Ghost Rider (2007)

Marvel spawns a movie based on one of its horror antiheroes, Ghost Rider. It is a tale of a daredevil biker who sells his soul to save his dying father, only to be cheated by a devil and lose his father. He is summoned when Blackheart emerges into earth to find the Contract of San Vanganza and unleash hell on earth.

 

So what has this movie done to attract a considerable amount of hype. First there is its prologue: the caretaker opens up with his narration, telling us a story of the Ghost Rider. One thing that starts to baffle me is that this Ghost Rider outran the devil (not Satan) because he knew the Contract is far too powerful to fall into his hands. Yet the devil does nothing about it: he does not drain the curse, nor does he kill him.

 

Now Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) is the protagonist in the movie. I don't know about the bio of his comic book counterpart, but I don't think Cage was any closer to his character than was Wesley Snipe to Blade. In my opinion, he was dull and uninspiring, even if he turned into the monster at night. He definitely made a right mess of himself in that scene with Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes): he is live on camera and deliberately defaults answering questions to him. I would not even expect him to be any more intimidating than his enemy Blackheart.
By the way, this movie blatantly rips off Blade (1998), especially in the ending. Watch out for any similarity between the two movies. 
 

Speaking of Blackheart, he looks more like Elvis Presley. One would also wonder if the actor playing him was a correct choice. However, since he is not human because of the greyish-blue tone and trace of the demonic animation, I would prefer not to say much about the actor.

 

The first time I watched his motorcycle transform into his blazing machine, I thought it was wicked. But taking a closer look I was cringing because there were appendages that look as though they were stroking the body. That part was very creepy and caused my skin to crawl. But at least the fire created by enhanced CGI added more features to the vehicle from hell.

 

There are moments in this movie which I think are so laughable that they would not define the character who has lost his father to a deal with the devil, Mephistopheles. A man such as himself would be too depressed or anguished to be watching ridiculous monkey shows on TV on one side, and be reading grossly disturbing books on the other. I guess Matt (Donal Logue) was right to ask what going on through Johnny's mind.

 

The Caretaker--his real name revealed to be Carter Slade--he is old and uncharismatic. He knows a lot about being a Ghost Rider and is the one hiding the Contract. One bad thing about this guy is his word of caution to Blaze: "Go with God." Light and darkness never go together, and that advice is hollow.
He is the original Ghost Rider from the prologue, yet he does not in anyway aid Blaze in confronting Blackheart. How can that curse of his just run out after all those years?! It's not like some fuel from a gas station which is finite. It might have made more sense for Mephistopheles to just drain the curse from him rather than let it run out for however-long it takes. That following score sums it up as sad and disheartening.

Perhaps the biggest hiccup in this movie is the time it takes to see Blaze morph into his alter ego. It does get heavily boring watching one moment unfold after another; with Johnny and Roxanne's weak love triangle, his hurdles as a celebrity daredevil, and his dad's battle with cancer.

This movie is hard to watch with Cage on the screen. His delivery is wooden; his acting is pathetic; not to mention his characterization of the protagonist. What has happened since Blade, X-Men and Spider-Man? I am pretty sure they were successful because they adhered to the comics and staged a decent cast. So what about this? Well the only good thing about this film is the CGI work. I think this is the main reason for its success at the box office. The amount of time, money and work put into, most particularly, the fire around the Rider and his bike, can never be overlooked; not to mention his escapade typical with every antihero in any comic book universe. But a mediocre script and flimsy direction can lead this movie into a brick wall.