Ghost Rider Review...
Ghost Rider didn't suck as bad as I thought it was going to.
Granted, going in I knew the character tended to be many things:
1. First, he's one note. Innocent Blood has been spilled!
2. Second his design is not mind blowing, basically he is a skeleton on fire, dressed as a biker and rode a chopper that could easily defy gravity at whim and left a line of fire behind it due to it's wheels are actually on fire.
3. His origin is the age old: Sold my soul to the devil.
4. The trailers looked really bad.
There have been three different versions of the comic book Ghost Rider. Johnny Blaze which I missed due to being tad young at the time. Daniel Ketch which is where I caught on and Ghost Rider 2099 which was pretty good, imho.
The movie should not have been PG-13. It should have rated R.
I will not bemoan the PG-13 Horror vs. R, but, we're all heard it before and beaten that to death so I shall move on.
I, though, will not ignore the use of Voice Over and a Flashback in the first five minutes of the film.
Instead, of watching a Ghost Rider travel to a town is fulled of cursed people and gets the McGuffin Contract only to screw over Mephisto and goes riding off into the sunset.
I'm sure they wanted to save the Ghost Riding Cowboy until the end, the problem is, the Ghost Riding Cowboy would have sold the movie in the first five minutes and made the rest easily believable.
The problem is Mark Steven Johnson did not make a believable movie. It is instead a movie that while enjoyable does not hold up well under the many plots and ideas it brings up.
The SFX is good. He looks like the Ghost Rider from the comics. Sure they merged Blaze and Ketch's Riders together. Sure, they introduced Captain Dolan and no sign of Lt. Badilino.
The SFX are not so good when it comes to the skull. Sure you can't move the skull in reality. But, we are talking about a Skull engulfed in Hellfire, that means reality goes out the window.
The villains. Well. Suck.
Sam Elliot. Good and needs to come back for more.
Eva Mendes needs to find shirts that fit. She was doing just fine with her Sarah Conner impersonation with the shotgun before the ammo ran out.
Nic Cage was ok. It's unfortunate the younger actor playing his character didn't have longer to stretch out a bit.
But, there is no Butch and Sundance showdown, two Ghost Riders and a lone reporter to witness them facing down incredible Demon odds and Blackheart cackling like the one dimensional villain he is.
Yeh, I wish it had been that type of movie.
Maybe the sequel?
I dunno why AICN gave it bad review, Ghost Rider didn't get the Catwoman treatment it had at least some redeeming moments.
Granted, going in I knew the character tended to be many things:
1. First, he's one note. Innocent Blood has been spilled!
2. Second his design is not mind blowing, basically he is a skeleton on fire, dressed as a biker and rode a chopper that could easily defy gravity at whim and left a line of fire behind it due to it's wheels are actually on fire.
3. His origin is the age old: Sold my soul to the devil.
4. The trailers looked really bad.
There have been three different versions of the comic book Ghost Rider. Johnny Blaze which I missed due to being tad young at the time. Daniel Ketch which is where I caught on and Ghost Rider 2099 which was pretty good, imho.
The movie should not have been PG-13. It should have rated R.
I will not bemoan the PG-13 Horror vs. R, but, we're all heard it before and beaten that to death so I shall move on.
I, though, will not ignore the use of Voice Over and a Flashback in the first five minutes of the film.
Instead, of watching a Ghost Rider travel to a town is fulled of cursed people and gets the McGuffin Contract only to screw over Mephisto and goes riding off into the sunset.
I'm sure they wanted to save the Ghost Riding Cowboy until the end, the problem is, the Ghost Riding Cowboy would have sold the movie in the first five minutes and made the rest easily believable.
The problem is Mark Steven Johnson did not make a believable movie. It is instead a movie that while enjoyable does not hold up well under the many plots and ideas it brings up.
The SFX is good. He looks like the Ghost Rider from the comics. Sure they merged Blaze and Ketch's Riders together. Sure, they introduced Captain Dolan and no sign of Lt. Badilino.
The SFX are not so good when it comes to the skull. Sure you can't move the skull in reality. But, we are talking about a Skull engulfed in Hellfire, that means reality goes out the window.
The villains. Well. Suck.
Sam Elliot. Good and needs to come back for more.
Eva Mendes needs to find shirts that fit. She was doing just fine with her Sarah Conner impersonation with the shotgun before the ammo ran out.
Nic Cage was ok. It's unfortunate the younger actor playing his character didn't have longer to stretch out a bit.
But, there is no Butch and Sundance showdown, two Ghost Riders and a lone reporter to witness them facing down incredible Demon odds and Blackheart cackling like the one dimensional villain he is.
Yeh, I wish it had been that type of movie.
Maybe the sequel?
I dunno why AICN gave it bad review, Ghost Rider didn't get the Catwoman treatment it had at least some redeeming moments.