It doesn’t feel good to beat up on a movie like “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire,” which is a film with the right intentions: to entertain families looking for spectacle that will please both kids and their Gen X/millennial parents. It’s at least slightly better than its ghoulish predecessor, “Ghostbusters: Afterlife,” because at least there aren’t any holograms of deceased actors in this one, which is a relief.

Still, there’s very little opportunity for critical examination of this sequel to the “lega-sequel” of the “Ghostbusters” franchise, which already has one failed reboot on its record. What else could one possibly say about “Ghostbusters” in general, and this perfectly fine, but incredibly dull installment specifically? It does exactly what it needs to do for die-hard fans and families seeking a night out at the movies. As a cultural industrial product, it’s emblematic of Hollywood’s obsession with reboots, nostalgia and IP, but that subject has already been talked to death and doesn’t bear repeating.

Those arguments aren’t worth making again, especially when “Frozen Empire” is such an uninspiring example. In its favor, it does try to do something that is both familiar and expansive. The script is by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman, the son of original “Ghostbusters” director Ivan Reitman, who passed in 2022 (the film is dedicated “For Ivan”). Though Jason Reitman helmed 2021’s “Afterlife,” Kenan (“Monster House,” “Poltergeist”) steps behind the camera here.

It may be a new generation of Ghostbusters, but the family of the late Egon Spengler find themselves back in New York, in that firehouse headquarters, following “Afterlife’s” jaunt to Oklahoma. In fact, the whole crew finds themselves in New York, not just Callie (Carrie Coon), and her kids, Trevor (Finn Wolfhard) and Phoebe (McKenna Grace), but also Callie’s boyfriend Gary (Paul Rudd), who has joined the phantom-fighting family. Even the kids’ pals Podcast (Logan Kim) and Lucky (Celeste O’Connor) are also in New York, interning with the original Ghostbusters, Ray Stanz (Dan Aykroyd) and Winston Zeddemore (Ernie Hudson). Yep, the gang’s all here, every last surviving Ghostbuster, including Peter Venkman (Bill Murray), and Annie Potts too, plus a few new characters to boot.

That’s one of the problems with the script, which is that there are far too many characters. Every arc is given short shrift, and most of the story beats are all too predictable. Phoebe’s too young for dangerous urban ghostbusting and feels out of step with her family, Gary doesn’t know how he fits in with the rest of the Spengler clan, etc., etc. These characters may all be in the same place, but every person feels disconnected, preoccupied with their individual dilemma or task. Phoebe makes friends with a ghost who died in a tenement fire; Trevor tries unsuccessfully to catch Slimer. There’s very little chemistry or connection among them, resulting in an unengaging, totally trite and lackluster story.

The one new character who brings some spark is Kumail Nanjiani, playing a burnout loser named Nadeem who pawns his grandmother’s orb at Ray’s paranormal shop. Listen up: never trust an orb. This one houses an ooky-spooky ice lord demon type named Garaka, and he’s the evil Elsa of this land, breathing ice over Manhattan and threatening to unleash every captured ghost. Only Nadeem may have the hereditary gifts to battle such a creature — alongside the brilliant and resourceful young Phoebe Spengler, of course.

The good thing about “Frozen Empire” is that it’s less of that “Easter egg hunt” type cinema that Reitman extolled “Afterlife” as, instead utilizing elements of the original “Ghostbusters” in ways that work within the story. Yet there’s the lingering sensation that it’s still just reconstituted bits and pieces weaponized for a warm reaction. The lore may be better integrated into the story than it was in “Afterlife,” but “Frozen Empire” will still never beat the allegations that it’s merely regurgitated nostalgia aimed at a kiddie crowd.

The good news is that most everyone seems to be having fun. Coon is relaxed, Rudd recites the theme song to great comedic effect, and Murray, Aykroyd, Hudson and Potts are in warm spirits. Everyone else, including Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, who shows up to deliver some folkloric backstory, just seem happy to be there. British stand-up James Acaster is a welcome sight, even if he is woefully underutilized (once again, there are simply too many people in this movie). But even this cast can’t save the rote machinations of “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” as it dutifully delivers morsels of memory. And yet, it’s likely we’ll be back here in a few years to hash out yet another “Ghostbusters” installment. Fingers crossed there will at least be more to chew on then, good or bad.

‘Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire’

2 stars (out of 4)

MPA rating: PG-13 (for supernatural action/violence, language and suggestive references)

Running time: 1:55

How to watch: In theaters Friday

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The Minnesota Department of Health is advising anglers and others to limit, or completely avoid, eating fish from a stretch of the Mississippi River between the southern Twin Cities metro area and Wabasha.

“For most people, fish are part of a nutritious, well-balanced diet, because they provide a good source of protein and are rich in essential vitamins and minerals,” said Myra Kunas, MDH assistant commissioner, in a press release. “But the Minnesota Department of Health encourages people to limit their intake of fish from certain waterbodies to avoid potential negative health impacts.”

The guidance comes as MDH found pollutants — including mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and PFAS (“forever chemicals”) — in fish tissue from that section of the river.

The guidance applies to the Lock & Dam No. 2 Pool near St. Paul Park, the No. 3 Pool near Etter in Goodhue County and the No. 4 Pool near Wabasha, “including all of the Minnesota lakes and backwaters,” the MDH press release said.

The guidance states that children under 15, people who are or may become pregnant and those who are breastfeeding or plan to do so should not eat fish from these areas.

For people who don’t plan to become pregnant and are over 15, MDH says to limit the consumption of fish in the affected area to one serving per month.

“MDH, DNR and MPCA work together to review scientific information about PFAS and other contaminants in waterbodies and fish and their potential impact on human health in order to provide Minnesotans with the information they need to make informed choices for the health and safety of their family,” the release says.

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This weekend Jews will gather for the holiday of Purim and read aloud the Book of Esther. A month later, another gathering, another book — the Passover Haggadah. These ancient texts speak to us across the centuries, a conversation at once enlightening and fitful, bringing the past into the present in ways that are soothing but also discomforting.

This year, I feel the discomfort acutely. Since Hamas launched its horrific massacre and hostage-taking on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated in a brutal, ongoing war, the texts appear both prescient and agonizing, troubling as never before.

The Book of Esther and the Haggadah were written in response to trauma, which may have been historical or may have been mythical, but ultimately the difference between historicity and mythology doesn’t matter here. Centuries of interpretation invite us to read the texts’ words and the lessons through the lens of our own experiences and sensibilities — much the same way most Americans read the U.S. Constitution and other such foundational documents. We highlight what resonates for us, and deny or downplay the parts that make us cringe, but grappling with the text is very human. And very, very Jewish.

Purim falls on March 23 and 24 this year, when Jews memorialize what is generally regarded as a story of joyful triumph of good over evil. Esther, a beautiful maiden who hides her Jewish identity, becomes a favorite of a king and bravely uses her proximity to inform him that his henchman, Haman, wants to destroy her people. Coached by her uncle Mordechai, Esther prevails and Haman is destroyed instead of the Jews. This is a rare diasporic biblical text — the events take place in Persia (outside the Holy Land) — and it features a woman as the savior of an oppressed minority, able to summon the courage to move from powerlessness to power. God is not mentioned once in the Book of Esther; it is a story driven by human agency.

It resonates today in the heartbreaking aftermath of the Oct. 7 attack. If only an Esther could have prevented the massacre and kidnapping. If only an enlightened monarch could have stopped the rape and slaughter. Haman. Hitler. Hamas. All creepily entwined.

But as we relate to the victimhood, we need to also acknowledge and relate to the revenge taken by the Jews. The ninth chapter of the Book of Esther, often read quickly as if an afterthought, details a violent episode of state-sanctioned retaliation, when Jews murdered 75,000 Persian “enemies” including women and children, and rejoiced afterward.

Not only was Haman executed, but at the request of Esther and with the acquiescence of the king, so were his 10 sons. The text says that many Persians were so fearful of the newly militarized Jews that they professed to be Jews, too.

For centuries, rabbis and scholars have tried to justify this problematic spasm of violence. Maybe the death toll wasn’t 75,000. Maybe women and children weren’t killed — even though that was explicitly permitted. Maybe all this was necessary self-defense.

I find these rationalizations unsatisfying. The ninth chapter reads to me like a warning of the extremes a formerly oppressed people will go to when given a rare opportunity to exercise political and military might. It uncomfortably echoes the Israeli assault on Gaza today, with entire families obliterated, hunger and displacement rampant, thousands of children killed and orphaned, and cities all but destroyed. Does one trauma justify another? When does self-defense bleed into revenge? How is proportionality weighed during what is today an existential crisis for Israelis and Palestinians?

There is a similarly uncomfortable section of the Passover Haggadah, read each year at the Seder table. Its placement in the second half of the Haggadah — after the matzo ball soup, brisket and macaroons have been happily consumed — means that many Jews just skip it. But those who take the text seriously must grapple with the shfokh hamatkha, a prayer that asks God to “pour out your wrath” against Israel’s enemies. Whereas the vengeance sought at Purim is committed by humans, this prayer begs for divine retribution — more abstract and yet more potent — and it appears after the part of the Passover story where the Israelite slaves have been freed.

For centuries, Jews have been bothered by the shfokh hamatkha, so much so that an alternative wording (“pour out your love”) appears in some versions of the Haggadah. But just like the ninth chapter of Esther, this text gives voice to a malevolence in the Jewish tradition that makes me wince, spotlighting an unfortunate feature of human behavior, inviting us even today to beseech God to pursue and destroy our enemies.

And yet, as my friend Rabbi Richard Hirsh tells me, “Removing nasty things doesn’t make the emotional impulses behind them go away. It just avoids them. The larger issue is, what do we do with the ugly stuff in our tradition? And not just our tradition. Is it better to read it, contextualize it, debate it? Or sidestep it and hope that nobody notices?”

Earlier in the Haggadah, there is the another disturbing account, drawn from the biblical book of Exodus, of the 10 plagues God directed onto the Egyptians as a show of force to persuade the pharaoh to free the Israelites. But as the plagues are recited, a smidgen of wine is spilled for each one.

What I was always taught, what I believe today, is that we reduce our wine to diminish our own joy because of the suffering experienced by innocent Egyptians as God’s punishment reaches a crescendo, before the pharaoh finally lets the people go.

This admonition to recognize the pain and destruction visited upon one’s enemies and to temper our own sense of vindication is instructive, important — and even comforting. It demonstrates how these foundational texts give voice to our urge for vengeance and also provide a road map for empathy. In this, they are not simply stories from the past but necessary lessons for today.

Jane Eisner is the former editor in chief of the Forward, a national Jewish news outlet, and the former director of academic affairs at Columbia Journalism School. She is at work on a biography of Carole King.

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KNIFE RIVER, Minn. — Low flows and warmer water temperatures are a big problem for brook trout in the streams of Minnesota’s North Shore of Lake Superior, threatening their future existence if they can’t find cold-water pools to thrive in.

That’s why researchers this summer will start following more than 2,500 trout in the Knife and Stewart rivers — both brook trout and migratory steelhead rainbow trout — to see where they go when times get tough.

A major new study will begin in the spring of 2024 to find the last, best places producing cold water refuges for trout in two North Shore streams. The research is a cooperative effort between the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and several conservation and trout fishing groups. (Courtesy of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources)

“We think the fish will show us where those cold-water refuges are that will be critical for trout to survive in future decades,” said Justin VanDeHey, a fisheries scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. “If we can locate where the cold water is, we can focus efforts to protect those spots where they are most needed, especially for brook trout.”

With help from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and local trout fishing and conservation groups, VanDeHey and his team will place tags inside 1,800 trout in the Knife River and another 700 in the Stewart. The tags will send signals to receivers placed along the rivers in various locations. Every time the fish swims by, it will send a signal to the receiver.

“Sort of like a grocery store checkout moving items across the scanner,” VanDeHey said.

Researchers will also place another 60 GPS transmitting tags in trout so they can follow them in real time wherever they go.

The crews will be taking water temperature readings at multiple locations along the streams to better pinpoint where those cold-water springs are located.

Officials involved in the project held an open house Tuesday for anyone who wanted to learn more or help out.

The study, funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from the Great Lakes Fish and Wildlife Restoration Act, notes that North Shore streams are especially vulnerable to trends taking hold under climate change — namely warmer temperatures, more droughts and erratic rainfall. Biologists say there will likely be a 20% to 80% reduction in brook trout in North Shore streams within 50 years due to climate change.

“Our goal is to try to keep that to the low end,” VanDeHey said.

Unlike, say, Wisconsin’s Bois Brule River, which gets a constant, cold source of water from underground springs, most of the flow in North Shore streams comes from the headwaters of the rivers, namely swamps and lakes inland from the North Shore’s steep hills. But when those swamps and lakes hit low water conditions, they send little or no water down the streams toward Lake Superior.

“That’s when those cold-water refuges become most important,” VanDeHey said.

That could happen this year, with drought conditions setting in across the Northland and virtually no snow to melt to bolster stream flow, said Nick Peterson, Minnesota DNR fisheries specialist based in Knife River.

“It’s the opposite of the extreme flows we had last spring from the record snow and heavy rain. And that’s why you try to work across several years, to capture the varied conditions the streams see, all of the extremes,” Peterson said.

A big Knife River steelhead caught in 2026. A new 2024 research project will spend several years tracking trout and water temperatures along the Knife and Stewart rivers on the North Shore to see where the best cold-water refuges are located. (Sam Cook / Duluth News Tribune)

Crews this summer will begin using backpack electro-shocking devices that stun the fish, allowing them to be scooped up so the transmitters can be inserted and the fish released back into the streams. They also hope to use the DNR’s Knife River fish trap to capture fish to insert transmitters. Scientists will then follow the fish for at least two and maybe three growing seasons.

Millions of dollars have been pumped into restoration efforts along North Shore streams, especially the Knife River, and scientists also want to know if fish are indeed benefiting from those efforts.

They also hope to learn how much overlap exists between brook, rainbow and brown trout in the same streams. Only brook trout are native to the North Shore streams. They also hope to compare how brook trout are doing in the Stewart, which has no steelhead or brown trout, and the Knife, which has all three.

Other groups involved in the trout study include the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Lake Superior Steelheaders Association, Minnesota Trout Unlimited, the Arrowhead Fly Fishers, Advocates for the Knife River Watershed, Minnesota Steelheader and the Two Harbors High School Enviro Club.

“There’s a lot of physical work that’s going to be needed putting in the arrays (receiving antennas) and making sure they stay in place,” VanDeHey said. “We are going to need a lot of help, and we think we have it lined up.”

For more information about the project, contact Peterson at nick.peterson@state.mn.us or 218-302-3272.

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