Summary
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empireisn’t a great movie (at all), but it does right by one of my favorite characters from the franchise – Janine Melnitz – by finally making her a Ghostbuster. Following on fromGhostbusters: Afterlife,Frozen Empirebrings Egon’s estranged family back to New York to join forces with the O.G. Ghostbusters team. When a nefarious ghost named Garraka freezes over the entire city and threatens to plunge the world into a new ice age, Ghostbusters old and new come together to fight back.
While Rick Moranis’ Louis Tully andSigourney Weaver’s Dana Barrettare nowhere to be seen,Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirebrings back plenty of familiar faces. Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Ernie Hudson all reprise their roles as O.G. Ghostbusters and William Atherton’s Walter Peck, now the Mayor of New York, is continuing to cause trouble for them.But it’s Annie Potts as Janine Melnitz who gets the most significant character developmentin the new sequel.
Frozen Empire Makes Janine An Official Ghostbuster At Last
It’s about time Janine became a Ghostbuster
When Janine was first introduced in the originalGhostbustersmovie, she was the team’s secretary. She answered the Ghostbusters’ phone calls in a droll, sarcastic tone and she was consistently rude to all their potential customers. This was a fun running gag – and Potts did a great job with Janine’s sardonic attitude – butit would’ve been disappointing if Janine was still organizing their calendar and answering their phones after all these years. Instead,Frozen Empirefinally makes Janine an official Ghostbuster with her own uniform and everything.
In the final battle ofGhostbusters: Frozen Empire, Phoebe and the new Ghostbusters fight alongside Janine and the O.G. Ghostbusters to vanquish Garraka from New York. Although I didn’t love the movie as a whole, it did warm my heart to see Phoebe’s family helping her with the proton pack, and I got a flutter of nostalgia when I saw Murray, Aykroyd, and Hudson in their old uniforms. Butthere was something even more special about seeing Janine in a jumpsuit, fighting alongside the guys she used to answer the phone for.
Janine’s Ghostbusting Experience Began Outside Of The Movies
Frozen Empire wasn’t the first Ghostbusters project to put Janine in a uniform
WhileGhostbusters: Frozen Empirewas the first time fans got to see Janine as a Ghostbuster in live-action, it wasn’t the firstGhostbustersproject to put her in a beige jumpsuit. Janine first picked up a proton pack and became a Ghostbuster in theanimated TV showsThe Real GhostbustersandExtreme Ghostbusters. But she always had to borrow a uniform from her fellow Ghostbusters;Ghostbusters: Frozen Empirewas the first one to give her her own uniform.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire
Cast
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire continues the story of a new generation of ghost hunters composed of Phoebe (Mckenna Grace), Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Podcast (Logan Kim), who received help from the original team in the previous movie. Paul Rudd returns as Gary Grooberson and franchise co-creator Ivan Reitman returns to write and produce.
