Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

[renaissance_man]

Yeah, that was a bit cavalier for something that had never been tested on something living. Then again, "That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me".

My problem is in relation to it being Garakkas plan in the first place. Once he's out of the brass room, he can control and communicate with ghosts to a limited degree from inside the ball. He gets deposited at the research facility, and finds out about the ghost extractor the same time as the audience. Now was that before or after Phoebe met Melody? When did Garakka recruit Melody? How did he know it would work the way it did (with Phoebe's mouth still being able to talk)? also Phoebe jumped to "I'll become a temporarily become a ghost" really fast.

I expected the recording that Podcast made of the record cylinder to come back into play, but it didn't.

They could have done with a few more drafts on the script to tighten up the plot and pace. Venkman and Janine were completely surplus to requirement and only there to get the old fans back for a bit of fan service.
You could even say the same for Winston as his new lab and Techs didn't really do anything to solve the problem, if anything they caused the release of the bad guy thanks to the tech they created at the new facility.
Even Mike wasn't integral to the plot.
There were scenes where people were just standing around in a scene with nothing to do.

I paid my money, I gave it a chance, but for me the story wasn't great.

 

[Kylash]

Lol that reminds me of the part where the Firemaster was just left in a room when everyone else went to do stuff. The plot literally didnt know what to do with him but needed him there later. Way too many balls in the air.

"Ok, ill wait here"

 

[Lightning]

They could have deleted or merged several characters, without major incident. Give Lucky and Podcast's stuff to Trevor. Have Ray give the Patton Oswalt exposition. Don't even really need the Firemaster if you come up with an different way for the Orb to be found. Use the extra time to expand the plot about Phoebe and Melody. Heck, merge Melody and the Firemaster, have her losing control of her powers be what killed her family, and also explains why the Orb is now unguarded. Then she can use her ghost fire power to help defeat Garakka, this requires her not be working for him. Just have the Orb opened by accident when they analyze it at the research facility, and the machine can't contain Garakka.

 

[Egon Spengler]

Can anyone help me with something? I can't remember, where was Garraka from? What language and lettering are on his orb??

 

[CB2001]

Can anyone help me with something? I can't remember, where was Garraka from? What language and lettering are on his orb??

It was apparently so old a language, it was pre-Samarian. IIRC, it was stated that Garraka was from Southeast Asia area (I could be wrong, I’ve seen the film only one).

 

[ScourgiousJinx]

I hate to say this this because I love Ghostbusters I & II and enjoyed Afterlife, but I was relatively bored with this story. I couldn't really get into it. Kumil Najiani did the same annoying performance he always does-off putting. Although Phoebe is likable and well acted, there was too much focus on her at the expense of the other new characters. The nostalgia worked better for me in the last film. It felt unnecessary and forced here. I think they'd be best served by far less screen time with the original cast, giving the new characters more depth and doing something new with the story. If they can't do that then leave Ghostbusters alone.

It's possible to make returning characters be true to themselves without repeating exactly the same lines, lines that are too close for comfort or creating the exact same situations over and over. It makes everything seem one dimensional.

 

[graffitilogic]

Can anyone help me with something? I can't remember, where was Garraka from? What language and lettering are on his orb??

I've been hoping to find the same thing. Would like to make one of these (unless I can find a nice one to buy) and was hoping at least some of the glyphs would have a known historical characterset to try to fill in the unknowns. I do recall they said it was 'about the size of a bocce ball' but they were dodgy on Garraka's origins. From a production principle interview that I skimmed, it sounded like Garraka's design started from a nightmare based very loosely on Struwwelpeter. Since the orb would have been a Fire Master artifact, I briefly looked to see if it matched some Mesopotamian or Sumerian Cuneiform but didn't see any close matches from the screenshots I've been saving.

If (like some articles implied) they arrived at the Fire Master concept by way of Avatar (Anime) then I'd expect to find something in the Northern Shaolin traditions but did not. Not my field of study but scrolling through wiki pages, I did notice that there are some numbers on the orb that sort-of match proto / archaic cuneiform for 36000 (base 60 number system) (looks a little like a circular fried egg w/ inverted yolk).

 

[drusselmeyer]

They could have made the film about the largest Middle Eastern deity on the East Coast, but that would have been too controversial for today's sensitive audience. I would have preferred that since it relates back to the original films.
That could have checked all the boxes.

It was an okay, fun film and it doesn't really degrade the IP like II did. The fan service was in they style of things done these days: Presold is gold and don't rock the boat.

Remember that movie making today is a race to get a few final projects out before AI takes over.

 

[adamszki427]

don't rock the boat...... isn't that the biggest problem facing society today? oh oh here we go, crazy man hopped on the forum to go on a mad rant and get himself banned, peek between the fingers see what he says...... well in terms of the big and small screen, isn't that mostly what we are all here for, our love of the escapism and emotion brought to us by movies and TV shows.... so rocking the boat is absolutely what is necessary and what should be done in order to create the magic. i get the money aspect and i get the franchise route as it is in theory easy money as the fans are already queuing up. if this medium of communication doesn't challenge and provoke then how are we to change and evolve as a society?..... i shall leave it there as it could get way off topic (probably already has) but as for frozen empire i am indeed one of those fans waiting to see the movie with an apprehensively open mind, but without seeing the movie i think my first negative is the yellow on the proton packs which look all too much like Sony wanted them the same colour as the possessed discman props... im aure that's not the case but bumblebee packs? hmmm not sure

 

[Roobyoo]

I enjoyed the movie pretty much. It was an entertaining, well paced flick. The final act could have been a little more thrilling, but well...

What I really disliked about Frozen Empire was Kumail Nanjiani. Really annoying character here. If you rewatch the movie, try counting every sentence he is saying that is NOT a miserable attempt of a funny punchline. I tried it, and I counted two...

 

[graffitilogic]

I really liked Afterlife and mostly enjoyed Frozen Empire.

For the positives, I really appreciated the care and detail they went through to reconstruct the internal state of the Firehouse set. Right down to the arcades in the background. I liked the strange choices of interjecting domestic aspects to the otherwise commercial set. I liked the extent in which Ray was used in the plot and appreciated some of the new characters, though the call-sheet is starting to look a little long.

Without spoilers there was a particular set of scenes where the underlying character tension was based in a lack of belief that [something paranormal, miraculous and dangerous] happened and those scenes bugged me. If you were on a Ghostbuster team and learn one of your team mates blasted some object with a proton stream, wouldn't you just automatically assume your teammate was like.. busting ghosts? Especially considering the interactions between legacy characters and their motivations and relationships.

At first I also thought Kumail's character was a strange choice. Thinking about it on the ride home, so was Rick Moranis in the first two films. Ultimately Louis Tully's strange interactions with the other characters went a long way to endear the super-awkward comedy torture implementation of that character. For me, at least; viewing Kumail's character as a modernized version of Tully makes it [a bit] less annoying.

As usual, they showed too much in the Trailers and I think the script felt pretty generic and safe.

I'm still trying to find an inspirational source for some of the glyphs on the Orb. In my search I found this last night:
This is the oldest writing system in the world and predates Ancient Sumerian writing

(Not a dead-ringer and not comprehensive but some of those Vinca Symbols do seem closer to some of the pictographs on the orb.)

 

[Moviefreak]

Note to disney and lfl.....that is how you bleeping do it!

I’m reading a lot of lukewarm reviews, just as I did for the last Indiana Jones film. So I’m thinking it is a little premature to congratulate them on “showing others how it’s done”. Let’s give the film time to see if it doesn’t fizzle like others. While this appears strong out of the gate, I’ve been seeing people say they won’t go back to see it numerous times like they did for Afterlife.

 

[cboath]

I’m reading a lot of lukewarm reviews, just as I did for the last Indiana Jones film. So I’m thinking it is a little premature to congratulate them on “showing others how it’s done”. Let’s give the film time to see if it doesn’t fizzle like others. While this appears strong out of the gate, I’ve been seeing people say they won’t go back to see it numerous times like they did for Afterlife.

I meant how you treat the property and its history. Plus i liked it. Box office is odd anymore. I dont think gb has a huge following, more of a core group, so i never expected this to close in massive bo numbers. Plus, mid march release isnt when a studio releases stuff it expects huge numbers for. People are off spring break tripping, not flocking to theaters

 

[Lightning]

Much like Star Trek, Ghostbusters has a box office ceiling. Its possible to break out, but you shouldn't count on it. Ghostbusters is between 250-300 million. As long as they budget with that in mind they will be fine.

 

[Bloop]

Phoebe's "plating" of her proton pack was not plating, the way she did it was more like fondue dipping and those components would have been completely solid with the melted brass. I know they did this to make her the hero but it was clumsy and relies on people thinking that is how you plate something with metal.

I thought the same thing. It's obviously something they do for movies because real electroplating isn't fast or visually interesting enough, I guess. What Phoebe did wouldn't plate the parts, and maybe would just ruin them.

It also reminded me of how swords are sometimes shown being made in movies & shows, where they just pour molten metal into a mold. I don't have nuxh experience with it, but real swords need to have the metal folded over and over, reheating and annealing them for greater strength. A sword made in a mold would be real crappy and break pretty easily.

 

[universaljoint]

I thought the same thing. It's obviously something they do for movies because real electroplating isn't fast or visually interesting enough, I guess. What Phoebe did wouldn't plate the parts, and maybe would just ruin them.

It also reminded me of how swords are sometimes shown being made in movies & shows, where they just pour molten metal into a mold. I don't have nuxh experience with it, but real swords need to have the metal folded over and over, reheating and annealing them for greater strength. A sword made in a mold would be real crappy and break pretty easily.

I don't recall that she stated she was electroplating it. But I highly doubt one person who doesn't know anything about electroplating saw that scene and thought that's how it's done.

I know about electroplating and didn't even give the scene a thought other than it was just silly as a way to disperse the brass. But I mean, it's a ghostbusters movie. I've never really given anything they do anymore serious thought than any fantasy movie.

 

[universaljoint]

Having watched it yesterday, the first thing I noted was how many people were in the cinema. Typically, every time we've gone in the past 4 years, there's been me and my wife, and up to about 10 people. But it hasn't been uncommon that we were the only people in the theatre.

This time, there had to be about 30 people!

It wasn't a bad movie. I thought they didn't have enough interaction between the OG cast and the new. You can definitely feel a different vibe in the type of comedic lines written for Rudd, vs Murray. Murray is great at delivering one liners that have more zing to them. And Rudd WOULD be the logical choice for carrying on that kind of funny, but they just give him lines that are about being the bungling clown like character (on the comedic side of things).

That's what kind of bothered me about the comedy. It's not just this movie, but clean comedy in movies tend to just be someone being a fumbling bumbling clown. No real gravity to their lines. So the comedy was a "meh" for me.

Otherwise, it was okay for me. I enjoyed it. There was a little intrapersonal dramatic stuff without any comedy at all, that I'm just tired of seeing in EVERY movie now. Just filler crap that is supposed to be for some character development blah blah blah, whatever. Get on with the movie.

We got home and re-watched Ghostbusters Afterlife, and I found that I really liked that one a lot more. It seemed to have more of the wonder of seeing that world anew (as clearly from all the new characters experiencing all of this for the first time). And the OG swooping in to help them all work together to save the day was fun.

All in all though, Frozen Empire is indeed a movie I'd watch again. And that in itself makes it a decent movie.

 

[torren_of_amber]

I haven't watched it yet, been sick and a friend pass away, but what I wondered when they announced who was writing and directing it made me confused.
I mean Reitman killed Afterlife, in my opinion, and then just passes this one off. I don't get it. I'm not able to speak to the movie as of yet, but it seemed Reitman had the GB spirit down pat in the last one. Maybe that's why this one seems off?
And I still would've loved to know and see Louis Tulley back even for a brief cameo. I mean if he's doing another Honey, I Shrunk the Kids then it would have been awesome.
Thank you all for posting your thoughts here.

 

[somerset fox]

A lot of the reviews have echoed what I want to say. Too many characters with no plot to resolve and there for padding. Felt the Phoebe and Melody sub (par) plot wasn’t needed and felt the soul extractor machine sequence odd, as Phoebe enters a device for which she had no knowledge on the effects of on a human body, and I thought she was going to die and would need reviving. What was the purpose of Winston’s ‘Q’ like lab facility? Who was he developing equipment for? Why, with all his money can a kid and a ghost just walk in off the street to an unguarded facility using nuclear components?

May be there’s a cutting room floor with lots lying on it, but I felt G:FE lacked any of the warmth (no pun intended) or charm of the original with characters just saying the lines for effect.

 

[Bloop]

A lot of the reviews have echoed what I want to say. Too many characters with no plot to resolve and there for padding. Felt the Phoebe and Melody sub (par) plot wasn’t needed and felt the soul extractor machine sequence odd, as Phoebe enters a device for which she had no knowledge on the effects of on a human body, and I thought she was going to die and would need reviving. What was the purpose of Winston’s ‘Q’ like lab facility? Who was he developing equipment for? Why, with all his money can a kid and a ghost just walk in off the street to an unguarded facility using nuclear components?

May be there’s a cutting room floor with lots lying on it, but I felt G:FE lacked any of the warmth (no pun intended) or charm of the original with characters just saying the lines for effect.

I didn't understand why Winston would be spending so much money on tech, but just let the Spengler family - who had little to no science experience, or experience busting ghosts - be the ONLY Ghostbusters. A high school science teacher, the daughter of Egon - who had no scientific background that I can recall - and two kids.Yes, one was 18, but still essentially a child with no evidence of any scientific aptitude. The other was probably a genius, but was underage. I get the Spengler family connection, but it's a pretty bad business decision for someone who apparently built up a substantial company that made him wealthy. Why not hire some real scientists and/or ex-military to do the job?