Review: ‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’ Looks Great But Still Lacks Freshness On 4K Blu-ray

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is indeed frozen — as in stuck between two cinematic worlds. It can’t decide whether to concentrate on the new paranormal research team, first introduced in Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), or rely on the audience’s love of the original 1980s iteration. Unsurprisingly, the brand new, very slick 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray edition overly relies on nostalgia as well.

With Afterlife co-writer Gil Kenan stepping into the director’s chair for Jason Reitman, there’s certainly a sense of continuity between the two newest films. And even more so than Afterlife, Frozen Empire spends an awful lot of time and energy reiterating jokes and scenes from the 1984 original and its 1989 sequel, and never really feels like its own entity. It’s more like an extended coda to the ’80s franchise that never grew beyond a second film.

Frozen Empire quickly re-introduces us to the Spengler family, as portrayed by Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, and McKenna Grace. When faced with an ancient threat that literally scares people to death and could trigger a new ice age, the quartet ultimately teams with original core members played by Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson (plus Annie Potts for good measure, although she has very little to do here). The narrative is jumbled and choppy, mostly due to the fact it keeps having to jump around to follow the various ‘busters following clues and/or recruiting even more allies. These include Afterlife vets Logan Kim and Celeste O’Connor, plus British comedian James Acaster, and two scene-stealers in the form of Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt. If that sounds like too many protagonists, it’s because it is. Most of them end up just standing around for the climactic battle, and a number of characters could’ve easily been collapsed into one another.

One of the film’s gravest sins is bringing back Walter Peck (William Atherton), the vengeful EPA stooge in the 1984 original who is now, somehow, the mayor of NYC, and who still holds a grudge against the team(s). His presence is solely justified as a nostalgic fan moment that adds no real threat to the narrative. As for the 1984 team, Murray predictably gets the best zingers, while Hudson and Aykroyd mostly jaw about getting old and reliving their heyday.

The 4K transfer on Blu-ray is top-notch, highlighting the film’s excellent practical and CG effects, Eric Steelberg‘s vibrant, kinetic cinematography, and some truly excellent production design and art direction.

The design team gets some well-deserved kudos in the disc’s special features, which include an audio commentary from Kenan, and a handful of featurettes. But like the film itself, the bonus material spends too much time being reverent to the original films, creators, and lore, and not enough time exploring the various aspects of the new film’s impressive production. In fact, much of the featurettes’ content wouldn’t be out of place on an Afterlife disc.

The deleted and extended scenes include some funny Murray business and a bit more of the film’s “Puker” ghost. There’s also a short featurette pointing out all of the film’s many, many “Easter Eggs.” This sort of bonus feature is becoming more and more common and sort of takes the fun out of spotting the references yourself.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is now available on 4K, Blu-ray, and DVD, and is also available in a 4K UHD / Blu-ray 2-movie set with its predecessor, Ghostbusters: Afterlife.