To start off here, I'm a big fan of the Ghost Rider comic and was looking forward to the movie when it came out and by the time the movie was over I was very upset by what I seen. This movie is not only a bad comic book film but a bad movie in general. Don't get me wrong: I love a simple, escapist film; a movie that serves no purpose besides to entertain. But there is something wrong in watching a mindless action film when?it's just plain boring.
Three things make an action film successful.
1. It needs a charismatic hero; someone the audience will want to watch and cheer on. Iconic figures don't require depth (that can just be a nice addition); they just need some personality, and a little definition. Charm, swagger?without similar attributes, a hero is no one. And no one cares if he succeeds or dies.
Not to mention that a great hero does well with an enjoyable batch of supporting characters.
2. An action film requires a smart plot. A run-of-the-mill, predictable, recycled storyline is not exciting or engaging; its gimmicky and annoying. Twists and turns, surprises, and the unexpected keep an audience on their seats edge; more importantly, they keep us entertained.
3. What is the whole point of watching escapist, action fare? To see some great action!!! If an action movie lacks great set pieces, what is the point of watching? Excitement stems from high energy, unique action sequences. If you pay to see a film, you want to see something mind-blowing! Ghost Rider breaks all of those rules.
1. Nicolas Cage brings to his iconic skull faced, vigilante anti-hero a stone face and monotonous voice; to plainly let us know he just doesn't care for anything besides cashing in a check. To say Cage's performance in Ghost Rider is bad is a complete understatement. It's a travesty. Cage's Johnny Blaze has no charisma to spare, no reason to make us give a damn what he does, and no?anything.
It doesn't help that everyone else is doing just as poorly. Peter Fonda embarrasses himself as Satan, and Wes Bentley's impression of being menacing and villainous is laughable.
2. Ghost Rider isn't very high on smarts either. Why does Johnny decide in the end to remain Ghost Rider? Why doesn't Satan do anything about it besides throw a hissy-fit? How come the old ghost rider accompanies Cage to the final showdown only to turn around and leave? Why doesn't Johnny give a damn when his best friend is executed? And how come the main villain even wants what he seeks (SPOILER: It kills him for crying out loud!!!)?
3. If Ghost Rider fails miserably at one of these things more than others, it's in the action department. Low on style of any kind, and lacking any real fight scenes (does anyone throw a punch in this film?) Ghost Rider's action sequences fall lower then flat. He executes one villain just by throwing his chain on them. The second dies in seconds on a rooftop, after Ghost Rider blows some fire at him. The third villain has a two-second under-water choke attack against Blaze, before Ghost Rider lights him on fire (under-water????). Even the final showdown is maybe two minutes. Worse then badly done, even more insulting to our intelligence?its not entertaining.
As the super-hero film is now its own genre, we have seen the many successes and failures. But all of them have given us something; be it the greatness of Batman Begins and The Dark Knight being as much a piece of artwork as it is a piece of pop entertainment, or the superb craft of Spiderman 2, and even Daredevil, which alot of people didn't like at least had alot of the spirit of the comics it was based on and some entertaining action scenes. But there is nothing redeeming about Ghost Rider, a film who unfortunately is likely to spawn more Ghost Riders thanks to its box office success. It's beyond horrible; it isn't even enjoyable in a so bad it's good way. Skip it
I absolutely loved it. As the movie progressed it lost it's comic book prosaic and turned into areal life fight between good and evil with a little romance.
Awesome Movie! This is a adrenaline fast paced action/horror flick. I love how they made the fire in special effects. Thats what made this movie so great. You know some of the superhero movies ive watched in the past just shows their power and what their capable of doing, but this one is a whole lot diffrent. Of course u see johnny blaze transform into ghost rider and then he does all he can with his flaming powers and takes out the 3 demons. The two people that freaked me out and scared me half to death in this was the devil and his son. Even though peter fonda and wes bently played the darkest characters in the movie they were outstanding. I don't know about peter fonda, but i can see wes bently in any horror movie; especially playing the devil's son. Everytime i see him on the big screen he always looks dead cause he's so white; which makes him sooo freaky. Nicolas Cage definetly talks diffrent when he is ghost rider. Im glad that he didn't use is normal voice. If he did i wouldn't like this at all. Even, if it had lots of action in it. I mean this is nicholas cage's 1st real horror movie and he was very outstanding. When i heard that he was going to play ghost rider i was thinking yea right; like thats a joke, but right when i laid my eyes on this throughout and didn't take them off till the credits were over i was sooo surprised. I just couldn't believe what i just saw. Eva Mendes Ur Sooo SEXY!!!! She definetly played a great and sexy part as johnny's girlfriend roxanne. I can watch her on the big screen anytime. I regreted everytthing that i said bad about this movie. Well, i got this on dvd and im go'n to buy it on blu-ray some time. I'll share this movie with my bro when i give him my dvd, since i'll hear ghost rider through great/spectacular surround sound while im watching it on blu-ray. Im sooo excited! I Can't wait to see ghost rider kick the devils butt on Ghost Rider 2. The best superhero movie so far!
I used to own the comics, yeah that's right. I like Nicolas Cage and Sam Elliott both as actors. Good story line with nice side issues. I plan to purchase this soon.
Nicolas Cage stars as Johnny Blaze, a stunt rider who sold his soul to save his father's life and in payment must act as the devil's bounty hunter. Ghost Rider is your typical Hollywood blockbuster, It has some really impressive effects and spectacular set pieces, but it also has a simplistic plot, trite dialogue and two dimensional characters; in fact if I didn't know better I'd have assumed that Mark Stephen Johnson was a 16 year old wrestling fan who'd seen one too many Michael Bay movies. In a lot of ways it's as schizophrenic as the Ghost Rider himself; all the scenes of Cage being Cage are awful, but when he changes it actually becomes pretty good; the section when he's being chased by the police is actually damn good. But the biggest let down is in the villains; they just stand around pouting like an emo band spouting tired old cliches and the showdowns with Ghost Rider are all terrible anti-climaxes. All in all it definitely has it's moments, but Christopher Nolan's Batman films have raised the bar sky high for the superhero film, and Ghost Rider just doesn't measure up.
I tried to watch this the other night, but it was so lame that I turned it off. Nicolas Cage has made ONE good movie his entire career (Wild at Heart) and is HORRIBLE as Johnny Blaze. The modernization of the story isn't done well either (ha ha). I've never read the Ghost Rider series, but I'm pretty sure that it isn't anything like the movie. The special fx aren't really that great, the cheapness of set design shows, and Ghost Rider looks more funny than scary or cool.
Ghost Rider is an insult to Marvel series..yes,this movie will make the core of your skin wish the times Blade used to slice his enemies in a single "stroke".Camp you say?C-movie to be honest.
i enjoyed Ghost Rider. it is based on the Marvel character, stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze. Ghost Rider is so much better than any other superhero movie like superman or x-men.
one thing which is good about Ghost Rider that it stars Nicolas Cage and i think there couldn`t of been a better actor to play the role of stunt motorcyclist Johnny Blaze. but the movie was enjoyable and i here there is going to be a sequel. i hope that it is good as this one.
Even though I wasn't expecting much from Ghost Rider, it still feels like potential wasted. Maybe I was surprised to find myself getting into it, although I admit I've always been curious about the story of Marvel Comic's flame-skulled motorcycle demon. But the movie ended up being too much build-up (Ghost Rider doesn't even show up for the first 45 minutes; NOTE: I watched the Extended Cut DVD) leading to not enough payoff. It's not too much to ask that a scary-looking superhero actually gets to do some real ass kicking, but the bad guys that get thrown at him are pretty pathetic. He doesn't even get a chance to do much with his bike, other than ride it up and down a skyscraper, and even that comes off more as a showpiece rather than something that's functionally part of the action. To make up for its sparse moments of spectacle, a lot of time is spent on the hero's dilemma of figuring out what he's gotten himself into, but it's all played with a loose goofiness that implies it isn't even taking itself seriously. That seems to be the price you pay for having Nicolas Cage star in your movie -- he's always a double-edged sword, because although his goofy act can be charming, it also adds a comedic layer that might hinder the film's attempts at dramatic weight when it really needs it. Ghost Rider as a whole adopts Cage's personality, which means it's watchable but seems to be kidding around a lot. It feels like the wrong approach for a hero that could've conveyed some real menace. The supporting cast gives mixed results -- Eva Mendes's part feels token, while Wes Bentley's villain Blackheart should win an award for stupidity in conception. He's counterbalanced, at least, by Sam Elliott; I don't think there's anyone else so natural at displaying rugged coolness. I would've rather had the movie be about him.
A year later, I look back on my review of Ghost Rider, I found that I had given it 3 stars. God... what was I thinking. This movie was a servere crapfest that really didn't live up to the hype. Come to think of it, it was a bad year for Marvel, a la Spider-Man 3 and this piece of junk. Ghost Rider nearly put me to sleep when I saw it... and has made itself one of the movies that is impossible for me to ever watch entirely ever again.
BAHAHAH! What was the point? What was the story? Where they really acting? Was that real special effect? I mean everything was so dumbass bad! I Just CAN'T believe it! At least it was funny, I mean, REALLY funny and actually.. Never for the good reasons :-P
Really awesome Movie. Great storyline, wicked action. Nicolas Cage played the Ghost Rider character superbly. The end of the movie was great too. From Start to finish this movie rocked
How can you go wrong with Ghost Rider? I mean, seriously! The cast was pretty decent and the effects were good, but the story was terrible. The fact that Cage and Mendes don't have much chemistry didn't help matters either.
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