BATTLING THE BIG CHILL

 

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Release date: March 22, 2024

Writers: Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman

Director: Gil Kenan

Main Cast:

•              Carrie Coon as Callie Spengler
•              Finn Wolfhard as Trevor Spengler
•              Mckenna Grace as Phoebe Spengler
•              Paul Rudd as Gary Grooberson
•              Logan Kim as Podcast
•              Celeste O'Connor as Lucky Domingo
•              Bill Murray as Peter Venkman
•              Dan Aykroyd as Raymond Stantz
•              Ernie Hudson as Winston Zeddemore
•              Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz
•               Emily Alyn Lind as Melody
•               James Acaster as Dr. Lars Pinfield
•               Kumail Nanjiani as Nadeem Razmaadi
•                         Patton Oswalt as Dr. Hubert Wartzki
•                         Kevin Mangold as Slimer
•                         Ian Whyte as Garraka

 (Rating 5 of 5)

Summary: (Spoilers! After all it’s a summary. Stop reading if you don’t want a spoiler.)

In 1904, the New York City firemen whose station will one day become Ghostbusters Headquarters, take off in response to a call (or however firefighters were summoned in 1904).  At the building they arrive at is labeled “The Adventure Club.” The lead fireman puts his hand the door and suffers from freezer burn.  The rest break the room open with and find a room full of men frozen to death, while a spectral chant plays from a phonograph. The is a survivor though.  She is sitting in a corner holding an orb which seems to have had an opening that is sealing shut.  She is dressed in an ancient suit of armor.  Her eyes open when one of the firemen touches her.

In the present day, the current Ghostbuster crew which consists of the three Spenglers and Gary Grooberson, chase a nasty shark-like ghost, called the Hell's Kitchen Sewer Dragon, through the streets.  They catch it but in true Ghostbuster fashion they cause a great amount of damage to public and private property.  This creates a public backlash and an excuse from long-time Ghostbuster-hater Mayor Walter Peck to go after them.  Peck’s biggest issue besides the massive property damage is the endangerment of a minor. Peck correctly points out that they don’t allow children to be police or firefighters, how can they justify endangering Phoebe.  To appease Peck, Callie suspends 15-year-old Phoebe from the team until she is a legal adult.

Ghostbusters again in the Mayor's office, but now Peck is behind the chair!

Phoebe is infuriated and feels betrayed by her mother and step-something Gary.  Gary tries to reassure her and let her know the time will fly. Phoebe says they only think that way because they are old.   While the rest of the team are out on a job, Phoebe wanders the city.  She stops in the park and decides to play chess by herself. Then the pieces start to move untouched.  For a moment she thinks her grandfather Egon has come back, however it turns out to be a teenage ghost named Melody.  She is the ghost of a 16-year-old girl who died in a fire with her family.  Her family, however, has passed on and she is stuck on Earth as a ghost.

Dr. Ray Stantz went from being a fan Podcast’s podcast and is now hosting an online show with him.  It takes place in his occult bookshop where he finds and collects haunted objects brought in by the public.  One poor woman finds her late husband’s watch was not haunted by him and watches it get smashed.  After the show they meet Nadeem Razmaadi a man who is trying to unload what he sees as junk left to him by his late grandmother.  Most of it is junk with one exception.  A brass orb, the one from the prologue, is among this junk.   When Ray tests its PKE levels, the orb unleashes a psychic charge that in true RGB fashion causes the PKE meter to short circuit then creates ice and earthquakes, one of which damages the wall around the firehouse's ghost Containment Unit.

Examining the Orb

That isn’t the only problem with the Containment Unit.  When Gary tried to add the shark ghost in there he found he had a hard time doing the routine task.  The Ghostbusters begin realizing the Containment Unit is close to capacity. Fortunately for those in the firehouse, what is the Ghostbusters is no longer confined to that building.  With his company’s resources Winston Zeddemore has financed a major Ghostbusters operation with a corporate central office and teams throughout the country.  He sends his people down to fix the firehouse Containment Unit and then Winston introduces the Spenglers and Gary to the Paranormal Research Center.  This is a massive offsite research lab where scientists, including the new character Dr. Lars Pinfield and old character Lucky Domingo, have built a new, bigger containment unit based on Egon Spengler’s design.  They also study captured ghosts and Ray's haunted items.

Trevor discovers Slimer is living in the attic and steals their food.  Mom says he should take care of it, and he decides to set a food trap.  Slimer thinks “yum, yum” and almost falls for it, but Trevor ends up getting slimed twice.

Slimer, "Yum, Yum"

On his “normal” days Lars uses a machine to extract ghosts and spiritual energy from objects that he is studying. When he tries it on the orb it overloads the lab's power supply and seriously injures his hand.  To make matters worse the other ghosts in the lab seem attracted to the orb and under the control of whatever it contains.

When the other Ghostbusters are out on a job, Phoebe answers a call and decides to defy orders and take a case with Podcast.  The two go to a diner only to discover the ghost that is haunting the place is Melody.  Pressured by Podcast she fires her particle thrower at Melody but misses on propose.  Later that night Phoebe invites her to hang out at the firehouse.  Melody is interested in the Containment Unit and shows Phoebe some matches that she must always carry with her.  Phoebe calls that her “haunted object.” 

Trevor, Lars, and Lucky pay a unannounced visit to Nadeem, who is surprised to see them and tries to sell them more stuff.   They force their way into his house and discover the hidden brass-lined chamber where Nadeem's grandmother had stored the orb.  After making joking references to a “secret sex dungeon” it appears Nadeem’s grandmother may have been a bit of a ghostbuster herself.  On top of that it appears through their equipment Nadeem himself is also charged with spiritual energy. They set him up for a psychological evaluation by Dr. Peter Venkman.  After some intense questions including child sacrifice it is revealed that Nadeem has latent pyrokinetic powers.

Finding the "sex dungeon or ancient containment unit."

Phoebe wants to know more about the orb, so she and Podcast get Ray to start an investigation with them.  They return to the library where ghostbusting began and after encountering a little resistance, they take the information they have on the orb, but not the orb itself, to Dr. Hubert Wartzki. According to Hubert, the orb contains a powerful godlike entity named Garraka who sought to conquer the Earth with an army of ghosts and a weapon called "the Death Chill."  Ray then dives into grewsome detail about what the “Death Chill” is.  Hubert continues to explain that it was trapped in the orb by "Fire Masters" using weapons of fire and brass. Hubert also has possession of a wax cylinder recording of the spectral chant that frees Gorakka from the orb.  This is what we saw earlier in the prologue.  A ghost known as "the Possessor" who the audience met at the research lab is a ghost that can possess any inanimate object.  It appears to escape during Lars’s experiment and uses its powers to attempt to steal the cylinder.  They give chase where we see the old librarian ghost before the Possessor takes control of the Patience the Lion statue and nearly eats Ray.  Phoebe saves him resulting in the destruction of both the cylinder and the statue.   Mayor Peck now seeing his most desired goal in reach uses the scandal to seizes the firehouse and impounds the Ghostbusters' equipment. Phoebe reacts in anger, like she did with Lucky’s father, but unlike Lucky’s father Peck just locks her up.  Winston gives Ray a verbal tongue lashing for putting the kids in harm’s way.

Learning about the new threat

Phoebe has a fight with her mom, in which she points out that the Spengler intelligence gene completely missed her and if it weren’t for her last name she would be just answering the phone.  Gary tells Phoebe she’s turning into a mean teenager, and he is not wrong.  Later he goes to stand outside her door to give her a pep talk but she has already run off.  She finds Melody and tells her she has a way for them to exist on the same plane of existence for a brief period.  Basically, she can separate her spirit from her body using equipment at the Ghostbusters research center. What Phoebe doesn’t realize is that Melody earlier was revealed to the audience to be in league with Garraka.  So, after Phoebe puts herself in spirit form Garraka takes control of her and uses her to speak the chant and open the orb.   Phoebe returns to her body, but the damage was done. Lucky tries to stop Garakka but her proton stream turns to ice upon contact. Garakka then just ignores her and goes on a rampage across New York, using the Death Chill to blanket the city in ice.

Garakka wants an army, and the Ghostbusters figure out quickly that he intends to break open the Containment Unit.  Three different generations of Ghostbusters rally together to defend the firehouse. The young ones, the middle-aged ones, and the OGs all come together to fight the battle. Winston brings in some brand-new proton packs.  Phoebe realizes that if she adds brass to her accelerator on her proton pack it might help the cause.  Peter even shows up, and reveals where he can find his “courage” still hidden in his spot.  Nadeem learns the history of the Fire Masters, including his grandmother, and begins to practice his fire powers.

All together now

The first attack comes from the Possessor who first comes in the form of a tricycle.  It jumps from the tricycle to the doors blowing them off the firehouse.  Then it processes Ecto-1 and tries to run down the Ghostbusters.  It goes upstairs and goes into Lucky’s pack and almost takes Trevor’s head off.  He is saved by Nadeem who is now truly learned to use his abilities—it also means proton streams are a form of fire and not plasma like I always thought.  They bust Lucky’s pack with a hammer Possessor escapes into a pizza to which Slimer says “Yum, Yum!” And then eats the Pizza with Possessor inside.

He has arrived

 Garakka arrives, he overwhelms the Ghostbusters who all fire everything they have.  With the Ghostbusters ineffective Garakka breaks open the Containment Unit freeing all the ghosts. Nadeem shows up in his family armor and looks silly.  He threatens Garakka, but Garakka dismisses him as a threat when his lighter won’t give him access to fire.  Phoebe then enters with her reconfigured proton pack and blasts Garakka and damages him. Not allowing Garakka to harm her only friend Melody uses one of her matches to empower Nadeem.  With Phoebe and Nadeem blasting him Callie tries to trap it with their remote traps, but it fails.  The OGs remember that the Containment Unit is now empty and could contain him.  The four get down there and manage to pull the frozen switch sucking in Garakka and ending his threat.  Saving Phoebe allows Melody to cross over into the afterlife. New York celebrates the Ghostbusters, and Winston uses this to force Mayor Peck into publicly supporting the team and reinstating Phoebe. The Spenglers and Gary—whom Phoebe calls "Dad" for the first time—depart in Ecto-1 to recapture the escaped ghosts.  Winston proclaims that “We are the Ghostbusters!”

My Take: (Lots of Spoilers in this section too!  Yup spoilers.)

I loved this movie.  Granted it’s a Ghostbusters movie so I am biased.  This movie goes in the direction that I always wanted them to go in.  I never liked how Ghostbusters II started.  With the Ghostbusters nearly out of business and unpopular.  At the time The Real Ghostbusters was at the height of its popularity, Ghostbusters toys had been the fastest movers in toy stores across the country and the movie started with nobody liking them.  I wanted to see the Ghostbusters phenomenon in their story.  Have the Ghostbusters be more than just a one-town operation.  Have the original Ghostbusters in leadership roles in that organization.  That is exactly what we get in this movie. Winston Zeddemore’s company is now financing a larger Ghostbuster operation.  This is not a passing of the torch story that some people think it is. It is a multi-generational all-hands-on-deck on deck story.  You have Winston running the show.  Ray, Peter, and Janine serving as advisors.  The Spengler family as the New York City Ghostbusters in the firehouse.  A central office complete with researchers to keep the Ghostbusters on top.   

Speaking of The Real Ghostbusters their influence was strongly felt.  From exploding PKE meters, to Ecto-1 being possessed, and Slimer being a force for good.  Like Ghostbusters II was based on the episodes "Beneath These Streets" and "Hard Knight's Day," this film closely resembled “Cold Cash and Hot Water” and “Moaning Stones.”  This isn’t a criticism when you have over a hundred Ghostbusters stories out there naturally there is going to be some echoes.

Garakka's Fraternal Twin

Garakka was an impressive villain. His ability to directly control the ghosts was fun.  He was able to shrug off the proton beams even better than Gozer.  He didn’t have much in the way of personality, but then the main ghosts rarely do unless they are the Boogieman or Sandman.  Okay maybe some of them do have personalities the more I think about it. Garakka seemed to have a legitimate beef against his original captors.  Maybe if he just moved to the Artic, we would have left him alone.  Instead, he needs revenge against people who had nothing to do with his original imprisonment. 

Not happy

Phoebe may be a genius, but her teenage hormones/emotional turmoil was the bane of her existence. Although can be provoked to anger, she had a clear and logical mind that was not prone to do stupid things.  In this one she is outright cruel to her mother, who has been clearly supportive the last few years. If Phoebe were a boy in this movie we would say she was thinking with her little head. Her clear crush on her ghost friend needlessly risks her life and sends forth the main villain onto New York City. I also suspect that her potential possibility of being a lesbian or bisexual is one of the main reasons for the online hate it gets.  It’s not the only reason but I think it is one.   

The Containment Unit getting too full was something that was first mentioned in the original Ghostbusters movie.  It was sometimes mentioned in the cartoon in certain episodes then in the next they would dump all the ghosts in Paris in there at the same time. I mostly prefer to ignore that storyline, however it was used creatively here.   

Now for some random thoughts:

·         The use of the firehouse in the beginning was cool but it never became relevant which is too bad.  It's not the first time its past became important. 

·         What do you mean you don’t get paid? “No fee is too big” remember? The whole point of the Ghostbusters is people have a ghost problem, they call you, you come and catch the ghost, and collect the fee.  Ghostbusting isn’t for free.

·         The super destructive Ghostbusters, something I have always called them out on, was only mentioned in Afterlife and has come back to haunt them.  Peck may lack a dick, but he is right about the damage, and the use of minors.  

·         Speaking of Peck, what was his campaign slogan.  I can’t imagine anyone voting for him.  

·         Speaking of the use of minors in The Real Ghostbusters there was a group of kids called the junior Ghostbusters and even though they were given PKE meters they were never allowed to use the packs. Instead, they would throw vegetables at them, which didn’t make sense.

·         I don’t think Phoebe should be allowed to transport mood slime when she is processing her own mood. She is lucky some nasty ghost didn’t pop up. Maybe that slime had some real positive charge. 

·         Speaking of The Real Ghostbusters did anyone else thing the Possessor was similar to the ghost from “Loose Screws.”

·         So how old is Melody?  Chronologically speaking.  How long has she been a ghost?

·          Once you were told the orb was some kind of ghost prison, shouldn’t you stop experimenting on it and let it be. In fact, why don’t you just put it in the same type of room that it was before?

·         When you see a tricycle moving by itself just blast it. They could have saved themselves a lot of heartache. 

·         After Phoebe sawed off the pole how can they still use it?  Multiple poles?  Why not give all the packs that treatment?

After this shouldn't work anymore right!

                In the end I very much enjoyed this movie.  I am looking forward to seeing it again.  I recently gained a medical issue that may keep me out of the theater for a few weeks.  Hopefully it’s still there when I recover.