Not
Rated (Horror Violence and Disturbing Images)
Running
Time: 2 Hours & 3 Minutes
Cast-
Nicolas
Cage-Johnny Blaze\Ghost Rider
Eva
Mendes-Roxanne Simpson
Wes
Bentley-Blackheart
Sam
Elliott-The Caretaker
Peter
Fonda-Mephistopheles
Donal
Logue-Mack
Brett
Cullen-Barton Blaze
Laurence
Breuls-Gressil
Daniel
Frederiksen-Wallow
Mathew
Wilkinson-Abigor
David
Roberts-Captain Dolan
Matt
Long-Young Johnny Blaze
Raquel
Alessi-Young Roxanne Simpson
Directed
by Mark Steven Johnson
 |
| Ghost Rider, hopelessly in search of a better script. |
What
was once a pipe dream for many comic book fans has now become reality as Marvel
Studios’ highly-anticipated “The Avengers” finally hits the big screen this
summer after four years in the making. Although many credit Bryan Singer’s
“X-Men” for revitalizing Hollywood’s interest in superheroes and all things
comic book, it was actually 1998’s “Blade” that finally spurred Marvel to take
an active role in developing film adaptations of their major characters as many
were mired in development hell. While Marvel has enjoyed much critical and
financial success over the past ten years, their track record is not exactly
spotless as a number of their adaptations unfortunately end up as failures and
even outright train wrecks. An example would be 2007’s “Ghost Rider,” based
upon the character of the same name created by writers Roy Thomas and Gary
Friedrich with illustrator Mike Ploog. Since his first appearance in 1972’s Marvel Spotlight #5, Ghost Rider has
remained a permanent fixture of the Marvel Universe but his popularity waned
since the cancellation of his third series in 1998. Various mini-series
continued his story but attempts to revitalize the character have proven to be
short-lived. I am actually a big fan of Ghost Rider and avidly read the comics
while growing up during the early 1990s but the stories certainly paled in
comparison to Spider-Man or the X-Men as he was largely a ‘visual’ character.
Development of a Ghost Rider film stretched as far back as 2000 but filming did
not commence until early 2005 and it was finally released in 2007 after a
series of delays from Sony/Columbia Pictures. Unfortunately, director Mark
Steven Johnson reduces what is essentially a violent character to a campy
Saturday Morning Cartoon as “Ghost Rider” is marred by a cliché-ridden script,
hamstrung dialogue, and boring action scenes. The only element deserving of
praise are the visual effects but it is ultimately not enough to salvage this
unholy mess of a film.
Long ago in the American Old West, the Devil Mephistopheles
(Peter Fonda) sends his demonic bounty hunter, the Ghost Rider, to retrieve the
contract of a thousand damned souls from the abandoned town of San Venganza.
However, the Rider refuses to turn it over to his master when he realizes the
contract has the power to bring about the End of Days and he instead goes into
hiding. Hundreds of years later, Mephistopheles appears before a young
motorcycle stuntman named Johnny Blaze and offers to cure his father’s (Brett
Cullen) cancer in exchange for his soul. Blaze inadvertently agrees when a drop
of his blood lands on the contract’s signature space due to a paper cut. The
next day, Blaze finds his father miraculously cured but he is suddenly
killed the same day while performing a dangerous stunt. Mephistopheles says
that he upheld his part of the bargain and reveals that he will come for Blaze
when he has need for him in the future. Feeling responsible for his father’s
death, Blaze leaves his girlfriend Roxanne behind and sets off on his own. He
(Nicholas Cage) grows up to be a world-famous motorcycle daredevil thanks to
his death-defying stunts which often end in disaster. Blaze reunites with
Roxanne (Eva Mendes), now a television journalist, and convinces her go on a
dinner date with him as he still has feelings for her. However, Mephistopheles’
rebellious son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) arrives on Earth to look for the
legendary contract of San Venganza in an attempt to wield unlimited power.
Blaze is subsequently transformed into the demonic Ghost Rider in order to stop
him and win back his soul.
Ghost Rider was never a particularly ‘deep’
character to begin with compared to someone like Spider-Man but Mark Steven
Johnson (who also directed 2003’s passable “Daredevil”) somehow manages to turn
him into a Saturday Morning Cartoon. The origin remains somewhat faithful to
the source material but the tone is simply all wrong. Thanks to Johnson’s
incompetence as a writer, the script is full of groan-inducing clichés and
makes little sense as you’re left scratching your head as to why Mephistopheles is unable to take
back the power of the Ghost Rider since he is the one who granted it in the first place! In the comics, Blaze was bound to
the demon Zarathos by Mephisto as an act of revenge for not being able to
obtain his soul. This internal struggle to maintain his humanity would have
made for some solid drama but instead Johnson tacks on this bounty hunter
nonsense. He also undermines the integrity
of the character by having Blaze duped into making the deal rather than giving
away his soul on his own freewill and living with the consequences of that
choice. The romance elements end up being too sappy to take seriously and are
insufficiently developed but the atrocious dialogue drags the film down to the
level of direct-to-video camp with such delightful gems like ‘Back to Hell!’ or
‘You're going down!’ It appears that all the hard work (and money) has gone
into the visual effects and they are actually impressive as Ghost Rider does look convincing with his CG skull
and fire. The transformation scene is sadly the film’s only highlight since the
action fails to drum up any level of excitement. Blackheart is accompanied by
three disposable henchmen who put up little resistance against Ghost Rider. One
of them even begins to beg for mercy after sustaining one punch to the face! What kind of demons are these?!
The
performances are lackluster and are over the place with Nicholas Cage
completely miscast as Johnny Blaze with his weird Elvis-like mannerisms and
mumbling line readings. Let me remind you that Cage won an Academy Award for
Best Actor in 1995’s “Leaving Las Vegas” but the last film to have garnered similar
praise was 2002’s “Adaptation,” which was ten
years ago! Since then, he has appeared in one terrible film after another due
to being in so much debt that he is forced to accept any project that is
offered to him. Eva Mendes spends her time pouting and baring her cleavage.
She’s about as convincing as a television journalist as Denise Richards was a nuclear
physicist in “007 The World is Not Enough.” Wes Bentley reduces one of the most
powerful villains in the Marvel Universe to a walking punch-line while Peter
Fonda appears disinterested to the point where he might as well just a wear a
sign that reads: ‘Here only for paycheck!’ Finally, Sam Elliott serves little
purpose other than to provide needless exposition.
“Ghost Rider” rode onto
Blu-Ray back in June, 2007 in an extended cut that adds nine minutes of
worthless filler material. The film may be terrible but the video and audio
quality remains demo material despite being one of the earlier releases on
Blu-Ray. Colors are vivid and texture detail is strong despite much of the film
taking place at night with rich shadows abounding in every scene. The
highlights are certainly the CG-heavy sequences as Ghost Rider has never looked
better in high definition. Audio is heavy on bass thanks to its aggressive
sound effects and music but dialogue and ambiance remain sharp amidst all the
noise. If only Johnson had applied the same amounts of effort in the story
instead of concentrating on making the film look and sound good. A healthy dose
of special features round out the package with a lengthy 82-minute look at the
making of the film as well as two audio commentaries with Mark Steven Johnson
and visual effects supervisor Kevin Mack on one and producer Gary Foster on the
other. Johnson actually goes into something of a rant against his critics but
all he does is prove them right and refuses to acknowledge the fact that his
film just isn’t very good to put it lightly.
Released on February 16, 2007,
“Ghost Rider” received largely negative reviews with 26% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Critics panned it as ‘a sour mix of morose, glum histrionics amidst jokey puns
and hammy dialogue.’ The film actually managed to deliver a sizable debut over
President’s Day weekend with $52 million and went on to gross a solid $229
million worldwide (the production budget was $110 million), something that
Sony/Columbia Pictures is looking to repeat with the sequel “Ghost Rider:
Spirit of Vengeance” with Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor at the helm. Ghost
Rider was a character that always relied on visuals than story-telling but
there was certainly enough material from the comic books to craft an
entertaining film. Unfortunately, all this potential is wasted thanks to Mark
Steven Johnson’s complete incompetence as a writer and director. While the film
may have big-budget visual effects, everything else would barely qualify as a
direct-to-video release. At least it can take solace in the fact that “Batman
& Robin” is still the worst comic
book film.
Final
Rating: 1.5 out of 5
“I'm
gonna own this curse...and I'm gonna use it against you. Whenever innocent
blood is spilt, it'll be my father's blood...and you'll find me there. A spirit
of vengeance…fighting fire with fire.”
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