Somewhere in the midst of the haggard kerfuffle that is the frozen empire of Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Ernie Hudson’s Winston Zeddemore tells Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz something to the effect of the old cliché, “we’re getting too old for this.” This does not come across like a self-aware nod toward the inherent redundancy and inessential nature of Hollywood reboot culture. It feels more like the film accidentally self-reporting.

Personally (and fortunately, perhaps), I did not have to get too old before realizing that it is a waste of one’s time and energy to hold any cultural text sacred. If you can make an enjoyable new experience out of existing intellectual property, why not. Hollywood’s been doing it for over a century, anyway.

On the other hand, when a franchise rehash presents as moldy and tired, it irks me in a way few other Hollywood worst practices do. Ghostbusters: Afterlife and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire are prime examples of this crusty old attempt to scrape dollars out of the bottom of the near-empty barrel. With a vacant-eyed stare, I’ve watched both films point uselessly toward iconography and actors that my brain registers as existing in a previous time. Without purpose, I have been presented the same thing again, and I can’t find any value in the empty gesture save for the cynical monetary one.

For what little it’s worth, Frozen Empire improves slightly on the lumpy, unfocused, and ultimately derivative Afterlife. When the film does not bloat itself with shoe-horned legacy characters, there is a glimmer of useful character development that at the very least introduces emotional stakes to the gaudy action. Character arcs for Paul Rudd and Mckenna Grace’s characters, while being anything but novel, are serviceable.

This does not paper over the unrelenting blandness of the blockbuster action nor make up for the weight added by flabby, extraneous scenes. At its core, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is still an empty calories smorgasbord of hollow references and bloated set pieces. The new Ghostbusters crew, made up of the Spengler family, make a handful of mistakes that lead to the threat of the operation being shut down. Enter some former Ghostbusters to stand around and take up space. Not to mention characters from the previous film, returning here for unknown or lazy reasons. Plus some new characters brought in to do the work that other, already established characters could have done. After we settle on over a dozen principle characters, the plot throws them into a battle against a cruddy CGI ghost demon. A few decent jokes accompany nearly two hours of fluff.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: D+

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As always, thanks for reading!

—Alex Brannan (Letterboxd, Facebook)