Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Skippable, and it is the one entry here with nothing of its own. The Spenglers move into the firehouse, the surviving original cast arrive in rotation, a new researcher runs a containment facility under the city, an ancient artefact is brought in, and a great deal of plot happens to a great many people without any of it accumulating.

The cast list is the problem rather than a selling point. Four Spenglers, three returning Ghostbusters, two new scientists, a librarian, a collector and a possessed object all require screen time, so nobody gets a second scene in a row. Phoebe was the centre of Afterlife and is sidelined here into a subplot about a ghost she befriends, which is the most interesting idea in the film and is given about fifteen minutes.

Gil Kenan directs capably and the firehouse looks correct. There are two or three good sequences, a chase down a Manhattan street in the opening and a decent bit of business with a containment grid, and the effects are the best the series has had. None of it is in service of anything.

The reason to be relaxed about skipping it is that it leaves nothing open. If you want the Spengler line, Afterlife tells that story and ends it. This is the sequel it got rather than the one it needed.