The first reviews of the next instalment of the Ghostbusters franchise are here, and it’s really not looking great.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is the sequel to 2021’s Ghostbusters: Afterlife, starring Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard and of course, Bill Murray.
At time of writing, the movie scores a disappointing 46 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics calling it ‘innocuous’, ‘lazy’, and ‘poorly-paced’.
Here’s a round-up of the critics’ reviews so far:
Daily Express
The Ghostbusters franchise continues to be one of the worst offenders of peddling cheap and easy nostalgia for laughs and poignancy.
Screen International
The clumsy mixture of nostalgia, scares, set pieces, sincerity and wisecracks never gels, tempting a conclusion that it is perhaps time for Sony to give up this particular ghost.
Daily Telegraph
There is a noxious undead pong emanating from this latest entry in the 1980s franchise, which is now being necromantically sustained through force of sheer commercial desperation, and nothing else.
The Scotsman
Though it didn’t really take as a franchise back then, its revival has become one of the more depressing examples of the extent to which contemporary Hollywood is now haunted by Gen X nostalgia.
North Shore Movies
An innocuous, family-friendly supernatural adventure with too many characters and a severe shortage of jokes.
Little White Lies
Everything about the film is undercooked and lazy, and one is led to hope that this franchise is put back in the deep freeze for a very long time.
The Nerds of Past
Overall, Frozen Empire banks on the nostalgic fan-service a little too much. What is the point of creating a new legacy of heroes when everyone is still stuck in the past?
Despite the swathe of negative reviews coming in, some weren’t as unimpressed as others…
Variety
Frozen Empire has enough going on in it to connect, but now that Jason Reitman and company have brought this series back to life, it’s time to re-infuse it with the spirit that Kumail Nanjiani brings.
Total Film
Too many characters and callbacks plus a formulaic plot means Frozen Empire doesn’t touch the original movies, but it’s a likeable-enough brand extension.
Independent
Frozen Empire is a notable improvement on Afterlife – funny, silly, and a little scary, with its pockets full of hand-built doodahs and the occasional excursion into the realm of pseudo-mythology and parapsychology.
Chicago Sun-Times
While Frozen Empire sometimes overdoes it with the 21st-century green-screen stuff, and there are a few lags in the action around the midway point, this is a big and boisterous and just plain fun amusement park ride of a movie.
CBR
There isn’t anything exceptionally terrible about Frozen Empire, but there isn’t anything to write home about either.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire hits cinemas on Friday.