A day late, and seven dollars short, Mexicus Prime and Arse-bot finally decided to brave the sequel to 2007’s Ghost Rider, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, over the weekend. Suckers for any superhero movie that hits the big screen, they ventured out to their local cinema to once again watch Nicholas Cage’s head burst into flames and are here with a joint review for you!
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Directed by Neveldine/Taylor
Starring Nicholas Cage, Idris Elba, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Fergus Riordan and Johnny Whitworth
Plot: Johnny Blaze is on the run on the other side of the world trying to prevent harm coming to those around him from the demon inside of him. When a monk by the name of Moreau approaches him with a deal to rid Blaze of the vengeance-seeking demon, he once again finds himself going head to head with Devil as he tries to prevent him from taking over the body of it’s own son.
Mexicus Prime –
Our favorite heavy-metal hero from the 90’s is back in black for another full length feature! Grab a steak sandwich ‘cuz this movie delivers the cheese.
After the sour taste of the first film from 2007 just barely leaving me, I felt the need to see if they’ve improved on the character since then. To answer short and sweet, I’d say yes. Visually speaking (3D aside) I’d say it was a major improvement from the first film. From the opening fast paced fight sequence to the pounding of bad dudes later, the action was fun to watch. From the trailer, the fight sequences looked like they would be very talky and funny, but they came out very dark and vengeful – which for Marvel was a nice change of pace. Had they given this the R-rating treatment, I think it would’ve packed a harder punch, but none-the-less enjoyable.
As you may have presumed from the other Ghost Rider movie, the dialogue was very obnoxious. “CRANK-ESQ” styled jokes (toned down), boring, drawn out lines from Nicholas Cage. The “pissing fire” joke from the trailer is not half as bad as some of the one-liners in this movie though. Nobody was that impressive acting or character wise, except for “Moreau” played by Idris Elba, who I feel character and otherwise was a joy to watch on screen. He plays a kind of a rogue monk if you will who helps Johnny Blaze find the boy (possible anti-Christ) he’s supposed to save in return for giving back his soul. I liked the character’s quirks and sensibilities and found myself wondering what a different (for the better) movie this would have been had he’d been the one making a deal with the devil or merely just trying to stop the dark rebirth.
My last bit about this movie, and many comic related movies in general, is the invincibility with the heroes. The only antagonist seemed to be Johnny’s race against the clock. Villain-wise, he rocked the living hell (no pun intended) out of everyone on screen without even flinching. Way too overpowered compared to his rogues and the ending fight scene came with no rebuttal and was like a Mortal Kombat, Scorpion-styled fatality.
I would not recommend Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance to anyone, but maybe parents who want to waste a few cheap laughs with the kids on the weekend. With all the plot holes in the movie with villains, powers, and responsibility I do not see this appealing to anyone but kids and young adults alike.
Arse-bot –
Mexicus Prime pretty much summed up our reasoning for seeing Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. Aside from the fact that we see pretty much any superhero flick, we were curious to see how this stacked up to the lack-luster fist go around with this character nearly 5 years ago. Was this sequel an overall improvement? Sure. But it still ranks really low on the superhero movie list.
I appreciated the way they handled breezing over recapping Johnny Blaze’s deal with the devil and how he became the Ghost Rider. The animation used for this was pretty slick, and the whole thing was taken pretty lightly – it’s almost as if the directors knew how ridiculous this all comes across on screen so they tried to play it to their advantage. Speaking of ridiculous: Nicholas Cage. I actually enjoy Cage’s manic portrayal of a lot of his characters. In the right film I think he’s fun to watch. In this film, he keeps flipping from “calm, cool, collected” hero, to “I have a demon inside of me and it has driven bat-shit crazy”. Cage isn’t great in this film, and you never really connect with his character, but he’s tolerable enough.
The action in this film and the overall manic approach was what really separates this from its predecessor. You can definitely tell it’s from the guys responsible for the CRANK films, which is a good and bad thing. Some filming choices and effects don’t make a lot of sense, and some are down right confusing; but the straight-forward action sequences were pretty cool. The problem is though, as Mexicus Prime already mentioned, is that Ghost Rider is essentially invincible, so it just becomes a waiting game as bad guys pointlessly empty entire ammunition clips into the demon until he dispatches of them in some over-the-top way or another. There was really never any risk to Ghost Rider except for the fact that he would be too late to stop the Devil from becoming all-powerful.
All said, my expectations going into this film were low. I was just hoping that it would be better than the first one, which it was. Neveldine and Taylor do a good job at just hitting the ground running for this film and packing it with a lot of action, but with a “hero” who pretty much can’t be hurt there never seems to be a real threat. Even when the Devil bestows the “power of decay” on his main lackey, turning him into a “super villain”, you’re not really that concerned about it. Okay, so this guy can decay anything he touches, BFD, he’s going up against a demon who is already a flaming skull. A smart Devil would have said, “I have given you the power of having fire hoses for arms. Go get ‘im, buster!”
Ghost Rider is a less-popular character from the Marvel Universe, and from what I can tell from what little I’ve been exposed to him, not one of the stronger ones. With a huge lack of villains, sense of threat, and a roster of characters you just never really care about, this film amounts to little more than just waiting for the next action sequence, which they were smart to include a lot of. Idris Elba is the standout character in this film, but sadly he his missing through most of the entire second act, but when he is on screen the film improves considerably, but not enough to turn the tide on it. Saying this film is an improvement over the original isn’t saying much, so I’m guessing that this will be the last we see of Johnny Blaze for a long while – and when we do see him again, I’m guessing “reboot”. Marvel fans, and fans of superhero flicks in general, I know I’m telling you what you already know, but wait on this one until it hits Netflix.