Ghost Rider

Sometimes I just sit back and wonder about Hollywood. You know, if they're going to take comic books and turn them into movies, I have not problem with that, in fact, most of the current crop of comic movies are really great, but, just because it's a popular comic doesn't mean that it'll be a great movie. There are lots of factors that need to be taken into account, most successful comic movies are directed by someone who truly loves the genre, they take the time and effort to make a movie that lives up to what they, and the fans, think the story should be. But, once in a while, one of these great properties is grabbed up by someone who just wants to make an ego piece. A movie that's not about the character or the story, but about making the actor look cool, that's the huge problem with Ghost Rider!



Now, I'll be honest with you, Ghost Rider was never one of my favorite comics. I wasn't a motor head, so the motorcycle aspect of it didn't grab me, as a kid, I wasn't a big horror fan, so the whole avenging demon thing didn't grab me right off, but, even I had to admit that a guy with a flaming skull fighting bad guys had potential and was pretty cool! The issue with the movie is that there's way too much of Nicholas Cage doing a bad Elvis impersonation and not nearly enough of the avenging demon story!

The story here is the origin of the Ghost Rider, it explains that some form of the Rider has been around for centuries, the Rider is basically a 'bounty hunter for the devil', finding people who have tainted souls and sending them to hell, and collecting any souls that are owed. Well, when young Johnny Blaze discovers that his father is dying, suddenly ol' Lucifer appears to offer a deal, his soul for his father's health. When Johnny takes the deal the inevitable swindle takes place, leaving Johnny with nothing for his deal except being in service to Satan. Well, flash forward to years later and Johnny is the current version of Evel Knievel, and, when a long lost love turns up, so does Satan calling in his marker and making the current Ghost Rider chase down his son. Yes, I know it's confusing...watching the movie doesn't really help either!

Ghost Rider is long on cgi and short on story and plot, the whole movie seems to revolve around Nick Cage doing his Elvis impression and not on the Ghost Rider avenging anything. Now, the argument can be made that any first movie in these kinds of franchise is the weakest in the story, but still it needs to be told, so maybe I'm being too hard on the movie. Still, the scenes with the Rider are pretty cool, the cgi is great and when it's the super heroes on screen it's a great movie, the problem is that it takes so long to get there and they're not on screen that long, that it gets tiresome. This reminded me a whole lot of the Hulk movie, way too much of the human characters and not nearly enough of what I paid for...super heroes!!

I'm giving Ghost Rider one and a half out of four cigars,

because I'm getting really sick and tired of these movies selling me on the cool hero and the great effects, only to have me sitting there through some moron emoting and making this comic book character more 3 dimensional....give it up and get to more of the heroes!!!! So, until next time, when we'll debate which is the worst movie ever, Daredevil or Battlefield Earth, until then remember that the best movies are bad movies.