you Welcome to the Oblivion Bar podcast with your host Chris Hacker and Aaron Knowles. Godzilla's movements and mannerism, namely the scene where he's sleeping curled up inside the Roman Colosseum, were based on director Adam Wingard's cat, Mischief. As we said. Yeah. Kill it. That's pretty obvious. Yeah. For Trapper's appearance, Adam Wingard wanted him to have the 80s action figure feel. Nailed it! And was based on the G.I. Joe character, Chuckles. No notes. No notes. He fucking nailed it.
It was just like the fun character. Like, I want to be best friends. I want to be on his staff. I was getting Han Solo vibes, too. Like just kinda like too cool for school kinda guy. Yeah, scruffy nerf herder. The image used for the blueprints of the Beast Glove is the arm of the Pacific Rim Jaeger Gypsy Danger. Beast stands for bio-enhanced anatomic, which is not anatomic, seismic thunder, which is so badass. I love the connection there.
Because again, portals, titans, it's such a cool, it's such an obvious influence, yeah. Absolutely. While Shimo's exact age is unknown, she has been referred to some as the first Titan, indicating her to be older than any of the other Titans. And then lastly, Chris, I'll hand them over. I just want to cover this one. In Skar King's throne room, several female apes holding red or orange furred infants can be seen.
This strongly implies that he reproduced with these females and that Suko is probably one of his many children. Yeah, he was like, again, like that very human, I don't think, cause he knows that he needs to like, I don't know, he's just, he's such a fucking asshole. Humans are opportunistic creatures. We're often looking, we're at the top of the food chain and that didn't happen by accident. We made that happen.
Like we came, we were born into this world as the lowest and we became what we are now, talking about Batman and King Kong on this podcast. Like we've done it. We've peaked in the food chain. So- Now we're just going down. Yeah, exactly. Now we're going backwards. Scar King is exactly that. He is opportunistic. He is conniving. He is power hungry. All the things. Like he represents the worst in humanity, I think. And of course King Kong represents the best.
He is selfless and he has valor and he only just, he wants to be around loved ones, right? And he has a tooth that's made out of carbon fiber. So that's cool, you know? That's Skar King laughed at. Yeah, he pointed out, I was like, hey, look at this fucking- Look at this nerd. Nerd. Nerd, look at this nerd. Human tooth. You needed a human tooth? You fucking nerd. Where's your glasses at, nerd? He got braces, what a nerd!
All right, the Gator Snake serpent that Kong fights in the lake is a callback to the first planned villain of Kong's Co-Island, which was going to be a huge serpent that lived in the water before it was replaced by the Skullcrawlers. I think that was a good choice. I like the Skullcrawlers in that film.
For the color visuals, Adam Wingard revealed, whenever I was talking to the visual artists, what I told them was, I want the color palette of this film to resemble the experience you get when you walk down a toy alley. in the 1980s when there were Thundercats and G.I. Joe and Transformers, which... Nailed it.
The fight between Kong and Scar King in the trailer was inspired by a fight scene in the film Emperor of the North from 1973 where the characters A, number one, and Shaq fight with a fire axe and chains. Aaron, are you familiar with this film, Emperor of the North? No, but I also heard that another influence was the fight scene between Rowdy Roddy Piper and... What's his name? From They Live. I know the fight you're talking about is when they're like on top of the car and.
It's like 20 minutes, like a 20 minute fight of just them beating the shit out of each other for no fucking reason, like no outcome. I think that's the Kong, like when they first get together, like that's the Kong Godzilla fight influenced that one. It's not Louis Gossett Jr., is it? I don't know, that's a good question, I have no idea. I'm gonna look it up. All right, go ahead, get up. I'll do the last one here.
The New Empire holds the record for the most Titans to appear in a Monsterverse film. outside of stock footage with at least nine. So there are nine Titans in this film. So that's pretty- Keith David. Keith David. Oh, of course. Yeah, Keith David. All right. That'll do it for our coverage, Godzilla Kong, the new empire, Aaron. Let's go ahead and give our final thoughts. Final thoughts on the fifth installment in the Monsterverse. Final thoughts are, it was super fun.
It was exactly what we wanted. And, you know, this is one that I will definitely buy a steel book for. Absolutely. 100% agree. Steel book worthy. I had so much fun with this movie. I want more of this. Like I said, it's supplanted the Fast and Furious series as my favorite brain candy franchise going forward. I love this. I love everything about this. Obviously there are some glaring issues. There are pacing issues. The human characters don't matter. There are things, right?
But the important thing is that they nailed the things they needed to nail and it was a ton of fun. And to be hyper critical of a film like this would be silly. So, let's go ahead and rate this thing out of five David Winer's. Of course, David A. Weiner is our favorite documentarian, writer, director. A Search of Tomorrow and A Search of Darkness. We've had on the show many times. Aaron, if you don't mind. David A. Weiner. We need like a water chime. Ting. At the end of that.
Can I give my rating first? Because I always give mine second. Just so I'm not influencing you. I'm going to give it. Because I feel like my rating is maybe a hot take. I'm going to give Godzilla Kong, The New Empire, four David A. Weiners. I really like this movie. Again, we're like, we are of the same mind, but like always point five apart. I'm going to give it a three point five. Sure. OK. And that and that's I loved it. I really did. But I can't say it was like a maze.
I can't say it was like Godzilla minus one level. You know what I mean? Well, that's tough. That's going to be tough. This is not at all the same. It's not an art house. Godzilla. I get it. I get it. But like, I got to base it off of what I love and the things that I enjoyed. And again. Maybe I'll revisit it again, like when I can to see it again and maybe give it a four also. I really enjoyed it.
It could have also been like the mood that I was in because when I got there, I was a little disappointed in the theater's activities. I was disappointed they didn't have the merchandise because I wanted some merchandise, like all that stuff. So it could have been that, I'll revisit it, but I think right now I'm giving it a 3.5. Sure. All right. Where's it at in your monster verse? Can you off the top of your head, can you think about where it lies in terms of all of those films?
So again, we have Godzilla, we have Godzilla, King of the Monsters, we have Kong Skull Island, we have Godzilla versus Kong. And then this, you know what? I'm going to leave the people hanging. OK. And I'm going to say check our social media because you know what I'm going to do once the show is over today? I will create a letterbox list and we'll post that on our social. So, yeah, I think I'll leave them hanging for that and I'll put up a list. OK, I think.
I don't have it listed here, but I'm just gonna say off the top of my head. I'm gonna say off the dome. Off the dezoom. I've got Godzilla at number one, still I think the best version of whatever this is. It's funny because it is very grounded and this is super silly because it's number two. Godzilla at Kong, the new empire is number two for me. Then I would say Godzilla, King of the Monsters is number three. Kong Skull Island is number four. And then Godzilla versus Kong is number five.
However, I should just say broadly, I like all of these films. None of them are bad. had to put them in a certain order. It's hard to put a top five when there's only five. Right. Yeah. You know, absolutely. All right, Aaron, let's go and get into our next review here. We've got Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Again, spoilers ahead for this film. This is the fourth installment, I guess. Well, OK. I don't think it's the fifth because one doesn't really count. We don't look at it. Don't look at it.
Stop looking at it. But mom, don't look at honey. It's looking at you high. So no. So, yeah. I mean, it technically is the fifth Ghostbusters film. We're talking about the female lead Ghostbusters, everybody. 2016's Ghostbusters Answer the Call with, yes, it is a female team, but that has nothing to do with why this movie is fucking horrible. All right. Well, let's let's, spoilers ahead for everybody. Spon-ass. Initial thoughts on Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. I had a great time with this.
I had a great... Tell people, tell people how you saw it. Also, let's, we should talk about that. Okay, so I saw it twice actually already. The first time I saw it. Before everybody else could see it. Before everybody else. The first time I saw it was, it was a screening at a Regal, and I went to that one, got invited by Sony. So that was really fun. It was a bunch of podcasters. It was a bunch of article writers, influencers, things like that.
And then the second time I saw it, I went and saw it with the New York City Ghostbusters, which I'm now a recruit for. I'm in my probation. phase. I'm in my probie phase. And yeah, so getting to see it with like 50 other plus Ghostbusters in costume, proton packs, all that stuff was amazing. And it was this whole like regal event thing at the union or was it walk, E walks using the E walk theater in New York from yeah, not the little bears and start from Endor. Yeah, not from Endor.
Chewbacca is not from Endor. So, yeah, it was. But that was really fun to get to see it. But that I'll say this, that was in a 4DX theater, which I will never go back to. OK, I was going to ask. So what did they make it cold in the room? Did they spritz you with some? It's basically like a roller coaster, like all the seats move like it's jarring. It is so I could not I could not focus on the movie. Yeah. What movie would you even want to see in that setting? I don't even know.
Fast and Furious. Maybe Fast and Furious, maybe like an avatar, perhaps. I don't know. No, not even that. Just like that's not really nothing. It was like it was horrible. Like they sprayed you. They puffed air in your face. They made it cold. They made it hot. Like it was just, it was the most jarring experience. And I never want to see a movie in that again. That sounds like my nightmare. Honestly, I don't ever want to do that. It was, it was like, like stimulation overload. Oh, sure.
Okay. All right. Well, my initial thoughts on this film, Aaron, and I hate to disappoint you. I did not like this movie at all. I thought this movie was pretty bad. Honestly, pretty polarizing. It's just, I don't know what this is. Like what is Ghostbusters anymore? I think there's a lot of questions we can ask and I can kind of elaborate on why. Let's chat about it. Should we? Maybe I can talk to you about it. Maybe I can help you. I would love that, honestly.
Okay. Because what the Ghostbusters to me was four grimy guys get together and bust some ghosts. They don't have great equipment. They're kind of down to luck. They just are New York's last defense in this sort of. Defeated New York's early, you know early 80s defeated New York and there's nothing Glowy or shiny about it.
It's just that right and it seems like and there's some caveats to this I think that what it seems like the Ghostbusters has become is High quality family fund that everyone and grandma can enjoy You know me can I say something absolutely please if you've ever watched the first Ghostbusters Which plenty of us have if the Ghostbusters had never done anything. There would be no issue Okay, that's fair. Yeah. I mean, Dan Acquard gets blown by a ghost in that movie. So that's pretty cool.
Yeah. But I'm just saying if there if the Ghostbusters had never formed, there would be no issue. That's like the age old superhero challenge, right? Like power incites power. So people will always challenge you because they want to they want to defeat whoever's on top. But no, but I'm saying this.
Like if you watch the original movie, the only reason the ghost like that, the entire culmination climax of that film occurs, Walter Peck goes into the Ghostbusters facility and fucks up the storage unit Yeah, had there never been a storage unit no sign no Key master thing like they would there would have been I mean there would have been happily it would not have Like giving them the sign, you know, I mean sure so like I feel like without You make the argument for this movie too, like
McKenna Grace her character Phoebe. This whole film is basically on her back Well, also Camille Nandiani's character as well, where he brings in the orb and like, you're absolutely right. A lot of the issues, Garza, the reason why he's released is because Dan Aykroyd, his character, it's trickling effects. But my whole point, I need to finish this, is that this film, it felt like broken up scenes around the old cast.
And I think that, I'm conflicted here, Aaron, because on one hand, of course, it's cool to see Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, everybody back in this film and back in the Ghostbusters suits, but I think this was the first time that I got like kind of tired of it. I'm like, can we just move on to the new Ghostbusters? Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, and it's your it's glaring. Yeah. You're feeling what a lot of people are feeling.
And they're feeling that this movie is relying too heavily on nostalgia. Mm hmm. Like you're feeling like again, there's a very polarizing looking, a very polarizing sense of this film. You have a lot of people who are like, this is great. I love it. Great to see the new cast, the old cast. To me, this is like when we described Dune 2, one of the things you described was kind of like the new school, like kind of like sending off like the old guard.
And that's what I feel like this is because what we're seeing in this film, and I'm gonna go over the summary in a second, pardon the pun, but a spiritual send off for the older team. Like this was like a last hurrah for them. Couldn't we have done that in Afterlife? Like, didn't we do that actually with like even the ghost of Egon? Yes and no, but you have to have that transition point and that's what this movie is. I thought that would have been perfect.
Honestly, I think that would have been great. But you still. Okay. We would have went in straight to this film with them taking over the firehouse and then bam, McKenna Grace and co are helping out. And I think that this film suffers greatly because they keep referring and McKenna Grace actually comments on this later on in the in the notes. But like they could have just continued the legacy with Camille Nongiani joining the team and all like.
Even like Dan Aykroyd in the background, I would have been fine with that. But like bringing in Bill Murray and even like Winston, what's his name? Zettelmore. Yeah. Even Winston Zettelmore. I know I'm like calling some by their cast name and some by the actual actor name. But like, yeah, it just I don't know. Ernie Hudson, thank you. I don't know. I just didn't. Is this what you want, Aaron? Like as a true Ghostbusters fan, this type of thing where it's like very family friendly driven.
We're bringing back the old cast for every entry, like kind of again, glossy. kind of New York and you, is this what you want? I don't know what I want as a Ghostbuster because I need the studios to show me and tell me what I want to see because we're in unknown territory with this. Let me go over to the summary. Let me kind of like give you a breakdown of like what I would have wanted to see. Sure, okay.
So the summary of this film is the Spangler family returns the iconic New York City firehouse where the original Ghostbusters first set up shop back in 1984 when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Garaka. who's basically a demon god, Ghostbusters new and old must unite to protect their home and save the city from a second ice age. So here are the important things that we had to hit in this film.
So we had to bring the new team into the firehouse, get them established with a new set of new gear, outfit them, and then get them to work. In order to do that, you have to bring in the old school team. But at the same time, I do see what you're saying.
And I would have liked more of them more like taking more of a backseat rather than them being really relied upon so much, you know, like have, you know, Ray and have all these guys like have them be like retired, but like still kind of like around the shop, like being the shop, but Winston should be really the only one who's calling the shots because he's the one financing now he did so well in financial in the financial district that he is now Financing the entire Ghostbusters operation.
He's the one who's paying for all the R&D. He's paying for all the training He's paying for all the new equipment You got Janine who's kind of like still doing her administrative stuff behind the behind the scenes true Like why is Bill Murray there? Bill Murray is only there because they needed it They it would be weird if Peter wasn't there It would be weird if he exactly if he wasn't there he out of all of them Bill Murray has been the one who is very stoically and very slick said many times.
I'm done. Yeah but he keeps coming back. But he keeps coming back. I would have been fine if they would have just brought him in for that one scene with Camille Nanjiani's character with the fire master, like where he's basically doing the same thing he did in the first movie. Like if he had just come back for that and maybe just like, like you said, been around to help in the background, in the finale, like in the third act, I would have been totally fine with that.
But putting them in the suits again is where I kind of draw the line in terms of my believability. we're now approaching really my only main issue with this movie was the fact of how easy it was for them to capture Garaka at the end of the day. Pretty weak villain. This whole movie led up to this like demon God who's about to destroy earth and like cause a new ice age and all this stuff. And then the, the culminating fight was really maybe 10 minutes of this entire film.
And honestly, if anything, it really shows how par in the use impotent the older team was when it came to how much of an effect they had on fighting these because really the only reason That they were able to capture him was because of the new team and or Patrick Arrocha was because of the new team and because of the Involvement of the older team it really brought more issues than it was than it was necessary So I think if anything like I said, this is like a
spiritual kind of like goodbye Like we don't really need the old-school Ghostbusters anymore at least out in in gear to accomplish the mission. Yeah. I just, the humor didn't work for me either. A lot of the, all the funny, the only funny parts in this movie were Camille Nanjiani, uh, parts of Bill Murray and Pat Oswald. Good friend of the show.
You know, like those guys really on any, any other joke that was said in this film, I did not even chuckle at, which was kind of a bummer, but let's, we'll talk about it more as we go along. So frozen empire was released 40 years after the first film. It was also the, uh, it was also released in time for the hundredth anniversary of Columbia pictures.
which I don't know if you saw the Aaron, but the kind of rotating images of the lady there in the beginning and then the 10th anniversary of her, Harold Ramis is passing. So this was really scheduled to be released on December 20th. I said earlier, November, I actually meant December 20th of last year, but due to the sag after a WGA strikes, it was delayed until March 29th.
And despite the heavy influence of the animated series, Aaron, which I know you're a big fan of in this film, the real Gus Ghostbusters story, editor and comic book writer, Jay Michael Sierdzynski. revealed that he was never consulted by the filmmakers of this film. Strzecinski didn't even find out that this was an influence for the film until Empire magazine broke out the news in the fall of 2023. So wouldn't have been a good idea to get Strzecinski involved.
The guy who basically created and was the show runner of the animated series. I mean, I don't, it's again, this is, this is a departure because if you look at, again, I'm just going to say this one, I haven't really said this part. The original films were. where the real Ghostbusters cartoon came from. This is even a departure from the first two films and even the cartoon.
This is a departure because if you look at it, yeah, like you said earlier, this is about four grimy dudes who are on a team. No, they're not really grimy, but this is now becoming more of a family film, like a family franchise. Yeah, that's what I've been saying. It's divulging into rated G instead of PG-13. We got someone gets called dickless in this movie at one point. That's about it. Really. That was the funniest part. Like it might be part of it's all dark and horny.
No, it wasn't necessary. The fact that they put that on a shirt was ridiculous. But yeah, I love like, hey, like you should be thanking them. Dickless. That was the funniest part of the fucking movie. But yeah, anyways, I feel like this is like this is going in a direction that is making what Ghostbusters could have been, which is more of a family friendly, like approachable franchise, which I'm not bad about it because it's not like it's a kids movie. It's not a kids movie.
It's it's an adolescent film. It's a it's a it's a film where older kids and younger adults and older adults can all enjoy it. That's why I like it. Yeah, but I think if you alienate the older crowd with a movie like this, then it doesn't become all ages. It becomes strictly a kids film. You see what I'm saying? Like the Ghostbusters films are fun for all ages because adults and children can enjoy it. You've got the kind of a kind of a high brow hilarious.
form of comedy with the, you know, the members of, I would never really argue that, that Ghostbusters was for children. Oh, and 100%. I don't think it is either, but I think they can enjoy it. They can. I think they can enjoy this. My point is that they made this film for kids. There's no way that this was made for people like us. This film was not like, well, let me say this. I think that they had us in mind because they obviously included the old Ghostbusters.
Yeah. Like they wanted to do certain things for the older audience, but I think it just felt very half-baked. And the, the actual content in the film. Like that's where it stopped. That's where the buck stopped was. I disagree. Let's bring in the old guys. That'll appease the older audience. And let's make it more kind of again, glossy and sort of PG or rated G for like the actual content. You're almost arguing like the, some of these people who are like, oh, this film's woke.
This is interesting. Is that your daddy's Ghostbusters? This is woke. This is woke Ghostbusters. You got it. This is woke Busters. Phoebe is in love with a, with a gay ghost. What the hell? Yeah. Spanglers aren't gay. My Spangler ain't gay. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm just saying that like eBreak, the ecto one eBreak into the other direction is glaring and I don't like it.
I'm okay for making things more accessible for all audiences, but you have to put the effort in for the older audience more so than the younger audience because the younger audience is going to be into this regardless, I think. Like if you're, if you're marketing it correctly. My one real big gripe and it's not even a big gripe.
And I've been getting some a little bit of hate for this for this feeling on it is there's the first ghost chase they're chasing the what's it the Manhattan sewer dragon the hell's kitchen hell's kitchen sewer dragon. Yeah, um through the streets and phoebe like ejects into the I forget the seats the seat. Yeah, but it's called something else. But like it's like a gunnery Yeah, the gunner seat.
Um, so she like sits on that but and then and then at one point the mom like puts on the goggles and like starts using like an FPV, like a first person view drone to capture this dragon. And in my opinion, that's the stupidest thing of this movie. Why was she in the goggles and why was Phoebe? They should have reversed that. I feel like if anything, the mom over time would have gotten better at catching ghosts and she would have been the one in the gunner seat.
And then Phoebe would have been the one flying the drone. Yeah, but then you couldn't have the subplot of Phoebe being a young girl and she should be on the Ghostbusters. Exactly. That's where that comes from. And again, it's half baked. It's that you have a story element that you think makes sense because you have another story element down the road, but it destroys a character's like what a character would do generally. Right. Yeah, I get what you're saying. Absolutely.
But it would destroy other elements of the movie that I would say that the main crux or the main pillar of Phoebe's arc in this is that she's a young girl. She shouldn't be busting ghosts this early in her life. and everyone's trying to stop her, right? And then at the end, she shows that she can do it because her partner ghost person helped her, you know, like, anyway, all right, let's keep moving along here.
So the box office for this, as of April 4th, Frozen Empire has grossed 77.1 million domestically and 35.1 million in other territories. On a budget of 100 million. So relatively cheap-ish, like it's made a worldwide total of 112, so it's made its budget back. But of course, Aaron, as we know, you gotta double it plus more to earn a profit. any profit at all because of marketing and whatnot.
So Frozen Empire debuted at $45 million in its opening weekend, landing between Ghostbusters from 2016, everyone's favorite Ghostbusters, at $46 million in 2016 to Ghostbusters Afterlife at $44 million in 2021, topping the box office in its first week and pushing the Ghostbusters franchise to $1 billion total across all entries. So it was in number one for one week and then the next week, Godzilla, And the Empire is Strokeback. And the Empire is Strokeback, as we've said, everyone.
Strokeback. Is Strokeback? Strokeback. Stroke it back. Strokeback Mountain. The director is Gil Keenan from 2006's Monster House. So interesting what's starting off with a horror film. City of Ember, which I don't know if you've seen City of Ember. I love that movie. I have not seen it, no. So it came out around the same time, I want to say, like when a lot of books are coming out, like, what's that one? The Mockingjay, the Hunger Games? things like that.
Yeah, so it's very fun book, very fun movie. I really enjoyed it. Poltergeist 2015, and I never saw this, but A Boy Called Christmas. That was a Netflix movie. Yeah. Okay. Isn't it funny that both these directors, Gil Keenan and Adam Wingard, both started off earlier in their career making remakes of classic horror films and them not being well-received. Yeah. Also Monster House was nominated for an Academy Award for best animated feature, but it lost to Happy Feet.
So, and then Keenan co-wrote 2021's Ghostbusters Afterlife with Jason Reitman. Aaron, if you remember, we talked about Afterlife here on the show. Yes, this sounds familiar. And we liked it. I really liked Afterlife. I was really excited about where the franchise was kind of rebooting into the next era. Obviously not anymore. Not anymore, everybody. Aaron, remember that number I said earlier about the runtime for New Empire? believe it was one hour and 55 minutes.
Interesting, because this movie is also one hour and 55 minutes. Goodness. Remember I said earlier that there's a lot of connections with these two films. Of course, their original, you know, Godzilla versus Kong, Ghostbusters Afterlife, both came out in 2021. Both were relative successes. Both are legacy sequels for already established characters and or franchises, and both came out this year essentially in the same time, and both are one hour and 55 minutes.
And just one is just way better than the other. if I'm being honest. Well, let's go over the cast. McKenna Grace is Phoebe Spangler, Paul Rudd is Carrie Gruber. Good to see Gruber's in back. Yep. Carrie is Callie Spangler, Finn Wolfhard as Trevor Spangler, Kumal Nanjiani as Nadim Razmati. Good friend of the pod, Patton Oswalt as Dr. Hubert Wardsky, Madame Web's own Celeste O'Connor as Lucky Domingo. Bill Murray as Peter Venkman, Dan Ackroyd as Dr. Raymond Ray Stance.
Ernie Hudson is Winston Zettimore. Annie Paz is Janine Melnitz. William Atherton as Mayor Walter Dickless Peck. Logan Kim as podcast. Emily Allen Lind as Melody. Another similarity, both movies have a podcaster in it. Yes. And I know like a lot of people were like for some reason, podcast is like a favorite character amongst everybody. Yeah, he's great. But I feel like his. His part was very, was a little too small in this one.
Yeah, but I would say like, they definitely gave us a backseat to Finn Wolfman's Trevor. Obviously, Celeste O'Connor's Lucky was also given a little bit of a backseat in this movie. And then also podcast. They're all just like characters that were in the previous film that just didn't have as much to do in this film. I will say of this cast, and we're notorious about this, McKenna Grace per usual is incredible in this movie. I think I love her kind of headlining this franchise.
I like her in everything that she does, but I think that her as Phoebe Spangler was without a doubt the most compelling part of this movie. And I, if anything else, I just wanted more of her. And you know, speaking of McKenna Grace, she actually, and I kind of referenced this earlier.
She said it was somewhat difficult to work, you know, alongside the surviving original cast members compared to Ghostbusters Afterlife because in Afterlife, the original cast members just came in at the end and shot for two weeks for the climax because again, they just kind of show up, right? Grace admitted that while it was fun working with them and hearing their stories, She felt a little intimidated and worried about screwing up in front of the guys who started this whole thing 40 years ago.
So I can, I can definitely see that being a real, a real challenge for her. One thing I love about McKenna Grace is like how much she loves playing Phoebe Spangler and being a Ghostbuster. Like if you follow her on any of her social media or Tik Tok, anything like that, she has and will always be like a Ghostbusters fan.
And it's so cute to see like she even shows like her baby pictures and not just that, but like Trevor Spangler from his time in, you know, in Stranger Things, when if you know anything, like they dressed up as Ghostbusters for several Halloweens. It's just great to see that there's like an affinity there. Absolutely. Yeah. So of the cast members here, you know, we just spoke on McKenna Grace being pretty good in this film.
Is there another actor that or another character that you kind of attached to that you were impressed with? To be honest, like Camille Nanjiani's character. not so, not a whole lot, but definitely to a point where like I, I very much focused on what his addition to this film slash universe could be.
Yeah. You know, one thing that I find really interesting is like this felt like a real desire to expand the universe more into the occult and cause you know, if we, if you watch the original films, obviously there's a little bit of psychokinesis, some telepathy, some psychic powers, but very much it's an undertone of the film. It's a very low piece of information that's kind of just shoehorned in there.
Whereas this is a real power and this could open up a lot of interesting things for this franchise going forward. Yeah, 100%. I really liked Camille. Camille? Camille or Camille? I think Camille. I really like Camille's character in this as well. Again, as I said a moment ago, Patton Oswalt in this film, he's in it for about 10 minutes, but he's hilarious. Yes. Both of those two and they're kind of comedic relief in this film.
Because again, if this is going to be sort of a, you know, all ages, family friendly kind of Ghostbusters, I at least want it to be entertaining and funny. And I thought those two were really the like the two hallmarks of humor in this entire film. So John Rockman reprises his role from the original Ghostbusters as the library, the library administer. So if you remember in the first film, he's also, I also, when I saw him, I was like, he's also in Jingle All the Way, which is a weird reference.
He's one of the guys giving out a turbo man in the mall. So it's a funny one. A little, I don't know if you, you can tell me if this is in the fun facts or not, but I wanted to say, did you know that the lions in front of the library have names? Yeah, they say it in the film, don't they? Yep. Yeah, what are the, it's fortune and something else. Patience and fortitude. Oh, fortitude. That's right, yeah.
Which my only issue, and I don't know if this is a glaring issue, but- one of the lions is destroyed and then at the end of the movie it's right back there. It's right back. I mean, the same thing with the Statue of Liberty from Ghostbusters too, right? Like they just bring it back. How do they put it back? They put it back. Let's see, you're the first time Annie Potts who plays Janine Melanetz wears the Ghostbusters outfit is in this film.
However, Janine did wear one in the animated series, The Real Ghostbusters. I think hers is pink. Ghostbusters, what do you want? Yeah, so yeah, I love Janine and her pink outfit in The Real Ghostbusters from 1986. You know, it's one of those iconic looks that a lot of people are actually like, you know, people are creating their own customized Suits and proton packs, which I love and I love seeing a good Jeanine Ghostbusters, I don't even want to call it a mashup because it's actual thing.
But right. Let's move on. Let's talk about Tall dark and horny from this film Very very under baked villain if I can say. Oh my god curious thoughts underused under baked left in the oven not long enough and then served way too cold. That's right. Pun. So thousands of years ago, Garaka or the Death Chill was summoned to help an unnamed king conquer East and Central Asia. The king feared Garaka's power.
And so once he had established his kingdom, he ripped off Garaka's horns, which were basically the main source of his power, which is kind of weird, but yeah, they're the source of his power. Crippled Garaka was extremely, so. you know, he was extremely powerful with his horns, obviously without he's not. And then he kind of like, got him like caught in this like brass pokeball, you know, by, by some fire. Yeah. I choose you. Garaka. I was going to say what Articuno. Yeah, yeah, that is so yeah.
So Garaka was caught any law, you know, uh, by the fire masters who are these like, I don't know, they're like firebenders. from Avatar. Exactly that, yes. So Brass, as we talk about in the film, Brass is a device that can help capture and control evil. And so that's why you see in the little closet, the whole room is Brass. And it's silent, it's also sound deadening or whatever. And that's where Garaka remained.
Garaka is considered a class seven deity, which is amongst the strongest in Ghostbusters canon. Are there any other seven or class seven that we meet in any of the Ghostbusters films? Like is Gorsa? Gorsa is the name of the... I don't, I want to see, like, let me look it up because I want to see if Vigo, excuse me, if Vigo is a class seven.
Yeah, I will say just since I already said it a moment ago, while you're looking that up, I just felt like this, you kind of mentioned it too, is that like we get all this build up for Garaka in this film and then he shows up, they do a little, like he frees us some folks and then like no one dies in this. Like it just all felt so underwhelming. I don't know.
Maybe I was just like turned off from it already, like going into the final third act, but by the end of it, it just felt like Phoebe through the power of love and with her friends around, she was able to defeat one of the strongest deities in the Ghostbusters canon. So Gozer, Vince Clortho and Zul are class seven, it looks like, but Vigo is not because he's, you know, he's not a deity, he's just a human ghost, like a big asshole. This is a really creepy painting.
Yeah. Viggole. Yeah, so I don't have anything else really to say about this film, Aaron, unless you have something that we can get into fun facts. But I again, I just I didn't love it. I just didn't love it. I don't know. And maybe I'll watch it again and find something new to like about it. But this is just a wild departure from afterlife, which I really enjoyed. So let's go over the fun facts. I'll give my last kind of thoughts on the film. Maybe you can sway me there. Sway me at the end.
I'll do my best. But I think you have you have I'm not gonna lie, you have some very strong arguments for your reasoning. And I can see that, you know. Well, we talked about in the Godzilla Kong New Empire review that being hypercritical films like this are silly. But I think if you're going to divulge into brain candy, there has to be some fun in it.
And I just felt like this was a lot of like it honestly, this is the way I kind of felt about it in my head when I was watching it was like it felt like this was made like by committee. It felt like this was a conveyor belt Ghost Western's film to me. Like there just wasn't there was something there's something missing. And I'm having a hard time really pinpointing what that is. But it just didn't speak to me. built up so much and then they kind of just like, like CGI fest.
It was also like, there was like, okay, like a little fucking tricycle was terrifying, you know, but like, it was like the whole buildup was so long. And from the beginning it built up and then it just lets you off. Like, like after this like 10 minute, like battle, it was anticlimactic. I mean, that's really what this movie, it was anticlimactic. And it's like, you just, you didn't give us anything that fulfilled what this, like what we've gotten in previous Ghostbuster films.
So I did like the ending though. the ending where they kind of reenact the ending of the first one and everyone's kind of celebrating the team. That's all fun. And that's cool. But again, I think it all felt kind of like manipulative to like call that out after that kind of subpar third act. But anyway, let's get into some fun facts here, Aaron.
So Frozen Empire is dedicated to the late Ivan Reitman, who was the original director of the first two films and passed away on February 12th, 2022, which they think they say at the end there for Ivan, which is pretty cool. When Gary says he picked out a movie for movie night, he holds up a VHS copy of Cannibal Girls from 1973. This is the second feature film directed by Ivan Reiman who directed the first two Ghostbusters films as I just said. It's a family film. It's true family fun.
This is the first Ghostbusters film without the mention of Sigourney Weaver's character Donna Barrett. Is it Dana? Dana. Yeah, but she's actually, she is actually mentioned on it. There's a sign in front of the library that has her name on it. She's doing like a symposium. Oh, okay. I didn't see that. Okay. That's pretty cool. In the background of the new facility, the slime, slime blowers used in the Ghostbusters two film can be seen.
One of the engineers is spraying another, perhaps a test, a test to see the effects of slime. In the crowd scene at the end, there is a nod to the original Ghostbusters. This is my favorite. I said earlier, there's a random of voices. You should be thanking them. You like thanking them. Dickless. And he's like saying that to Mayor Pack, who, who in the original film, Bill Murray's character says, uh, Yes, it is true, sir. This man has no penis.
And then when investigating Nadine's flat, Lars is using a back rack sniffer. It's the same equipment that Peter Venkman is using in Dana's flat in Ghostbusters. It's very, it's very complex. Are you using that correct? I think so. Towards the end of the movie, after they beat Garaka and the big gust of wind blows on everybody's, everyone Phoebe's curly hair is sticking up, seems to be a tribute, if you will, of the way her, her grandfather Egon's hair.
always did in the original Ghostbusters movie. The scene in which Trevor attempts to catch Slimer are similar to a subplot that was filmed for Ghostbusters 2 but ended up being cut, which was them always, like, it's always been like an ongoing thing of them trying to catch Slimer. It's just, yeah. In that- He's always around, but they just don't ever catch him.
Yeah, in that deleted subplot, which also took place inside the Ghostbusters HQ and was supposed to be a running gag in that film, Louis totally tried to catch Slimer on several occasions. but failed. He also tries to bait him into a trap with food, something that Trevor does as well. Alrighty, Aaron, final thoughts on Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire. I see the issues and I, and this is not a perfect film.
I had fun with it, but there are a lot of choices they could have made differently that would have improved it. So I enjoyed it. I had a great time with it. I was smiling. I was laughing. I just, I think for me, the glaring issue mostly is just the ending battle. It's anticlimactic. Sure. Yeah. Like I said, I don't want to harp on this too much. I just want, you know, it's just not my Ghostbusters film. I don't think I like this one less than the 2016 version, honestly. Holy shit.
I think this is my least favorite. Holy shit. That hurts my heart. Yep. Did not like this even a little bit. This was like one of the very first times I've seen Paul Rudd in a film that I wasn't just completely smitten by him. And he has moments as he often does. But like in this film, I just I remember I was saying earlier about how like there are parts where someone was telling a joke and just no one laughed. It was mostly from Paul Rudd's character, from Gary, right? McKenna Grace is great.
I hope she keeps headlining this series. I want her to continue on and be kind of the lead of this franchise going forward. I'm just, I'm done with the old Ghostbusters being in these films. I love the first Ghostbusters. I notoriously don't like the second one, but I really love the first one. And I think that they had their time. And they've said, I mean, Dan Aykroyd and Bill Murray have both said they want to be done with this franchise. So just be done with it.
Like it's clear that you're just showing up. Like this film and the way it was cut, made it look like these guys were on set for like a week and a half, maybe. There were certain parts of the movie where we just like e-cut into the old Ghostbusters that I know wear for no reason. And I just, I don't know. I want something new. I know what I want from the Ghostbusters is not this. I don't want whatever this is. So that, and personally, I would love for them to wait a couple of years.
on Ghostbusters and bring it back in a couple of years after they have some definitive good ideas. So yeah, sorry, Aaron. Sorry. Sorry to hurt your heart there, but didn't love this. So wow. But I'm glad you had a good time with it. I will say that. Yep. I'm just going to give you my rating because I don't care what yours is. I mean, I want to know. I'm sorry. That's rude. I want to hear your rating. I want to hear your rating. I mean, I'm not. I was hoping to give it more.
I'm going to give it a three. No. Yeah, that's fair. Three. Let me guess. Is yours like a one? That's a 1.5 for me. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. One is really, really bad. Like that's almost irredeemable bad. There are some things that I like about this movie and it's always fun to just watch a Ghostbusters film, but yeah, just the worst version of this possible. Like this is just not my thing. Everybody. And I don't want to keep talking about it. I'm done with it. I'm over it. I'm over it.
That concludes our double feature Empire Strike Back reviews. So Aaron, let's get into my favorite segment of the show. Aaron's Arcade. It's time for Aaron's Arcade. Whoa, welcome back to Ares Arcade. Ares Arcade is sponsored by G Fuel, whether you're a casual gamer, a content creator, an everyday Joe or an esports pro, G Fuel sugar-free antioxidant, vitamin-fortified, focus-enhancing, and high-performance energy products will give you the edge you need to fuel your grind. How was that, Chris?
That was very pretty. That was a good one. Yeah. While stocking up at G, while stocking, see I fucked it up there. Oh, you messed it up now. While stocking up at gfuel.com, use our code O-B-P at checkout for 10% off your entire order. That's O-B-P at checkout. Remember, it's stacks, okay? So this week I am covering Tetris Connect. Now you may be asking, Aaron, why Tetris Connect? Tetris Connect has been out for years. That's right. Tetris itself has been out for decades.
I grew up playing Tetris, but you know what happens when you come out with a really great game and then you put it down and then somebody picks it up and then they put it down, they play it again. They realize there is so much more to it. Is that your daddy's Tetris? This is not your daddy's Tetris. And I just recently discovered that. So I am... I am a huge fan of Tetris. Little thing, little known thing about Aaron. He is an immense puzzler and he is a genius at Tetris. He's also a genius.
A genius. Je ne suis. I don't even know if it's French, but anyways. So Tetris has always been like a passion of mine. I recently repicked up Tetris Connect, which I've played on VR. Right now I'm currently playing it on my Steam Deck, which is really good there, great sound. Tetris Connect feels more like your original Tetris, but with like a beautiful kind of ambiance to it. Like there's a lot of background beauty to it. There's like some graphics there. They like, they changed the pieces.
Like everything kind of flows together. There's different modes. Like there's a zone battle mode, classic score mode, connected mode. Like all these different modes have different like, like they're like versus mode, but it's also like collaboration mode. What are my favorite is like this. There's like a mood mode.
So if you're ever in like a mood, like you want to calm down or you want to relax, or if you're like in a hype mode, you can like choose the mode and you can play a different version of this game based on the mood that you're in. And it's so much fun. And I still don't know what it's called, but I've been playing this game for, I played like a while ago and I picked it back up. Apparently there's like a button that you can, you can press like a trigger and it like creates like this almost.
Like, you know, some of these games have like a, like a, like a hyper mode or like, you know, you press the button. It's like, you, you filled up your, your power bar and it's like power. I didn't know this, but there's apparently a mode like that in this game. And I never used it before. I just thought it was like, Oh, you're doing really good. My bars at max. I'm fucking killing it. Yeah. This makes it, this like kicks it up into a whole new level. It like jumps your score up.
There's like, you know, modifier and multipliers. It's cool. I just figured out how to use that. I still don't know what it's called, but it's really fun. But yeah, if you ever like are a Tetris fan, you want to get into something that's kind of again, very beautiful ambience, the music behind the game is beautiful. It feels like almost like a like a what do you call it? Like one of those rhythmic games, but it's very beat inspired.
It's just not I'm not gonna well, yeah, like Beat Saber, like guitar here. Those are all like rhythm games. This one has that feeling, but there's no there's no impact of your pacing on it. on the actual music, but it's again, it's like the soundtrack is so gorgeous. I love it. And so I highly recommend it. Definitely pick it up if you're a fan of Tetris or puzzling games at all.
If you ever see you wanna kick back and relax and play something that's kind of like smooth and again, that cool ambiance, I highly recommend it. Again, Tetris Effect, I'm pretty sure it's on like every fucking platform that's out there. Even better if you tried in VR, it is the most. immersive, beautiful experience. It's so great. And that's all I got to say for this week of Aaron's Arcade. Let's move on to my favorite part of the show, my favorite segment, which is Chris's Corner.
It's time for Chris's Corner. Alrighty Christmas corner is sponsored by the fantasy shop since 1981 the fantasy shop has been the best place to find comic book graphic novels Board games role-playing games and card games in the greater st. Louis area Check them out at fantasy shop online comm and make sure you stop in and say hello the next time you're in town Next time you're in the loo as we call it there in st. Louis This week Aaron we're gonna talk about X-men 97 the first three episodes.
This is obviously the brand new revival of the X-men the animated series from 1992 to 1997 on Disney Plus continuing where the series ended back then, back when Saban took it over and destroyed it. This new series depicts the X-Men facing dangerous challenges following the loss of their leader, Professor X. It basically picks up right after the death of Professor X, which I thought was really interesting. So Aaron, have you watched any of X-Men 97 yet? I was gonna comment once you were finished.
Go ahead. I watched one episode. Thoughts? I'm not, I'm not, this might be a hot take, but I'm not that big of a fan. All right, that's fair. I mean, I've been on record saying that the original X-Men animated series is pretty bad, honestly, like it's got an amazing theme song and like it's obviously. Na na na. Yeah, yeah, of course. Na na na. And it was big for when we were young, but like trying going back and watching it now, it's not very good everybody, just being honest.
But this is, I like this. I like what, like this is getting a lot of hype for being like the best thing ever. And I don't know if I necessarily agree with that, but I think it is the best version of this. Like whatever X-Men the animated series can do, I think this is the best version of that.
So. Disney Plus actually revealed that the first episode to me, my X-Men had 4 million views worldwide within the first five days of its release, which makes it the second most watched first season premiere for an animated series on the service, only behind, did I say first? Second most, second most watched, only behind the first episode of Marvel's, Marvel Studios What If?
So I don't really have a ton to say because there's only, there's been four episodes total, I haven't seen the fourth episode, but the first three episodes I really liked. I think it's fun. You could show it to a young person, they probably could enjoy it as well. It is again, it's not incredible. It's just, it's good. It's just fun. There's like cool factors in it.
Like they're like the first main fight where they like land in the Sahara desert and like Scott summer Cyclops uses his, uh, fight his I beam to like, you know, stop his land. It's pretty bad ass. Like there's some pretty epic stuff, but it's also like very cheesy. Like there's that first scene, the first battle where storm comes in and she's like, you know, says something cheesy on her way in. She's very like Shakespearean kind of speak.
So I'm just like, you know, to me, like the voice acting doesn't feel natural as it. It doesn't feel as good as it did back in the when I was a kid. And maybe those are maybe those are, you know, the blinders on that I have from when I was a kid. Those filters. But I don't know, like it doesn't jive as much as it did for me when I was a kid. And it's everything, you know, it's from Gambit's not, you know, people are pissed off about him. cooking in like a midriff cutoff shirt cooking.
Is that your daddy's gambit? He's not your daddy's gambit. Apparently there's some very like heavy homosexual undertones between Morph and Wolverine. Oh fuck yeah, I didn't hear that, but I want that. I want all of that. Yeah. I need to see whatever that relationship is. Because apparently there's like a scene where Morph like comes into the shower. Oh yeah. Where Logan is taking a shower. Maybe Morph has like a crush on Wolverine perhaps? But it seems mutual. Well, I mean, that's okay, sure.
I mean, did you hear about this, that Han Solo and Lando are lovers as well? Did you hear about this? I did. It's like Jay Leno. You heard about this? No. Yeah, apparently that's so, why am I spacing his name? The guy who played Lando, Billy D. Williams was Lando. Billy D. Williams, yeah. It just seems weird to like toss these undertones into a revival of a show that we watched when we were.
knee high to a grasshopper sitting on the carpet in front of the TV munching our, our fruity pebbles on a Saturday morning. You know, it's like, what is up with us today? Why are we so, why are we so anti progression? I'm not, you are like, I'm okay with gay Wolverine. I'm cool with it. Fine. I'm fine. Listen, you know, my voice. I'm fine. All right. I love it. I love it. There's a scene where Wolverine and Gene have a moment. So I think if nothing else, he could be by, but it doesn't matter.
Ex-man 97. It's fine. I like it. It's cool. Whatever. Maybe we'll talk about it on the show later. It's only been three episodes, but that'll do it for episode 151. Everyone, it's been two hours. All right, we're done. We're done. The tank is empty, everybody. My tank's full. Next week on the show for episode 152, we are gonna be having one of the best comic book writers in the world.
Jason Aaron on the show to talk about Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Berserker, Uncle Scrooge, action comics, all the things. As many people know, Jason Aaron's been on the show once before and he also is the creator behind, I think, question mark, maybe my favorite run of all time with his Thor run, seven year run on Thor. So very good conversation, excited for everyone to check that out. Excited for everyone to eventually check out his TMNT first issue, TMNT Alpha number one.
I'm pretty sure that's... Chris Burnham on art, so it's gonna be exciting. But Aaron, that'll do it for episode 151. Please take us out of here. Nuh- Subscribe to our podcast. Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, Audible, iHeartRadio. Wherever you listen to your podcasts, that's where we are.
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And last but not least, do not forget to tip your bartenders 20% or more, or you will probably not enjoy the tip they give you. All right, everybody. Thank you so much for listening to episode 151 of the oblivion bar podcast. We will see you next week for episode 152.