Ghost Rider: Riding with the LOLWTFBBQ
After church today, my brother and I went to catch 'Ghost Rider 2' in cinemas. Yep, this movie:
This poster showcases the coolest thing about this movie: the bike.
Go ahead and judge me - I'm unapologetically unrepentant about my movie choices. There are movies you watch to feel introspective and thoughtful over, and there are movies you watch because of how terrifically awful it is. Plus, we caught the first Ghost Rider movie a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed laughing our heads off through that; why not repeat a fun experience?
So we forked out our money for a movie ticket each, figuring we'd be paying for more campy effects, hilarious lolz, 30-second-baddie-killings, Nicholas Cage trying to look emotionally compromised and the occasionally cool bike shot or two. Ghost Rider 2, obliging as it was, went and surpassed all our expectations by being even MORE hilarious, exaggerated and over-the-top that we'd expected. And that's not even counting good ol' Nick Cage. Best RM12 we'd ever wasted, seriously. ♥
Honestly, where does one even start with this movie? It's such a glorious amalgamation of god-awful animations and trite cliches, it's almost slapstick. There's almost no continuity from the first movie, and each trope pretty much announces itself the minute it appears on the screen - the directors make it clear that they want it IN YOUR FACE, goshdarnit. Baddies storming a cathedral to kidnap the son of Satan? Let's jump right in as if we're assaulting a giant funhouse, only with big guns! Want to show how badass the Ghost Rider is? Let's blast him with big, illegal rocket shooters that can take out a small state! Johnny Blaze wrestling with his inner skull hobo? He shall emo all over your screen through 3/4s of the movie, looking like he desperately needed to take that leak in the trailer!
There's no hidden twists in the plot at all. No wait, let me rephrase that - the plot is so prata-thin, you can actually predict each twist from the minute you lay eyes on the characters' faces (refer to: cliched, painfully-obvious stereotypes). Heck, one could probably look at the character list, hazard a prediction of what the plot'd be and be at least 75% correct. 'Ghost Rider 2' doesn't delve any deeper than the bare-bones structure of the plot either, so don't expect any introspective reflections on the characters' psyche, the world-at-large or philosophies here. Instead, you can look forward to enough painfully-obvious plotholes and unexplained gaps to put the Subang Jaya roads to shame. If you're thinking of watching this, I'd recommend leaving your brain, common sense, logic and deductive abilities at the door (like we did!....kinda). Just bring in a healthy sense of humour - it'll suffice, trust me.
Where some bad plots can be salvaged by the acting, the characters here are as shallow and stiff as the plot, with the majority of them getting away with their actions only through the (not quite) saving grace of the context they're in, aka 'cheap(skate) action thriller'. Blaze is pretty much a conflicted wreck who wants to get rid of the Ghost Rider within him 24/7, unless he's laughing like a mad hyena. The Devil is, well, the Devil and his son...well, the Anti Christ. His mother, Nadya - the sole nod to women here - is every inch the textbook protective-mother trope (with permanent eyeliner), and don't even get me started on Blackout. All the (unexplained) druids/mountain-dwelling priests are clearly just props to betray the good guys/act as Blackoutss compulsory 3-minutes of questionable awesome. The only remotely interesting character here is Moreau, who at least does defiance in a way Johnny Blaze can only envy and gets his emotions messed with more than anyone else in the show.
Speaking about Johnny Blaze, this is what tickled me the most: Nicholas Cage. Ah, Nick. At least you made an attempt at being Johnny Blaze in the first movie. Here, you're either playing Nicholas Cage, or Nicholas-Cage-when-drunk.
That, or Johnny Blaze idolizes Nick Cage so much, he decided to copy his hairstyle and behavorial patterns. That's some serious idolatry there.
The CG animation effects were both bad and horribly overused. It's almost as if the studio was trying to skimp on the budget by using the cheapest versions of the black-space(?) lens-flare screens and comic-frame storytelling. They might have succeeded a little better if they hadn't abused it as much as they did. As it was, quite a few crucial moments in the plot were spoiled by us going 'LOLWHAT IS THAT'. There were less Ghost-Rider moments too, and he's been basically reduced to glaring menacingly at people and snapping them into ashes with his chain. Don't get me wrong, but I missed the whole look-into-your-soul bit he used to do in the first movie. As it is, the Ghost Rider kind of comes off as a slightly daft idiot, if a pretty freaky daft idiot.
I'll just staaaaaare at you before I chain-whip you into ashes. Herp derp.
So in short? I paid to watch a campy movie with cheap thrills, exaggerated characters and a plot so thin, it's practically non-existent.
And I was totally not disappoint, hurrah! From the sudden beginning right down to the ridiculously abrupt ending, 'Ghost Rider 2' delivered on every count. That's not exactly a good thing, but hey, it's still fun, brainless entertainment.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to go and wonder how a Ghost-camel would look like as a mode of transport.
This poster showcases the coolest thing about this movie: the bike.
Go ahead and judge me - I'm unapologetically unrepentant about my movie choices. There are movies you watch to feel introspective and thoughtful over, and there are movies you watch because of how terrifically awful it is. Plus, we caught the first Ghost Rider movie a few years back and thoroughly enjoyed laughing our heads off through that; why not repeat a fun experience?
So we forked out our money for a movie ticket each, figuring we'd be paying for more campy effects, hilarious lolz, 30-second-baddie-killings, Nicholas Cage trying to look emotionally compromised and the occasionally cool bike shot or two. Ghost Rider 2, obliging as it was, went and surpassed all our expectations by being even MORE hilarious, exaggerated and over-the-top that we'd expected. And that's not even counting good ol' Nick Cage. Best RM12 we'd ever wasted, seriously. ♥
Honestly, where does one even start with this movie? It's such a glorious amalgamation of god-awful animations and trite cliches, it's almost slapstick. There's almost no continuity from the first movie, and each trope pretty much announces itself the minute it appears on the screen - the directors make it clear that they want it IN YOUR FACE, goshdarnit. Baddies storming a cathedral to kidnap the son of Satan? Let's jump right in as if we're assaulting a giant funhouse, only with big guns! Want to show how badass the Ghost Rider is? Let's blast him with big, illegal rocket shooters that can take out a small state! Johnny Blaze wrestling with his inner skull hobo? He shall emo all over your screen through 3/4s of the movie, looking like he desperately needed to take that leak in the trailer!
There's no hidden twists in the plot at all. No wait, let me rephrase that - the plot is so prata-thin, you can actually predict each twist from the minute you lay eyes on the characters' faces (refer to: cliched, painfully-obvious stereotypes). Heck, one could probably look at the character list, hazard a prediction of what the plot'd be and be at least 75% correct. 'Ghost Rider 2' doesn't delve any deeper than the bare-bones structure of the plot either, so don't expect any introspective reflections on the characters' psyche, the world-at-large or philosophies here. Instead, you can look forward to enough painfully-obvious plotholes and unexplained gaps to put the Subang Jaya roads to shame. If you're thinking of watching this, I'd recommend leaving your brain, common sense, logic and deductive abilities at the door (like we did!....kinda). Just bring in a healthy sense of humour - it'll suffice, trust me.
Where some bad plots can be salvaged by the acting, the characters here are as shallow and stiff as the plot, with the majority of them getting away with their actions only through the (not quite) saving grace of the context they're in, aka 'cheap(skate) action thriller'. Blaze is pretty much a conflicted wreck who wants to get rid of the Ghost Rider within him 24/7, unless he's laughing like a mad hyena. The Devil is, well, the Devil and his son...well, the Anti Christ. His mother, Nadya - the sole nod to women here - is every inch the textbook protective-mother trope (with permanent eyeliner), and don't even get me started on Blackout. All the (unexplained) druids/mountain-dwelling priests are clearly just props to betray the good guys/act as Blackoutss compulsory 3-minutes of questionable awesome. The only remotely interesting character here is Moreau, who at least does defiance in a way Johnny Blaze can only envy and gets his emotions messed with more than anyone else in the show.
Speaking about Johnny Blaze, this is what tickled me the most: Nicholas Cage. Ah, Nick. At least you made an attempt at being Johnny Blaze in the first movie. Here, you're either playing Nicholas Cage, or Nicholas-Cage-when-drunk.
That, or Johnny Blaze idolizes Nick Cage so much, he decided to copy his hairstyle and behavorial patterns. That's some serious idolatry there.
The CG animation effects were both bad and horribly overused. It's almost as if the studio was trying to skimp on the budget by using the cheapest versions of the black-space(?) lens-flare screens and comic-frame storytelling. They might have succeeded a little better if they hadn't abused it as much as they did. As it was, quite a few crucial moments in the plot were spoiled by us going 'LOLWHAT IS THAT'. There were less Ghost-Rider moments too, and he's been basically reduced to glaring menacingly at people and snapping them into ashes with his chain. Don't get me wrong, but I missed the whole look-into-your-soul bit he used to do in the first movie. As it is, the Ghost Rider kind of comes off as a slightly daft idiot, if a pretty freaky daft idiot.
I'll just staaaaaare at you before I chain-whip you into ashes. Herp derp.
So in short? I paid to watch a campy movie with cheap thrills, exaggerated characters and a plot so thin, it's practically non-existent.
And I was totally not disappoint, hurrah! From the sudden beginning right down to the ridiculously abrupt ending, 'Ghost Rider 2' delivered on every count. That's not exactly a good thing, but hey, it's still fun, brainless entertainment.
Now, if you'll pardon me, I need to go and wonder how a Ghost-camel would look like as a mode of transport.