The Ghostbusters franchise isn’t aimed at anyone or anything anymore
It isn’t really clear who the Ghostbusters franchise is for anymore. In Jason Reitman’s 2021 sequel/reboot, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, it seemed like the series had a clear trajectory, and that he was aiming at finally making it the kids’ franchise that Halloween costume companies always dreamed it could be. But the latest entry, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, clings so tightly to the franchise’s past that it’s hard to see how it could appeal to anyone at all.
Frozen Empire is a direct sequel to Afterlife, with the Spengler family — Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), her mother Callie (Carrie Coon), brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and Callie’s maybe-now-boyfriend? Greg (Paul Rudd), busting ghosts in New York City. It isn’t really clear how long they’ve been doing this, but after they do one job, the family is quickly shut down by the city’s mayor, former Environmental Protection agent Walter Peck (William Atherton, returning from the 1984 Ghostbusters, because nothing in this franchise is allowed to age gracefully).
When Atherton appears, the movie pauses so Reitman can congratulate himself on roping in yet another Ghostbusters legacy character. He’s practically begging for fans to applaud. Even more off-putting, though, is that the new cast reacts like they’ve seen the original movie too. They roll their eyes at his tantrums, somehow perfectly understanding his yearslong vendetta against the Ghostbusters, as if to say the family is in on the joke with us.
This bizarre relationship with and reverence for the franchise’s history plagues the movie at every turn. Surviving ’80s Ghostbusters Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), Raymond Stantz (Dan Aykroyd), and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) show up again, but it’s less clear than ever why exactly they’re in this story. While their purpose in Afterlife seemed like clear torch-passing, now that the action has moved back to New York City, they just seem to be part of the gang. In fact, they seem to have nearly as much screen time as any of
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