Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire Parent Guide

After corralling a malevolent Sumerian deity and assorted ghosts in Oklahoma, Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon) has moved to New York City to assume her late father’s vocation as a Ghostbuster. Living with her in the iconic fire station are her son, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), daughter Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), and loyal boyfriend, Gary (Paul Rudd). They’ve leaped enthusiastically into the task of ridding the Big Apple of malevolent specters, but Mayor Peck (William Atherton) doesn’t share their excitement. When a mission to take down a sewer dragon results in some property damage, the Ghostbusters’ wings are clipped and Phoebe is barred from participating in future jobs.

Resentful, frustrated, and at loose ends, Phoebe befriends Melody, a ghost who died in a fire and has a fondness for late night chess games. Phoebe’s feelings for Melody intensify quickly, but Melody has her own agenda, which is ominously linked to a brass artefact with a disconcerting ability to disturb the ghostly world while generating lots of icy chill in this one. Is the world going to end encased in ice or will the Ghostbusters once again save the day?

My biggest mistake was walking into the theater with high expectations. The 2021 reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife was so entertaining I assumed the sequel would follow in its very funny footsteps. It doesn’t. Don’t get me wrong: Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire isn’t a flaming dumpster fire, but it’s a dud. Flat, uninspired, and often dull. Mediocrity is often the hardest film flaw to diagnose but I can tell you that the jokes often fail to land, the acting feels stiff (especially at the beginning), and there is way too much exposition in the first act.

On the bright side, the movie offers positive messages about learning from mistakes, working together, persisting in the face of long odds, and appreciating family members. It also comes with minimal profanity, a single scene of alcohol consumption, and no sexual activity. What the film features in abundance is supernatural violence, although it is not gory, and consists mostly of people freezing to death (followed sometimes by frozen limbs detaching). There are also many scenes of widespread havoc as the city freezes and giant blades of ice thrust out of the ground. The violence is not unusual for movies in this franchise (and tamer than most superhero flicks) so this production won’t alarm teen Ghostbuster afficionados.

The film begins with a poem by Robert Frost speculating about whether the world will end in fire or ice. The message Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire gives is that it will simply end in tepid mediocrity. The movie doesn’t run hot or cold and is unlikely to inspire either love or loathing in audiences. But it might make some money and that’s probably enough reason for its lukewarm existence.