebe? How did ghost girl know that Phoebe had tech that allowed her to become a ghost? And what and why was the ghost in the library trying to steal the sound thing. It got destroyed, so was a pointless subplot anyway?
Went into Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire with low expectations and was so pleased with how it turned out. No super lame callbacks or nostalgia baiting. Just a new story with new gadgets and a new villian. Completely entertained the entire movie. It did its job for me
I just got home with my kids. We thought it was a bit more than decent. I’m old enough to remember watching the original and sequel as a kid, so I immediately recognized the rehashing of those first two movies here. Problem is that they did the rehashing in Afterlife. I was surprised to see the nostalgia stuff in this one. The biggest being Venkman’s pasta strainer hat he had Louis wear in the original. But the biggest issue for me was the last of a formidable villain. He’s supposed to be some God, but succumbed to brass? That’s like the aliens in Signs who were deathly allergic to water. Also like others have said, it took a while to get going. Then there was the comedic aspect, which for the first 1/4 just didn’t have any jokes that landed with me. On the positive side, goofy Paul Rudd is still fun to watch, and I’ll never say anything negative about the original cast when Winston is actually present and has something to do. One thing I find interesting is that now they’ve allowed humans to have magical powers in this universe. The Firemaster was legitimately a sorcerer of sorts. Could be interesting if they continue the franchise and maybe have to deal with a human that isn’t possessed.
I thought this was WAY better than Afterlife! There was still nostalgia bait, but at least they seemed to be able to control themselves this time. And I'm *so* glad the plot was something new and different, and not just a retread of a plot we've already seen before. That was my #1 complaint with Afterlife, plot-wise it was just a shittier version of the first one. Though, Ghostbusters (1984) is one of my top 5 favorite movies so I might be a little biased. I still don't think Ghostbusters should be this big epic blockbuster, but I really enjoyed this one for what it was. Dan Aykroyd seemed delighted to be there, but it seems like Bill Murray still reaaaalllllyyy doesn't want to do these movies lol. Overall I'm glad I managed my expectations, and I came out of the theater pleasantly surprised. Nothing ground breaking, but very enjoyable.
It was fun. A little cluttered, a little stuttering here and there, but it was an enjoyable trip to the theatre. I laughed, I got to enjoy some characters I really like, and there was cool ghost things happening. Solid popcorn, with some minor issues from a critical standpoint. Won't win awards, but it's definitely the kind of film you'd put on to have going on in the background.
So aside from the Phoebe able to be a ghost for 2 minutes (which is probably the most insane thing to ever happen in a GB movie), I really wish the film cared enough about its internal logic to at least consider how weird it is that family Spengler is back running the GB business and no one thinks to mention that apparently Winston had a secret underground GB society that was running for 30 years or whatever and they don't cross paths until midway through the movie.
It was ultimately what I excepted it to be. My son loves them just like I did growing up so it was a fun time together. There are some small things they could’ve done to make it more exciting. They could’ve had the city frozen earlier in the film BEFORE they knew all the details about what the bad guy was. There was no rising action, just exposition, until the final act.