Ghostbusters Afterlife was a nice surprise. It wasn't exactly an original tale, but it had enough twists turns and homages to keep me interested. So I was pretty excited for Ghostbusters Frozen Empire, which in my opinion also had a perfect trailer, not showing too much. But unfortunately (and fortunately in some ways) the sequel spent way too much time world building, and not enough time busting.
The Cast
I am very sure the director of this movie was watching Ant-Man when he thought of casting Paul Rudd. You can't tell the difference between Scott Lang and (the terribly named) Gary Gooberson, but that works for this movie. Rudd is probably the newest bright spot of this franchise, with McKenna Grace giving another good performance, even if she isn't given that much to do in the film. Casting Finn Wolfhard to use him in like 10% of the movie will always confound me too. The supporting cast in these two movies is always strong, but it's time to cut the wheat from the chaff and get rid of Lucky, Podcast, and anyone else who isn't bringing anything to the movie. Having too many players in the movie means less screentime for anyone who could actually make these films more enjoyable/quality.
The Plot
Here is the main issue of this movie. Garraka. I love that they went with a new villain, and the lore behind it is fun, but Garraka isn't even in the movie until well into the third act. He appears, he says "Don't bust me", then they bust him. His intro is cold (pun intended), and then he is sealed away for an hour and a half. Even when he escapes, we barely see him, and his kill count (in present day) is an impressive zero. What sucks is that they did create an interesting villain with an interesting backstory, and then just threw him in the trash because of....brass. I will say this, the lore/world they build with this movie was impressive. From Winston's Ghostbusters Incorporated to Ray's paranormal shop, they have set up a pretty solid world for Ghostbusters to grow it, but they need better writers. The plot for this movie was slow, boring, and never really had any exciting sequences. They barely busted any ghosts, and when they did, it was mostly uninspired sequences. And a LOT of the plot hinged on Phoebe being romantically interested in a lady ghost, so it's good Garraka waited until 2024 to enact his evil plot. The Mayor is also the secret hero of the film, he (correctly) states that everything that destroys New York in the movie is the Ghostbusters fault, and he is right. They caused Garraka to escape, they destroyed buildings throughout the movie, and so much more. Give the next Ghostbusters movie to a good writer and and make it a bit more spooky/dark and it will be a hit. Heck it was already an Evil Dead inspired film, just give the next one to Raimi.
Summary
With a slow plot, a wasted cool villain, and a braindead plot, Frozen Empire thaws out pretty quickly. But it is impressive worldbuilding, and even though this entry was meh, the future looks bright for the Ghostbusters franchise.
Score: 5/10