He's Trying To Catch The Devil's Boy Across The Endless Skies

All right, only one more movie from 2012 to go over (well, there is another but since I have the DVD, I can review that when I have a free moment) and then the next theme week. But today, we look at the first comic book theatrical release, Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance. And as an added bonus (or punishment), I'll give my thoughts on the first movie too.

But first, a little back-story.

The concept of Ghost Rider was brought about in 1972, with the first such Rider being called Johnny Blaze. His creators were writers Gary Friedrich and Roy Thomas and artist Mike Ploog.

Johnny made a deal with the demon Mephisto (often considered Marvel's version of Satan) to save his step-father from cancer. Naturally, being a demon and all, he kills the man the day after of something non-cancer related. Mephisto tries to claim Johnny's soul but thanks to a counter-spell performed by Johnny's girlfriend Roxanne, he is denied a new soul and instead, a demon becomes bound to Johnny instead, transforming him into the Ghost Rider.

The Ghost Rider boasts powers and abilities like flame projection, accelerated healing, superhuman strength and the Penance Stare, which in my opinion is the most awesome super power ever (although I should mention it was Johnny's successor, Danny Ketch, who gained the Penance Stare and when Johnny returned, he too would be able to use it. It's a long story). All the Rider has to do is lock eyes with their victim and it makes them experience all the pain they have ever inflicted on anyone else. I like to think of it as weaponized karma.

But now, onto the films proper.

The first Ghost Rider film pretty much uses the origin story I described as the plot, minus Roxanne actually being involved in the deal. However, there's a little more to it. Mephisto (Peter Fonda, though the character is named Mephistopheles for the film) wants Johnny (Nicolas Cage) to find his son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley) and stop him from locating a long-lost contract for a thousand souls from a town called San Venganza, with which Blackheart can overthrow his father. In return, Johnny will get his soul back. All the while, he's reconnecting with Roxanne (Eva Mendes) after not having seen each other for many years.

Despite the near-universal scorn for it, I actually like this movie. I mean, it's not the greatest comic book movie but it's not Tank Girl, Spawn or Elektra (thank God). That being said, there is one huge flaw with the movie, which I'll get to later.

Nicolas Cage is pretty hit and miss with me, as he would be for most people. I've noticed that if you stick him in a more “arthouse” style film, he knocks it out of the ballpark. Leaving Las Vegas, Adaptation, Matchstick Men, all fantastic and highly recommended. Despite his tendency to ham it up, he's dead serious in those films and for those alone, I believe he is capable of great things.

On the inverse, put him in an any other genre, and you better cross your fingers. Now, I will say that Face/Off and Kick-Ass also come highly recommended and for anyone who was soured by this movie, consider Kick-Ass his redemption in the comic book film community. But then you get stuff like Season Of The Witch and Knowing, and you're not even sure he's trying. Hell, he gives more effort in The Wicker Man, except he seems to be going for a comedy feel (I haven't seen the film but I've seen clips and one hilarious trailer that actually edited it to make it look like a comedy film. But then, how can you take someone who punches a woman while wearing a bear suit seriously?)

What I respect about the man, however, is that he loves comic books. He views them as modern day mythology. Hell, he named his kid Kal-El! Even I wouldn't do that, though I don't plan on having kids anyway, but that's not the point. And I personally think he was pretty good in this movie. Not hamming it up, but not being deathly serious. I like the quieter scenes, when he's just chilling after a show, enjoying the simple pleasures in life. I actually wouldn't have minded seeing more of that.

His love interest, Roxanne... she's just OK. I mean, Eva's great but the character doesn't do all that much. She's almost a living prop, just there so that Johnny's got a subplot going on with trying to get his life together. Oh and the interview between the two for her news program is, well, cringe-worthy. Johnny's like twenty seconds away from guffawing, shuffling his feet and saying “I saw you on the TV” in a goofy voice.

But they're still better than our leading villain, Blackheart. Ugh. Out of all the portrayals of a supervillain in a movie, his is the nadir of crap. This is basically his entire schtick: “Waah waah, devil daddy doesn't love me, think I'll rebel and just act like a little bitch”. In fact, that should be his name. Hence, I shall call him “Gothy McEmobitch”.

His sidekicks aren't that much better. I've seen the movie a few times after my initial cinema trip, and I still couldn't tell you their names without going to Wikipedia! And if you really, really want to know, their names are Gressil, Abigor and Wallow. I prefer to give them a group name, I call them “the System Of A Down cover band”, and that's being generous at best. The only good bit involving them is the pun Ghost Rider uses to defeat one of them, who uses wind powers: “Time to clear the air!” (That may not be the exact quote but you get the gist of it).

The only other characters worth noting are Carter Slade (Sam Elliot) who sounds kind of bored whenever he narrates. OK, it was cool seeing him transform into a Ghost Rider (and that is so not a spoiler, you can see that coming from the start, the movie makes no real attempt to hide it) but considering how he fades away before the big fight (again, not a spoiler. You know he would have died if he had entered the fray anyway), it seems like one big joke on the audience.

On the other hand, Peter Fonda does what he can with his limited screen time and damned if he's not awesome. Even though he could ham it up and walk away dignity intact, he doesn't. Gotta respect that.

Parts of the film were actually filmed down here in Melbourne and while that may seem cool, I actually recognized the parts of Melbourne that made the final cut and it actually took me out of the film. Weird.

One Australian connection I give absolute praise to, however, is the cover of Ghost Riders In The Sky by Spiderbait. One of the best covers I have ever heard, I never get sick of hearing it. I suggest you all go YouTube it right now. Go on. I'll be right here, probably listening to it myself.

In spite of the craptacular villain, I was entertained by this film, so I give it 3.5/5. One more thing: the effects for the Penance Stare were frickin' sweet, but very underused.

So, how does the sequel fare? Let's find out.

Cage is the only returning actor in this outing, which finds Johnny bumming around Europe trying to rid himself of the curse of the Ghost Rider (the curse he could have gotten rid of at the end of the first film...) and winds up having to protect a mother (Violante Placido) and her son (Fergus Riordan) from the Devil (Ciaran Hinds and I am not kidding, it is THE actual Devil this time, though in a human shape), with the help of a priest named Moreau (Idris Elba).

I had the weirdest experience watching this film on the big screen. I kept thinking “Why does this feel like it should have been straight-to-DVD?” I mean, it really had that feel to it. Small amount of known actors, a sequel to a film that was critically ravaged (a sequel five years later, no less), short running time (barely an hour and a half!), it really seemed better suited to skipping the big screen. It can't be because Marvel needed to retain its stranglehold on the comic book adaptation market, not since it has the rebooted Spider-Man and a major player in The Avengers (which will probably be the greatest threat to The Dark Knight Rises) to bring in the big bucks.

I mean, as you've probably come to expect, I didn't hate it but it was just bizarre. It didn't help that I was nodding off in places in the first half (though that might be due to the fact that I was tired from work but that's never happened to me before at a cinema).

I think the biggest problem is that no one's even trying. Nic's not as enthused about this one as he was the previous installments, the directors (two, count'em, two) resort to cheap tricks and lame jokes (did we need to see the image of Ghost Rider “pissing” fire? TWICE?!) and I don't understand why they changed the character from Mephisto to the actual Devil. I mean, if you were trying to downplay references from the first movie, having Cage reprise his role doesn't help matters.

There is another villain in this movie, actually lifted from the comics, Blackout (Johnny Whitworth). Though, I should point out that he doesn't start out as Blackout and has to get his decaying and darkness powers from the Devil himself. Before then, he's an arsehole who is unmemorable. As Blackout, he actually improves the movie.

That's the other bizarre thing. We have a role reversal here. In the first movie, the demon/Devil was the cool one, with the other leading villain being utter garbage. Here, the leading villain is actually kind of cool, whereas the Devil is poorly done. This movie is all kinds of messed up, for all the wrong reasons.

Oh and one little thing before I rate it: when you have Anthony Head in your movie, why, in the name of all that is holy, do you give him a few measly lines before you kill him off?! The man deserves better than that! He's Rupert goddamn Giles, for crying out loud! Ugh, kids today and their lack of respect for brilliant actors. Bet they haven't seen Little Britain either.

Weighing everything up, I give it 3/5. With all its problems, there are a few decent effects and action sequences, and Blackout's a HUGE improvement over Blackheart (but then, a flaming garbage bin is a huge improvement over Blackheart). Though, I am pissed by the lack of awesome Penance Stare action.