Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Reviews from the Dark Side presents:
Ghost Rider:  Spirit of Vengeance

I think the best thing I can say about this movie is it's a good thing Marvel is releasing The Avengers and The Amazing Spider-Man later this year to redeem themselves.  While I thought the first Ghost Rider was entertaining on a level, this one was just bizarre.  Nicholas Cage does the best he can with his usual sleepy to manic aplomb, but he's fighting a losing battle. 

The first mistake was we didn't see enough of the Rider for my liking.  When we did see him, he was a little strange, even for him.  What I mean is when have you known Ghost Rider to twitch like he had some kind of  junky itch?  And what was with the long, seemingly endless stare into someone's eyes?  I know in the comic book that was supposed to be the "Penance Stare."  If you gazed into Ghost Rider's vacant eye sockets, the evil things you did in your life was supposed to come back to you a thousand fold and reduce you to a mass of quivering Jello.  Here Ghost Rider would look at you forever and the dude would look scared, but it's the natural scared you'd feel if a guy with a flaming skull for a head grabbed you.  Really cheesy.  Also, does anyone who followed Ghost Rider in the comics  remember the spirit being an angel that went crazy?  Yep, that's how they explained it in this movie.  Not that he was the demon Zarathos bonded to Johnny Blaze.  Guess saying he's a crazy angel gets you to like him more.  I don't know.  The whole fun of Ghost Rider was that, like the Hulk, Blaze was always trying to keep the demon at bay so he wouldn't hurt anyone.  Now I guess its ok if he comes out because he's an angel.  Oh well. Maybe that happened when Danny Ketch was Ghost Rider.  Also, what's with the inconsistency of the Rider's durability.  At one point he's disabled by a grenade and Johnny Blaze wakes up licking his wounds in a hospital.  In another scene he gets hit with a Bunker Buster missile and gets up like the unstoppable freight train he should be.

As for the plot, it's a kind of ho-hum tale of a woman making a deal with the devil, having the devil's child, and then trying to keep the child from the devil by hiding out with religious orders in Europe.  Of course, Satan wants his kid back and sends mercenaries to hunt him down.  Things go haywire, the mother and kid escape the mercenaries' clutches with an assist from a soldier from the order.  Soldier survives and finds Johnny Blaze who is doing his best hermit impression to try to stay away from people.  The spirit that he's bonded with is able to track the son of Satan and it's a race against time to see who ultimately gets to the boy, The Rider and his allies or Satan's minions.  Oh, and the reason Blaze is doing this is because the he's promised that he can be ridded of the Rider. 

Now I don't want to sound like this is all negativity.  There were some good things.  Some of the effects surrounding the Rider were pretty good.  The badass chain he uses crispy frying anyone it touches and any vehicle the Rider used turning into an unstoppable fiery engine of destruction were really good. 

So this is not the worst comic book movie I've ever seen.  Batman and Robin still holds that honor.  Actually Catwoman was pretty wretched, too, but I'll still give the honor to B&R.  But this was definitely not the best comic book movie or even middle of the road. 

The Dark Lord of the Sith says:

**stars (barely)


Ratings Legend
Zero *= Don't waste your time. Pure dreck! Dreck is too good for this! Blind me please!
1 *= Fuggedaboutit!
2 *= Average, Mediocre, Nothing Special
3 *= Good viewing. Much better than a poke in the eye.
4 *= Great. Could possibly foot the price of a non-Matinee.
5 *= Pure eye candy. Hall of Fame material here.