It will be forty years this summer since the original “Ghostbusters” film premiered. In the present day, “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” reunites the surviving old cast with the new generation of phantom-fighters.

The movie is best when the cast are fighting ghosts when it can be fun, exciting and sometimes goofy. The screenwriters, however, have included so many subplots, including family drama with a disgruntled teen, and minor characters that the film often feels slapped together with no concern for a through-line.

The story opens with a scene from the past in 1904 New York City. Fireman are called to a room in a building whose door appears to be ice-cold. Breaking in, they discover people stopped in mid-action when they were frozen. An eerie figure with a mask holding an orb is found alive in a corner.

Cutting to the present day, we see the traditional, battered Ghostbusters vehicle racing through New York City as spectral phenomena unfold around them. The occupants include the Spengler family, transplanted from the “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” Oklahoma location, and Gary Grooberson (Paul Rudd), now the beau of Callie Spengler (Carrie Coon). Callie’s two children, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) are along for the ride. Each has their own issues.

In the process of capturing the spirit, Gary destroys City property. This prompts an angry meeting with now-Mayor Walter Peck (William Atherton). Still after the Ghostbusters since his EPA days in the first film, he is just waiting for an excuse to condemn the original Ghostbusters-nee-fire-station building.

Peck also threatens to take action against the parents for child endangerment since Phoebe has been part of their antics. As a result, Callie forbids Phoebe’s involvement in further adventures. This triggers Phoebe’s typical teen “no-one-understands-me-or-appreciates-me” phase.

Phoebe travels in the middle of the night, by herself in Manhattan (!), to a completely deserted (!!) Washington Square Park. There she sets up a chess board to play herself. Of course the black pieces start moving of their own accord. Surprise, there is a young female ghost named Melody (Emily Alyn Lind) who manifests.

She has been around for one hundred years. So she has had a lot of time to master chess. Melody is taken aback because Phoebe is not frightened of her in the least. So they chat and become friends.

In original Ghostbusters digressions, Ray (Dan Aykroyd) is operating a spiritualist-styled store. He and Podcast (Logan Kim) have a show where they are scanning people’s personal objects for the presence of spectral possession. In walks Nadeem Razmaadi (Kumail Nanjiani) to sell an orb (from the 1904 opening scene) to Ray. Ray’s psychic meter goes off the chart and breaks. Dr. Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson) has set up a special laboratory to study ghosts in all their forms. The orb is taken there and put in a protected place.

The main question now is will the orb be opened to unleash an unspeakable evil on the world. Or perhaps, given the predictability of the plot, how it is going to be unleashed. Will Phoebe be able to solve her teen issues and be reconciled to her family? Who is Nadeem and does he have a special purpose in all of this?

One of the main themes, and one which I feel detracts from the overall flow of the picture, is should gifted Phoebe be allowed to be put in danger via ghost-hunting? One tension here is that the ghosts are rarely portrayed as killing or harming humans and often seem to be more like trouble-making poltergeists. So is Phoebe in real harm in this cartoonish landscape?

The Mayor certainly seems to think so. So now we get to the role of the parents. Gary is a pseudo-parent so can only advise Callie in her mother role. Callie at different points seems oblivious to her children’s activities, unconcerned about these activities when she knows about them, and uninvolved in their activities. So she is not exactly the role model for Mother-of-the-Year. So all of this gives the lie to any scenes of sudden parental concern or reconciliation with Phoebe.

Phoebe, on the other hand, seems to just ignore her mother and do what she wants. For the most part, there seem to be no consequences for her behavior. In the end, her role modeling for teens watching the movie is that parents are dumb. Everything turns out okay if you do what you want, even if you cause a little trouble in the process.

So it is hard for me to say that this is a family-friendly film, considering that its role models are poor examples of parenting. Certainly it is true that families can enjoy the adventuresome aspects of this movie together. But the Spengler family is not one to emulate.

This picture also seems to be a prime example of the kitchen-sink method of storytelling. This is exacerbated by the need to have the surviving Ghostbusters trio incorporated into the plot. So the picture jerks from scene to scene, through the many characters’ stories, until you begin to wonder if and when the Frozen Empire part will ever happen.

On the positive side, the visual effects are very well done. Certainly they have come a long way since 1984. I particularly enjoyed a scene with one of the 2 New York Public Library’s lions coming to life. Every scene with actual ghost-busting is engaging and laced with moments of humor. There just aren’t enough of them.

The original Ghostbusters, even in their minimal appearances in the film, still have a magnetism and create a nostalgic wistfulness for their prime. By contrast the Spengler family are goofy at best and dysfunctional at worst. Focusing the movie on their stories drags the production down.

The storyline of the villain seems contrived and typical of most of filmdom’s revived ancient malevolent creatures out for revenge against the human race. This use of a main arc that bookends the picture feels slapped on amidst every other storyline.

I nonetheless came out of the film feeling positive about the experience. Critically it is a mess, but emotionally it felt like a fun time. The use of the original “Ghostbusters” song at the end thrilled the audience at the viewing I attended, as did the first appearance on screen of any original Ghostbuster.

It’s not too scary for kids. But parents should discuss appropriate family dynamics with their children after attending. I am upgrading the film by half a point since I enjoyed it.

Three out of five stars

In Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, the Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an army of ghosts that casts a death chill upon the city, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.

Cast: Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O’Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, William Atherton
Directed by: Gil Kenan
Written by: Gil Kenan & Jason Reitman
Based on the 1984 film “Ghostbusters”: An Ivan Reitman film, Written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis