In 1904, New York City, firefighters enter a gentlemen’s club to find a group of frozen bodies and a traumatized woman in a suit of ancient armour clutching a bronze orb. In present-day New York, Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon), partner Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), and her children Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) chase a ghost through the streets as the new Ghostbusters. In an effort to appease the grumpy town mayor, Callie benches Phoebe until she is of legal age. Soon, the orb winds up at Ray’s (Dan Akroyd) Occult Bookstore, where wackiness ensues!

The movie’s predecessor, Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), was a course correction after the ill-received Ghostbusters (2016). It was a true sequel advancing the original story, whilst homaging what came before. Dancing dangerously close to ‘nostalgia-bait’, the movie repositioned a new generation of Ghostbusters by passing the torch and exploring what it takes to pick up a powerpack: intelligence, courage and heart. 

This new adventure is packed with superfluous characters from both the previous outing and the original movies, and also new characters based on The Real Ghostbusters (1986-1991) cartoon and 2016 reboot/remake. With all of these characters comes more plot lines and underdeveloped character arcs which convolute the story, leading to unearned payoffs, exposition dumps, unsatisfactory world mechanics and pushing the main threat’s entrance to the last half hour.

Verdict: Too much fan service, nostalgia baiting and contemporary box ticking resulting in a product trying to please all without pleasing anyone. 2 stars