Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

My latest foray to the cinema was to see the latest Ghost Rider outing. This was a little over a week ago, and I keep getting sidetracked when starting one of these here blog things. Anyways, here goes...

Firstly, as an actual comic book film the film works quite well. There's some greats shots where scenes mesh together, similar to how the panels of a comic book mesh together. It works. On the flip side of that, those going in to this without comic book blinkers on may just laugh in the face of all of the things that the film is trying to achieve. That said, surely somebody that makes the effort to go and watch this film must have the outlook of throwing logic out of the window. A film grounded in reality this is not, as is the case for a lot of the superhero flicks. This one really does embrace the comic book stylings though, similar in a way to X-Men: First Class. I'll tell you now though, it's not on the same level as First Class.

Burn Baby Burn... Disco Inferno!

For those of you who are unaware of the Ghost Rider character or the 2007 original starring Nic Cage, then here's a little history lesson for you. The Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze, played in this film and the original by Nicolas Cage. He's a charismatic, daredevil (excuse the pun) motorcycle stuntman, performing death defying tricks and stunts in front of mass audiences, carefree and risking his life for the buzz of it all. Blaze's father becomes ill, severely ill as in knock-knock-knockin' on heaven's door, and Johnny has the chance to save his father. This chance comes at a price - he has to make a deal with the Devil, literally. Satan approaches Blaze with a contract, basically his soul in order to save his father's life. Depending on which origin you read, Blaze ends up signing the contract with his blood one way or another. This essentially makes him the Devil's bitch. In the 2007 film the Devil later calls on Johnny and gives Blaze the power of the Ghost Rider in order to stop Satan's son, Wes Bentley, from overpowering daddy dearest. The whole origin of the Johnny Blaze version of Ghost Rider is recapped during the opening credits sequence for those that missed the first movie or have never picked up one of the books.

Now on to this movie. The main plot of the sequel is that a stunning lady is on the run with her young son. On the run from whom, you may ask? The Devil (dun dun dun). The Devil employs some, for lack of a better term, goons to do his dirty work and track down the woman and her boy. The Devil wishes to channel his spirit through the boy and take over the earth. Simple, usual comic book fodder then. Idris Elba pops up as someone who is protecting the boy, and he tracks down a bedraggled Johnny Blaze in order to persuade him to use the power of the Ghost Rider to help the woman and child. If the Rider helps in this task then Idris will take him to some monks and show him how to rid himself of the Ghost Rider spirit once and for all. I should probably mention at this point that Johnny Blaze has now isolated himself in the hills of 'Eastern Europe'. Yep, no specific country, it's just referenced as 'Eastern Europe'. Blaze sees the power of the Rider as his curse as he cannot control it. The Rider punishes anyone that has ever performed an evil act, so Blaze is worried that the Rider crosses lines that he doesn't want to cross. On a side note, I so wish that the Ghost Rider could be unleashed on Michael Bay. For those of you who are unaware, Michael Bay and his Anchor Bay studio are rehashing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in to another live action film. I've just read an article that he now plans to change the Turtles origins to that of an alien kind. Yep, the Turtles came from outer space. Fucking ridiculous! Surely the key's in the title... Teenage MUTANT Ninja Turtles. They're mutants, not Teenage ALIEN Ninja Fucking Turtles. Dick.

Anyways, a quick deep breath and back to Ghost Rider we go.

The plot is fine for what it is. Ghost Rider can often come with a lot of religious undertones at times, but that's to be expected given the nature of how Blaze gets given his 'gift'. It goes without saying that he decides to help rescue the woman and child, looking to put an end to the Devil's task and also removing his own curse in the process. There's a heavy hint of Terminator 2 in the film, as Blaze strikes up a relationship with the child in question much similar to that of the leather clad motorcycle enthusiast and the smart, wise-ass boy in T2. The female lead is a lot more to look at than Linda Hamilton though. That said, there is something about Linda Hamilton in T2.

Heeeeere's Johnny!

So what about the other bits and bobs? Well, the acting isn't the best. Nicolas Cage spends half of the film feeling sorry for himself and the other half completely hamming it up to a new degree of crazy. There's 2 scenes in particular that come to mind when one thinks of the Nic Cage craziness. Firstly, there's a random cut scene that shows a Blaze/Rider hybrid speeding through tunnels on his bike (as illustrated above). This is a little unnerving and the placing of it in the movie is questionable. The second instance of Nic overacting as only Nic can is when he visits the monks in order to remove the Rider curse from himself. It's hard to take seriously as it's just basically Cage rolling around on the floor, laughing (supposedly maniacally) to himself and making whoop whoop noises. The rest of the cast are fine, although Ciaran Hinds, replacing Peter Fonda as the Devil, is shockingly bad. There's a plot piece that explains that his face is supposed to look weak due to him being in human form, but the guy just has no presence. He's supposed to be playing the biggest and baddest big bad there is, the Devil. For my money Satan in South Park: The Movie is more intimidating, and that's including when he's being made into Saddam's bitch.

The pace of the film is good, progressive and generally consistent. As I've mentioned, there's some nice meshing of scenes to give a comic book vibe to the film, as well as a vast improvement on the effects of the previous film. The CGI in the first film was fine, but nothing more than fine. There were parts, as with most CGI heavy films, where the effects looked ropey to say the least. In this film that seems to be rectified, especially on the actual Rider himself. The skull looks a lot more impressive and not too blatantly created on a computer. The practical effects on Decay, Satan's main handyman, are a nice touch too. The only thing that still gripes me about the Rider is the scenes in which you see his hands and fingers. I know that he's technically a skeleton of sorts, but the thin fingers and clear bone structure just look ridiculous and I can't help but think of the waiter from Scary Movie 2.

"Take my good hand"

All in all, as a comic book movie, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is fine by me. The first film felt a bit flat and a bit too simple in the way that the Rider just plowed through everyone in his sight. There are similar moments in this, but a few of his flaws are exposed a bit more, plus the internal angst felt by Blaze is highlighted well. There's a nice tone to the scenes where he is wallowing in isolation, away from loved ones. It's just a shame that the 'crazy' scenes are too over the top to be taken seriously and Satan himself has zero screen presence, charisma or appeal. On, and as for the 3D... it literally was unnoticeable - simply no need.