The history behind this franchise is an interesting one. When the original Ghostbusters was released in 1984, yes forty years ago, it became a worldwide phenomenon helped in no small part by its theme song by Ray Parker Jr. which was everywhere with its catchy phrase “Who you gonna call, Ghostbusters?”. A sequel imaginatively titled Ghostbusters II followed five years later and then nothing until 2016.
The much-maligned attempt at a reboot in 2016 featured an all-female cast consisting of Saturday Night Live alumni and was very unfairly treated by the press and public, it wasn’t great but was more fun than it was given credit for. A lot of that was a gender bias. Then the brains behind the series handed it off to Paul Feig for 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. It told a story outside the original but was still set in the same world. It made $204 million worldwide against a budget of $75 million.
Now, in 2024 we have Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire. This time it combines cast members from the original two films and the last one, Afterlife. The action also moves back into the big city. The pace in the first half is more leisurely and story-based while things get intense from mid-way on. Even with the crazy advancements of computer-generated imagery throughout the years, they have kept a mostly quaint and lo-fi look to the apparitions on show. Even with the much-ridiculed all-lady version still in some people’s minds, this is still a story that features very strong female characters.
It’s all good fun and is a throwback to the time when just entertaining an audience was paramount to the big studios. The dialogue is clean and the spectre of evil is very cartoon-like and not that threatening. It has a few scary moments but shouldn’t traumatise the little ones too much. Also, people who know the first Ghostbusters films (the ones from decades ago) will have a great time and revel in this latest edition.
Rob Husdon
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