I mostly enjoyed Afterlife, aka the Ghostbusters reboot/restart/rewhatever. The script wasn't the best but unlike the chick version it had it's heart in the right place and doled out the memberberries with respect. I was however more interested in what they did next.
While Ghostbusters: Frozen Throne keeps the reverence to the source material it unfortunately doubles down on the poor script writing.
Out of the gate this movie has waaaay too many characters and subplots. Virtually none of them are given enough screen time or depth to work so everything just seems half hearted. Ever get a DVD that's full of deleted scenes that were excised because while being OK they didn't really advance the plot? If they removed every scene or character like that in this movie it'd be about 35 minutes long.
Unfortunately the most half baked plot of them all is the main one involving the villain. They don't even unleash him until the final act and even then it's not clear what the stakes are with his release other than he's going to 'destroy the world'. Even bad movies realize that's too nebulous which is why you get scenes of the Grandmother or Girlfriend in the city that's about to be nuked to set personal stakes and get people invested. There's literally none of that here so you aren't really invested.. it's just.. yeah OK whatever.
The heart is still there and you can tell there was a real love of Ghostbusters by the film makers.. it's just a shame they couldn't do something better with the opportunity. Once again this was the 2nd draft of a script that needed quite a few more revisions to focus it down and make it into something actually good.
Overall I didn't hate this movie nor did I love it.. it was just a movie. It has Ghostbusters things in it, they say the classic lines.. so if that's all you want you will get it. If you want something the stands on it's own however this isn't really it. It's another missed opportunity.
I was watching some early Spielberg stuff last week.. Close Encoutners, Indiana Jones, etc.. It's amazing how good movies were during that late-70s through early 90s period. Unfortunately I think Hollywood has changed to a point where we may never get another era like that again. It's just lame echos, people trying to emulate the older films but just not having the creative spark that made those films so iconic.
Ah well could have been worse I suppose.
