The Ghostbusters franchise has a problem with telling new stories. Since the original debuted in 1984 and became an unexpected sensation, the three sequels, a disappointing 2016 reboot, cartoon series, and other related products have tried to recapture its magic. None have succeeded. The closest any have come is the 1989 sequel, which suffers from a mild case of sequelitis, and even those involved called it a disappointment, leading to a 32-year gap between Ghostbusters II and its proper sequel, 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The latter attempted to revitalize the material by introducing a new cast in a different setting. However, the same story beats and an overreliance on callbacks rendered Afterlife too familiar to celebrate as something new. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire suffers from a similar problem. Its incessant need to remind audiences about what they loved about the original makes the result cloyingly repetitive, dependent on “remember when” moments meant to evoke nostalgia and goodwill. But every subsequent installment after the original has been winking at the past instead of moving the series forward. And it’s tiresome. If Afterlife felt like a carbon copy of the 1984 movie for a new generation, with an abundance of scenes for those committed to the […]
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