3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

2024, Gil Kenan (City of Ember) - download

Kent really didn't like the "first" movie. I was OK with it, as I am accepting we are now past the age of the "try something different" requel and squarely in the "pander to the masses" requel era.  I recently rewatched the first, knowing this was coming out, and thought, "You know, I actually kind of like this." Once I divested myself of comparisons and annoyance at retreading already covered ground, its actually a rather fun movie. And again I admired the way the young McKenna Grace handled the very neuro-atypical Phoebe, even more so in second viewing.

Record scritch.

Unfortunately, the now 17 year old McKenna Grace, whose IRL presence is a mix of pop star & IG star, does not so easily transform back into a now 15 year old Phoebe. There is this weird sense of uncanny valley, like she was badly tucking her blonde locks up under the uber-curly wig. I get she is supposed to stay awkward and what is more awkward than an awkward teen, but something was just .... off. AI generated awkward off.

Beyond that, similar to my original watch of the "first" movie, this one left me mainly in the "meh" realm. Sure, it had some fun bits and exciting bits, and the pandering references to the original Ghostbusters movie(s) were OK, but nothing made me gleefully giggle or go, "Oooooooo...." in reaction to something fantastical. Maybe it will improve with subsequent viewings?

So, three years later, the new ghostbusting team is actually a proper ghostbusting team headquartered in NYC, so yeah, in the firehouse. I was hoping for a few more nods to the ... 2016 interim (??) Ghostbusters (also occasionally subtitled Answer the Call) movie, but that's apparently only in my headcanon, as two minutes of research reminds me it was truly a reboot, not set in the same universe, so not even referenced here.

Said Headcanon: Patty was Winston's "niece" (not by blood, just a family friend she considered an uncle) and now that ghostbusting team works for Zeddemore's company of ghostbusting researchers.

The team seems to be surviving it as ghostbusters, got a bit of celebrity but also the ire of the new mayor of NYC, one Walter Peck (William Atherton, Die Hard), yeah that asshole EPA guy from the first first movie. Once again he doesn't seem to be grateful pesky ghosts are being busted, and once again he is annoyed by their use of nuclear devices to hunt & store ghosts. He's not wrong to be worried. Once again, something is up in the world and the almost full ghost containment tank is bursting at its seams. Also, a doofus (Kumail Nanjiani, Obi-Wan Kenobi) shows up with an evil artifact, something connected to his late grandmother and connected to an ancient, otherworldly demon of ice.

Of course, said demon gets released and only the Ghostbusters can stop him/it. Its as much a nod to the original sequel as it is anything. And at this point, I realize I don't really have much to say about the plot of the movie, as it is almost only ectoplasm, its so thin. Essentially the realize that the doofus's grandmother was a legendary protector of the world against the demon, and have to convince him to use his emerging powers to help them. The demon itself is only released when Phoebe meets a cute ghost girl (Emily Alyn Lind, The Babysitter), begins a budding friendship/romance only to be betrayed. Once demon is released, he freezes NYC until the Ghostbusters defeat him.

Meta-Questions! There is a scene where the icey cloud comes rolling in from the waters to freeze people on the beaches... well, no not exactly, this is PG level movie so ... everyone escapes? You would think that freezing an entire city would lead to thousands of deaths, especially considering the ice spikes everywhere. Anywayz, the meta is that this is likely the third time this scene has been done. Prior to this, in GeoStorm and in Kong x Godzilla where icey danger from the waters forces beach goers to run. These two movies have much more deadly consequences. I wonder what's going on in CGI world that they all fell in love with that scene, and I am not going to dig deep enough to discover that maybe the same team did all three scenes?

More meta! Is that actually the original Podcast (Logan Kim, The Walking Dead: Dead City)?!?! How the heck did that kid go from weird, frizzy headed goof to that gangly teen in only ... checks wikipedia ... four years. OK, that says something about my age. That is the exact time in life when people literally evolve from one being to another: ages 12 to 16.

Final meta. Ghosts. Some are human, some are monstrous. Many are in between. Why? What makes for a perfectly human looking ghost vs Slimer? I am feeling Ray (Dan Aykroyd, Pixels) should have something to say about that.

Again, I am feeling I need a rewatch already in order to say anything of value about this movie... no not value, as I have realized that as I churn out more of these posts on an almost regular cadence, that I am not trying for "quality of posting" nor really "quantity of posting" more just getting out what is in my head onto screen. I have embraced the blogging, for better or definitely for worse, and now in accepting, the fate of the blog suffers.

Its also a commentary on your mind of late. Nothing is very often coherent. I mean, you started that last paragraph saying one thing and ... SQUIRREL !!