By John Corrado

A follow up to the 2021 legacy sequel Ghostbusters: Afterlife (which was itself a course correction from the misguided 2016 reboot), Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the latest film in the franchise that began forty years ago.

It’s safe to say that all of these films have been chasing the high of the late Ivan Reitman’s original supernatural comedy from 1984, with director Jason Reitman’s Afterlife feeling very much like him paying tribute to his father.

This passing of the torch, if you will, continues with Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, with Jason Reitman now handing the directing reins over to co-writer Gil Kenan (Monster House, the Poltergeist remake). The result is a for-the-fans sort of film that mostly works as a fun family adventure movie, setting the action back in New York City.

Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and her family – mother Callie (Carrie Coon), older brother Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), and science teacher Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), who is navigating his new role as stepfather – have relocated from Oklahoma, and are now carrying on Egon Spengler’s legacy busting ghosts out of the iconic firehouse.

When the family gets in trouble with the city for causing damage in their pursuit of a Hell’s Kitchen Sewer Dragon, former EPA chief Walter Peck (William Atherton), who is now the mayor, sees this as his opportunity to finally shut down the Ghostbusters. This includes telling the 15-year-old Phoebe that she must wait to be a Ghostbuster until she comes of age, forcing the family to keep her at home.

Ray Stantz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) have kept the Ghostbusters up and running, including a new research facility to study spectral phenomena run by scientist Dr. Lars Pinfield (James Acaster). The plot is set in motion when a man named Nadeem (Kumail Nanjiani) comes into Ray’s occult bookshop and sells him an ancient orb that belonged to his grandmother. The orb contains the spirit of Garraka, which, if unleashed, would plunge the city into a second ice age.

There are a lot of characters and story strands here, including Trevor’s friend Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) and Phoebe’s friend Podcast (Logan Kim) from Afterlife, and for the first half of the film it can feel sort of meandering. This is in many ways a much lighter film than the more grounded Afterlife, seemingly taking as much inspiration from the 1980s cartoon series The Real Ghostbusters as it does the previous films, which isn’t a bad thing.

This is a film with a lot of moving pieces. It banks heavily on nostalgia (including a number of Easter Eggs), and the story is somewhat uneven with a finale that feels a bit rushed. Phoebe also makes some questionable choices that don’t entirely fit with how her whiz kid character was portrayed in the previous movie. But Frozen Empire is still a decent follow up to Afterlife that works thanks to the best efforts of the new cast members and the return of the old ones.

While Bill Murray still only has a minor supporting role here that is slightly expanded from his brief appearance in Afterlife, he gets in some good one-liners and it’s fun to see the return of his sarcastic Peter Venkman, as well as Annie Potts’ secretary Janine Melnitz – who is now in uniform. Aykroyd has always taken this lore seriously, and fully embraces the kookiness of Ray Stantz. For his part, Rudd is enjoying every minute of being a new Ghostbuster.

The film is also notable for its use of practical effects, including the return of the green, junk food eating ghost Slimer, who has a very tactile feel here. If it can’t reach the heights of the original, or even its direct predecessor, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is still an enjoyable sequel that has fun putting us back into this world.

Film Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now playing exclusively in theatres.