When Ghost Rider hit my desk, I was sure the movie was going to be horrible. I had my reasons – I don’t like Nicolas Cage; I have never been a fan of the Ghost Rider comic; and most importantly I had my doubts about Mark Steven Johnson after he brought us the screen version of Daredevil. Twenty minutes into the film, I realized that I was WRONG, and that Ghost Rider was going to be one hell of a ride.
Again, let me say up front I am not familiar with the Marvel Comic version of Ghost Rider, but I am sure the film probably took several liberties with the character’s history and story. Marvel Comics first introduced Ghost Rider to readers in 1972 in the pages of the Marvel Spotlight, and there have been several characters that have taken on the Rider mantle. He was created by writer-editor Roy Thomas, writer Gary Friedrich, and artist Mike Ploog (according to information on Wikipedia).
For the film, writer/director Johnson focused on the Johnny Blaze (Cage) version of the Rider, and delivers a somewhat familiar and predictable plot. A young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) works as a stunt motorcyclist with his father – who is dying of cancer. To save his father, Blaze makes a deal with Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) to exchange his soul for his father’s life. Naturally, the devil takes advantage of the deal – which forces Blaze to leave his life and his girlfriend behind.
The film then jumps to an older Blaze (now played by Cage) – who has become a sort of rock star among stunt bikers. He is known for his crazy jumps where he defies death and somehow never gets injured – even when jumping over helicopters covering the distance of a football field. During an event, Cage is reunited with his long lost love Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes), and might even see a chance for love again.
While this is going on, the demon Blackheart (Wes Bentley) makes his appearance and begins a quest to take the place of his father Mephistopheles. To accomplish his task, Blackheart gets some help from four other demons, and seeks a hidden document that would give him enough souls to overthrow his daddy.
Mephistopheles knows Blackheart’s plans and goes to Cage to collect his debt. Cage discovers that by day he is Johnny Blaze, but at night when in the presence of evil, the Rider comes out. When this happens, the movie rocks! Cage’s face catches on fire, his bike transforms into a flaming cycle, and the Spirit of Vengeance is born. Naturally, Johnson gives Cage an old mentor (played by Sam Elliott) to help him discover the truth about his other identity and how his powers work.
The movie then moves along at a somewhat predictable pace. Ghost Rider slowly works his way through the lesser demons in Blackheart’s posse, and Blackheart discovers Blaze’s love interest – which he uses to his own advantage. This forces a final showdown between Blackheart and Ghost Rider. The showdown is fun, but makes the film feel even more cliché.
Ghost Rider is a movie that requires you to turn the brain off, sit back, and simply enjoy the ride. Yes, the plot is somewhat retarded, and we have seen it before. It also doesn’t deliver the dark tone that the comic seems to present with its horror roots (again I am not overly familiar with the Marvel’s version).
However, the film manages to be entertaining from start to finish. I had my doubts about it until the first time Cage’s face caught on fire and the Rider appeared. This is a comic super-hero movie that is over the top and makes no apologies for it.
Although he seems a bit old for the part and sports a BAD hair piece, Cage is perfect as Blaze. His performance mixes in some comedy (such as eating jellybeans from a martini glass) in a story about the devil and demons. Cage is not one of my favorite actors, but I enjoyed his performance in the film. I thought the character matched Cage’s eccentric style of acting. Sadly, Mendes is a bit of a waste in the film, and doesn’t really provide much other than a woman for Blaze to save.
Fonda and Bentley are decent in their roles as the film’s bad guys. Fonda seems a perfect fit for the film given his Easy Rider roots. Bentley is rather stiff in the Blackheart role, and the character is the typical “powerful” bad guy to go up against the new superhero.
Elliot and Donal Logue (who plays Blaze's friend Mack) also provide some good side characters, but are never really developed. Elliot has a few secrets of his own that are revealed towards the end of the film, and Logue provides some more comedic elements to the script.
While my favorite parts of the film were when the Rider was on screen, it is also when the film was weakest. The CGI for the Ghost Rider was sometimes good and sometimes really BAD. When he was on the flaming bike shooting up the side of a building, the film rocked. When they do close ups of his flaming skull face and he would speak, the effects were bad.
When CGI is done right, you don’t even notice it. When it’s bad, it stands out a mile away. Ghost Rider’s effects fall somewhere in between the two – which is interesting considering the filmmakers pushed back the release date to work on the special effects.
Johnson doesn’t really provide any other reasons to praise the film. His script is predictable and has been done before (even some of the shots seemed lifted from Daredevil). The filming and score go hand in hand with the script. There is nothing really bad, but nothing really to shout about. Still, Ghost Rider does manage to be better than Daredevil – at least in my opinion.
The film is now available in a single disc version and an extended cut (two-disc special edition). The extended version of the film has 15 more minutes that didn’t make its way into the film. Additional scenes include more backstory between Blaze and his father; additional scenes between Johnny and Mephistopheles and a confrontation between the Caretaker (Elliot) and Blackheart.
Special features include the “Spirit of Vengeance: The Making of Ghost Rider” documentary; “Sin & Salvation” - a featurette on the comic book origins of Ghost Rider; a trio of Ghost Rider animatics; and film commentary with director/writer Mark Steven Johnson, VFX Supervisor Kevin Mack, and producer Gary Foster.
Ghost Rider is predictable, but it is also entertaining. If you are a diehard fan of the comic, you might not be happy with the film, but it is worth taking a chance on watching it. I had my doubts, but changed my mind the second the Rider appeared on his flaming cycle.
Ghost Rider - Extended Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition) is now available at Amazon . It is available at AmazonUK for a July 2nd release. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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