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If I know I’m going to see a film, I tend not to read the reviews. I understand that’s common among a lot of people but what might set me apart from some others is that my social media feeds and algorithms are full of them; absolutely crammed. It makes it all hard to avoid. This, I know is entirely of my own making but it’s an odd case of me being sent the stuff I don’t want to read because it’s is precisely the stuff I do want to read. I know I don’t have to click through but it’s too late, I’ve already seen the opening line and usually the star rating.

Going into this then, one of the films I’ve most been looking forward to this year, I knew that it had disappointingly been given one or two out of five across the board.

Clearly I remain quite capable of having my own opinion. The critics turned on Indiana Jones and Dial of Destiny but I really rated it, they massacred The Marvels but I thought it was fun and they tore the throat out of Don’t Worry Darling but I put it in my top twenty of that year. In this case though I can’t really argue; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire totally lacks the energy and heart that were the keystones of the previous three movies in this series and it is absolutely not what I’d hoped for.

Still though I had a good time with it because the other aspects all of these films rely on are the iconography and their strong characters, and while they didn’t do anything new with these things here, the people showed up and they brought their cool toys.

I remember reading a review of Ghostbusters 2 back in 1989 that acknowledged that that too was not as good as what had come before yet said that it was still worth a trip to the cinema just because it was good to see the boys back on screen doing what they do. This is a sentiment that I have long applied to other sequels and it clearly fits here. Now though it doesn’t apply to those same boys, the original ghostbusters are back again but if not latter stage cameos this time they are very much supporting characters. The returning players it is great to spend time with here are the family that were so well established in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe and Paul Rudd’s Gary in particular remain good company and those around them, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Logan Kim and Celeste O’Connor all being value too. Phoebe has an interesting narrative that is better in the performance than it is in the writing but Grace makes it believable and engaging. Kumail Nanjiani also joins the cast and brings most of the laughs, particularly if you’ve not seen any of his other films previously.

In terms of the familiar images (and it has to be said those amazing hum, crackle, whirr and whine sound effects) as well as all of those costumes and kit, I am there for it and it is there for me. The thing I most enjoy is seeing that awesome car screaming around the New York streets with that iconic siren blaring as it chases down troublesome spooks. I could watch that all day and if they only give me fifteen minutes of it in this two hour movie, then I am still totally on board.

So, it’s true; Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire is not a very good film. The ending is particularly disappointing, relying on easy tropes to beat the apparently invincible big bad rather than creating iconic resolutions like the famous crossing of the streams. All in all there is very little here for newcomers but if you are a fan of either the first film or the last one, then there are treats in revisiting what we already love. That is what is going to make the difference between this being a two star film and… well, a three.

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The Ripley Factor:

No Ripley this time, Sigourney Weaver is sitting this one out (and she was even in the Melissa McCarthy one). What we do have though is a team of nine ghostbusters, five of who are male and four female which is a better ratio than we’ve had before, going either way.

Women do not take a back seat in this film, or if they do it’s a gunner seat so that’s cool.