Who is New York in 1989 going to call when there is something strange in their neighborhood? Not the Ghostbusters. In the 2024 film, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” the Ghostbusters reprise to face the challenges of ghosts. This movie is the 5th of the Ghostbusters franchise, but speculated to not be the last. This film again follows “The Spengler family,” including the mother, Callie, her children Trevor and Phoebe, and Callie’s boyfriend and the kid’s former science teacherGary.
The movie opens with The Ghostbusters doing what they always do: busting ghosts. Following the common trope found in this franchise, they cause damage to the city in the process of catching the ghost. The mayor once again tries to shut down The Ghostbusters, threatening removal from their home, which is the original firehouse shown in the first “Ghostbusters.” Along with the threat, they ban the youngest Spengler, Phoebe, from participating as she is only 15. This is a huge conflict in the movie, and this creates conflict that the rest of the movie focuses on. Phoebe’s character is the brains of the family and her struggle to fit in as she once did drives the plot going forward.
In her post-rejection gloom from the family, she heads to the park to play chess by herself. However, once she sets the pieces up, a ghost joins her. This ghost is Melody. Melody is tied to this earth as her entire family died in a fire that she caused. Melody and Phoebe seemingly have a friendship that is genuine, like they truly understand each other. This friendship is so sweet at first, there was a cute factor to it. Phoebe starts to share her passions with Melody, explaining how ghosts work through science.
Meanwhile, we meet a character named Nadeem. Nadeem is trying to pawn his grandmother’s things- however, he quickly develops into one of the most important characters in the story. The item he pawned turns out to be a storage device for the ancient god, Garaka. Garaka is a god of ice, and Nadeem’s grandmother was a Firemaster who was sworn to keep him in the storage device.
Remember Melody? Melody was convinced by Garaka that the only way she would see her family again was if she let him free. She believes him, and baits Phoebe to help Garaka escape the orb. He frees all of the ghosts that The Ghostbusters had collected, causing chaos. New York freezes overnight. Nadeem is forced to realign with his roots and tap into his powers as the fire master before it is too late.
Despite the complex and interesting plot, this movie was quite long and had a complex plot. However, the character development and the humor made it worth it.
The genuine character development throughout this movie made this story great. Since the story mainly follows a young protagonist, it forces the viewer to watch through a different point of view. If the main character wasn’t so young and naive, this story would have probably never happened. Watching her face frustrations and build relationships felt more genuine. Also, Phoebe is really smart, making her an admirable role model. Without her intelligence, The Ghostbusters would not have won this round. There were multiple scenes that sent the audience into fits of laughter. There were mini-marshmallow men, jokes and dramatic irony. Not only was this movie funny, but it also had multiple recalls to the past movies. It features some of the original Ghostbusters such as Ernie Hudson and Bill Murray and ghosts like Slimer. As someone who has enjoyed this franchise, it was really fun to see some of the earliest characters back.
However, this movie was quite lengthy. The movie stands at one hour and 56 minutes. This may not seem long, but there was so much unnecessary information. Even if the goal was to appease the audience by including past references, the amount of time it took to provide context for the references could have easily been cut. Although the movies are notorious for being long, some of the storyline definitely could have been cut to make it a bit shorter. Another issue was the ruining of the plot twist. Melody’s betrayal of Phoebe was heartbreaking, but the movie ruined it before we even knew it was going to happen. There is a scene which features Melody talking to Garaka after hanging out with Phoebe, and Melody asks, “Does it have to be her?” spoiling the betrayal to the viewer. I believe the producers were trying to create some dramatic irony, however it backfires. It completely ruins the twist- the movie would have been so much better if they would have kept it from us and made the twist happen without us knowing. It also would have shortened the movie as there are a few plot points like this that are overexplained which result in the unneeded length.
Overall, this movie was adequate. The reprises to the past and the pure humor injected into the storytime had the audience crying of laughter. The cast was also a bunch of well known celebrities, making it quite enjoyable to watch. It was a movie that was better than I had originally judged it to be. It is worth the watch.
