Spoilers So, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire? [spoiler thread]

[Jer]

Have you seen Lockwood and Co on Netflix?

Yes and it's great and I'm mad that we're not getting a second season.

 

[Tonguez]

I enjoyed it, and yeah it reminded me of the Real Ghost Busters cartoon series. I think if they are building out the franchise then this was good enough as a bridge - it brings in another ‘antagonist’, explores ghosts as actual characters, has an example of ancient magical ghostbusting, updates the tech, continues the family story, expands to ‘new teams’ and gives the originals a chance to cameo. From here the Ghost Universe is busted wide open.

Unfortunately the bad guy didnt have much time to do much, and thus was a bit lacklustre and the ghost effects were bad, lacking the scary aspects. I would have liked for them to have given more to to explaining the BBEGs goals and interactions - why did it need an army when it could freeze the whole world on its own?- and also to have had more scares and not just a red glow animating a rubbish sack (what happen to the white skull ghost they were studying?)

 

[Henadic Theologian]

Saw it last night. It… umm… wasn’t good.

I think for me it’s the move from dry humour to frantic madcap humour. And it’s not creepy at all. More zany action with witticisms. Though the action scenes didn’t feel well-directed to me and never quite landed as action scenes either.

The OG cast are really just extended cameos. Aykroyd is in it the most, just tends to pop up in scenes he wasn’t in and just talk like he was there all along. Murray has under 10 lines I’d guess.

Big bad ... immune to proton packs but vulnerable to fire and copper. Felt a little underwhelming. I didn’t really understand his plan or motivation or why he showed up at the firehouse at the end. Does he even know or care who the ghostbusters are.

I dunno. I think it’s like Alien, Terminator, etc. A non-repeatable magic which can’t be recaptured no matter how many movies you make.

Nice to see Ecto 1 in action again though. It’s as much a character as anyone else. Weirdly despite it being in New York, and NY being practically a character in the original films, the city didn’t feel like that this time. Did they film somewhere else?

I think it was more the Fire Master he was concerned with, then the rest of the Ghostbusters.

I enjoyed the movie, but for the most part I don't expect it to match the OG Ghostbusters or GB2, all I asked from it was to he fun, set things up for future stories, and respect the lore while adding to it, so I'm satisified. I think what Sony wants from it is to sell merch so I think they will be happy. Its already made more money then Madame Web.

I will say this, if this story had been a series instead of a movie, instead of being fun, but mid, it'd have been epic. There just wasn't enough space to explore the Fire Masters lore (like no flash back scene with the OG Fire Masters), or Demigods lore, the family dynamic for the Spanglers, the stories of some of the minor characters, etc..., it was a story screaming for room to breath.

 

[Wystan]

My biggest issue was the entire Deus Ex Machina that the only way for the Big Bad to get loose is for the smartest character in the film to do the stupidest thing possible, and it almost seemed like they were also trying to make that a sexual attraction as well...

 

[Stalker0]

My biggest issue was the entire Deus Ex Machina that the only way for the Big Bad to get loose is for the smartest character in the film to do the stupidest thing possible, and it almost seemed like they were also trying to make that a sexual attraction as well...

The sexual thing was definitely there but not there....aka its in the eye of the beholder.

The actual act that Phoebe does is honestly not that out there for a teenager. So many brilliant teenagers do the absolutely dumbest stuff in teh world in the name of peer pressure. Phoebe is very much isolated and alone (and of course the teenage angst), so her doing some absolute dangerous stuff to connect with (and impress) her new friend/love interest (depending on point of view).... that didn't bother me.

Now the fact that it seems like the villain's plan was to get someone to become a ghost to control them to do the chant xyz....yeah that seems way out there as far as master plans go.

 

[Undrave]

Went to see it yesterday and I had a good time, but I can totally get why critics wouldn’t like it. It’s like a big budget episode of The Real Ghostbusters and that was all I ever really wanted… Heck, it almost feels like a pilot movie for a ‘Ghostbusters the Next Generation’ tv series, and I love me some good TV.

It’s not a great movie, but it was fun and it felt made for kids who owned a proton pack (or asked for one anyway). I had a cool looking villain, with an exploration of its mythology, mytical nonsense, technobabble, ordinary people banding together, and a fusion of science and superstitions as the key to success. THIS is what Ghostbusters should be about. Not Bill Murray creeping on Sigourney Weaver...

Not every movie needs to be a generation defining event or a record-breaking blockbuster. The 90s were filled with such “A-“ movies and we survived.

 

[Undrave]

Nah, it was good. Basically a long, live-action episode of the cartoon series — which is exactly what a Ghostbusters sequel ought to be.

Hell yeah, you get it!

Depending on your age, I guess.

The cartoon was after my time, and the idea that the live action movies would follow along that path completely turns me off.

The cartoon had some bangers episodes though!

 

[Undrave]

Murray has a real problem not phoning it in with things for which he has no enthusiasm. Previously, that meant he just turned down a lot of work. At some point, though, I think he decided that he likes easy paychecks. Between Space Jam 2, Zombieland 2, these past two Ghostbuster sequels, and letting a T-shirt/NFT store pretend he's their friend, he seems to be doing a lot of low-effort ways of cashing in* on the bizarre fascination** people have had with him for the past 10-20 years.

They should never had waited for Murray to do a third one... It'd be easy to write Venkman as being off somewhere.

Aykroyd both makes the most sense as the one with real lines, and is surprising in that he hasn't done more in the last two movies. This is still some of his favorite things. I suspect either they don't think people tune in to see him, or he's disagreed with the direction they are taking things and thus he wasn't given as many lines as he'd like.

Yeah, Ray as the 'Lorekeeper', the guy who knows old books, works perfectly fine. He doesn't need to put on a proton pack or anything, just be an expert you can consult. They should have canned Podcast and just give him a live action Kylie Griffin as an employee. Everybody loves a goth girl

If anything, the way to milk this franchise is with a TV series not starring anyone from the movies -- who are almost all too expensive for that -- and feature some losers setting up the worst Ghostbusters franchise in a place that doesn't seem like it can financially support them and running into problems from a community that already knows of the franchisees as idiots, conmen and losers.

Ghostbusters: Sheboygan or something.

They could have periodic guest star appearances from the movie folks in the form of videos sent out to all franchisees or maybe coming to inspect a failing franchise. But don't lean on them. Lean into the Wellington Paranormal/Los Espookys vibes.

See, I don't understand why we haven't had a CSI-worth of those yet? Each new location could mean new myths and superstitions to tap in without feeling too stretched (how many cursed museum exhibit can NYC have?).

The only reason I can see stopping that is the Hollywood obsession with star powers and believing the specific original cast is what made the product successful. Meanwhile, kids latched onto the idea that ANYBODY can be a Ghostbuster.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

See, I don't understand why we haven't had a CSI-worth of those yet? Each new location could mean new myths and superstitions to tap in without feeling too stretched (how many cursed museum exhibit can NYC have?).

"Mothman again. He's still trying to turn himself in."

"Tell him he has to pay room and board. Last time he ate us out of house and home."

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The cartoon had some bangers episodes though!

I don't doubt it. Just a totally different set of expectations, though. The idea that a cocaine-fueled, largely improvised film has a "mythos" that needs to be revered and expected is alien to the folks who were too old for the cartoons.