REVIEW - "Ghost Rider" (2007)

When I first heard that Mark Steven Johnson was directing another comic book superhero flick, I contemplated giving up on movies. Was “Daredevil” not painful enough? After staying as far away as possible from the man who delivered one of the worst movies I’ve ever seen I finally viewed his latest: “Ghost Rider.” Well congratulations Mark Steven Johnson! You did, in fact, make a movie better than “Daredevil”. But to show how much that says, “Ghost Rider” is dud.

Nicholas Cage takes on the role of the ironically named character Johnny Blaze. As a young man he makes a deal with the Devil to save his father in exchange for his soul-- Or more accurately, in exchange for his body to become the Ghost Rider and do the Devil’s bidding when summoned. This costs him a normal life with an obligatory love interest and diverts his career in to that of a stuntman. (His powers allow him to survive any stunt.) Meanwhile, the Devil’s son is on a mission to overthrow his father. This results in the Devil calling on Johnny to stop them and embrace the absurdity.

The first thing that makes “Ghost Rider” easier to watch than “Daredevil” is instantly obvious: Nicholas Cage. Unlike Mr. Affleck, Cage can actually act. The cast has a few other really nice talents whom include Peter Fonda, as the Devil, and Sam Elliot as a surprise character. Unfortunately, Elliot’s character does little but name the Ghost Rider’s powers and… well… “becomes” a surprise character. Other than that he’s nothing but wasted potential.The talent in this film stops there. The rest of the cast might as well have been leads for “The Covenant”. Simply put, they're just a lot of young, bad actors that play some really poor villains. With their goofy antics and poorly written lines, these bottom-list actors try to make their characters sinister; but they’re not cut out for the task, they come off as laughable.

The Ghost Rider character himself is quite interesting, yet he's missing complexity. Cage plays the role to the best of his ability, but it seems as if something is lost. The writing fails to capture just how dark this character is and I wish we got a deeper look in to how and why Johnny has such a different personality when he becomes the Ghost Rider. Is it really Johnny anymore? Has he become possessed? There was a level of depth that was missing from Johnny and I really wished the film expanded upon those figurative demons that twisted the character.

Since I’ve mentioned how wonderful the writing has been (Not!) twice now, I thought I should take a break from commenting on credentials in order to honor the film's script. The film delivers would-be one-liners that aren’t any fun (I mean really, it’s an action movie), and the dialogue between Ghost Rider and the villains provide only the most painful cringe-fests for the audience. I have to wonder why Johnson is allowed to write his own material. There are times where he makes George Lucas's work look good.

Back to what matters in films like this one: The special effects are okay, but nothing groundbreaking. You get use to Ghost Rider’s appearance, but the flaming skull isn’t all that convincing. He looks rather awkward with his skull stuck deep in the collar of his jacket. The Ghost Rider's first transformation was a disappointing blend of over drama and bad editing. This is a prime example that shows there wasn't much that special effects could do to fix this film. The rest of the CGI is spent on the villains and their powers-- I’ll leave it to your own imagination to decide how thrilling that was…

“Ghost Rider” had potential, but constantly missed out with every passing scene. The character is very enjoyable, but the writing fluctuates between decent and horrid. (Mostly horrid.) What's sad is that it didn't have to be this way. I’ve read pieces of David Goyer’s original script for “Ghost Rider;" it was an R-Rated adaptation of the character that showed far more promise for the screen. Compared to that script, Johnson’s “Ghost Rider” is nothing more than a watered down, child-friendly version of what could have been a fairly good movie. But for Mark Steven Johnson, "fairly good" is high bar to jump. There are still things to enjoy about “Ghost Rider”, but none of it makes up for what is inevitably going to be an easily forgotten flick.

*½ out of ****