Jakarta. “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” -- the latest installment to the legendary supernatural comedy -- are now out in Indonesian theaters. 

While others might want to give this movie a try for nostalgia, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” can be somewhat lackluster for those simply looking for something that can make them laugh out loud. Humor is also crucial to attract the younger audience who might not grow up watching Ghostbusters and thus not be as emotionally connected, but want to know why the franchise was popular back in the day. And this review is coming from someone who did not grow up with the Ghostbusters. 

Directed by Gil Kenan, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” follows the Spengler family moving to the New York City firehouse. The Ghostbusters -- both new and old -- must later join forces to stop the big bad Garraka from turning the city into a “frozen empire”. 

The plot mainly focuses on Phoebe (McKenna Grace) --the youngest in the Spengler family--wanting to prove that she deserves to be a Ghostbuster despite her age. There is also a subplot that follows Nadeem Razmadi (Kumail Nanjiani), a slacker who sells his late grandmother’s artifacts, but turns out he has the power to help the Ghostbusters gang save the day as the Firemaster.

It is true that just like beauty, humor is in the eye of the beholder. 

But personally, most of the jokes in the movie fell flat. There were times when I would quietly giggle at the one-liners, but they were far from memorable. From a comedy standpoint, the movie’s one saving grace was Nadeem. A large part of Nadeem’s dialogue never failed to earn laughs. His from-zero-to-hero storyline was also entertaining overall. 

Aside from being not as funny as expected, the trailer gave some false hopes -- although misleading movie previews are quite common. The trailer gave the impression that we would see the Ghostbusters bust ghosts in the icy world for the most part of the film. But it was only when the movie was close to the end that the city entirely froze, and we got to see the gang in action. 

If you search for why “Ghostbusters” is popular, many attribute its popularity to the great blend of supernatural, comedy, and action. But I doubt that the almost two-hour-long “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” has shown much of that.

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