Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance
The movie begins by showing a bunch of monks being attacked by someone that is looking for something. When the guy notices that what he was looking for is escaping, he chases after them, only to be stopped by a man named Moreau (Idris Elba). After that, we meet up with Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) who has gone into hiding after the events of the first movie. Moreau eventually finds him and wants The Rider to help him. Johnny at first refuses, but Moreau informs him on what he wants. Moreau wants Johnny to rescue and protect a kid named Danny (Fergus Riordan) from two men called Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth) and Roarke (Ciaran Hinds). Moreau offers Johnny a deal. He says that if Johnny agrees to rescue and protect Danny from these men, then he will have the monks remove the Ghost Rider from him. With this news, Johnny agrees and during his first encounter with Ray, he meets a girl named Nadya (Violante Placido) who happens to be Danny's mother. Nadya at first refuses to help Johnny rescue her son, but eventually allows him to travel along to rescue him.
The special effects were vastly improved from the previous movie. From the design of the Ghost Rider himself to the different abilities shown. It just all looks a lot better. I also loved all the new abilities that was given to Ghost Rider. He can now travel a lot faster on foot and can literally suck the souls out of humans, where before he could just burn their souls. The movie also uses a comic book style art direction to give some backstory and information on characters, which was very interesting and helpful. As for the characters themselves, well let's just say that Idris Elba did great as Moreau. He was a fun character and I only wished that he got more screen time.
This movie has a ton of problems. I was a fan of the first Ghost Rider. I found it to be quite enjoyable and fun to watch over and over again. So, naturally, I held this movie to that one's standards. Sadly, it didn't come close. First off, their's way too many video effects going on here. Slowdowns and fast forwards is good every now and again for certain scenes of a movie, but it is used so much here. There's scenes that fast forward just to show people moving faster. Was the movie too long by a few seconds so they had to throw in a fast forward at random points? That's what it seems like. Also, the battles in this movie seem really similar to a video game. It seems that The Rider fights mainly minions, which they are, but it's not as satisfying as the first movie where he fought demons and had to actually figure out how to take them out. As for the battles against Carrigan and Roarke at the end, without spoiling anything, they're an embarrassment. The battle against Carrigan lasts anywhere from a minute to a minute and a half while the battle with Roarke lasts only a few seconds. Roarke is the leader here, so it should of lasted longer. Compared to the first movie where Johnny was having a really tough time fighting Blackheart to the point where he almost died fighting him, these fights are a disgrace. The humor of this film is horrible. The first film had its share of bad jokes and puns, but those where so bad they were funny. Here, the bad visual jokes and puns are so bad they're horrible. Not one joke is funny, especially not the flamethrower joke. I was shocked when I found out that it was made by the guys that did Crank. Crank was a hilarious film with great action and amazing camerawork, but they didn't do that here. Then there's Cage's overacting. I know he's supposed to act like a psycho, but he completely overdoes it here. It's just humiliating. Again, compared to the last movie where he was all mellow and didn't want to be bothered, now he's crazy as hell (no pun intended)? Sorry, but that doesn't work. Cage wasn't the only bad actor here. Fergus Riordan was just horrible. That kid just couldn't act. There's one scene where he's in a car after it flipped and he's just sitting there for a few seconds and then takes a deep, scarred breath. Those few seconds before his breath should of been cut out, but because they were left in, it emphasized his horrible acting by showing how late he was to actually act scarred. Then there's Violante Placido. Where's the emotion? Is it really that hard to add some emotion to your voice? Her kid is being kidnapped and possibly killed, and through the entire movie, her voice makes her sound like she doesn't care. Also, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PENANCE STARE?!?!?! That was my favorite power that Ghost Rider had in the first movie and it's not here at all! I wouldn't of minded if he used it once, but instead, he uses his new power where he just sucks the soul out of his enemy. Another thing missing is the Hell-cycle. The design of that thing in the first movie was awesome. It really represented what Ghost Rider was:the devil's bounty hunter. Here, he just rides a normal motorcycle that catches on fire. If I hadn't seen the first film, I wouldn't of been able to guess that he was the devil's bounty hunter. As for the script, it didn't seem like a script for a comic book super hero at all. It seemed like it barely even cared that it was a Ghost Rider script since most of the writing doesn't have anything to do with Ghost Rider. The only thing that seemed to be like a Ghost Rider movie was having the devil in it, but even then, it still doesn't. It feels like they just stole a script from another movie and threw in random Ghost Rider scenes.
So is this film worth watching? Not really. If you liked the first Ghost Rider movie, it's worth a look, but you won't come back to it. As for everyone else, stay away from this movie. It's just so bad that it's not even worth looking at the movie poster or the DVD case.
The special effects were vastly improved from the previous movie. From the design of the Ghost Rider himself to the different abilities shown. It just all looks a lot better. I also loved all the new abilities that was given to Ghost Rider. He can now travel a lot faster on foot and can literally suck the souls out of humans, where before he could just burn their souls. The movie also uses a comic book style art direction to give some backstory and information on characters, which was very interesting and helpful. As for the characters themselves, well let's just say that Idris Elba did great as Moreau. He was a fun character and I only wished that he got more screen time.
This movie has a ton of problems. I was a fan of the first Ghost Rider. I found it to be quite enjoyable and fun to watch over and over again. So, naturally, I held this movie to that one's standards. Sadly, it didn't come close. First off, their's way too many video effects going on here. Slowdowns and fast forwards is good every now and again for certain scenes of a movie, but it is used so much here. There's scenes that fast forward just to show people moving faster. Was the movie too long by a few seconds so they had to throw in a fast forward at random points? That's what it seems like. Also, the battles in this movie seem really similar to a video game. It seems that The Rider fights mainly minions, which they are, but it's not as satisfying as the first movie where he fought demons and had to actually figure out how to take them out. As for the battles against Carrigan and Roarke at the end, without spoiling anything, they're an embarrassment. The battle against Carrigan lasts anywhere from a minute to a minute and a half while the battle with Roarke lasts only a few seconds. Roarke is the leader here, so it should of lasted longer. Compared to the first movie where Johnny was having a really tough time fighting Blackheart to the point where he almost died fighting him, these fights are a disgrace. The humor of this film is horrible. The first film had its share of bad jokes and puns, but those where so bad they were funny. Here, the bad visual jokes and puns are so bad they're horrible. Not one joke is funny, especially not the flamethrower joke. I was shocked when I found out that it was made by the guys that did Crank. Crank was a hilarious film with great action and amazing camerawork, but they didn't do that here. Then there's Cage's overacting. I know he's supposed to act like a psycho, but he completely overdoes it here. It's just humiliating. Again, compared to the last movie where he was all mellow and didn't want to be bothered, now he's crazy as hell (no pun intended)? Sorry, but that doesn't work. Cage wasn't the only bad actor here. Fergus Riordan was just horrible. That kid just couldn't act. There's one scene where he's in a car after it flipped and he's just sitting there for a few seconds and then takes a deep, scarred breath. Those few seconds before his breath should of been cut out, but because they were left in, it emphasized his horrible acting by showing how late he was to actually act scarred. Then there's Violante Placido. Where's the emotion? Is it really that hard to add some emotion to your voice? Her kid is being kidnapped and possibly killed, and through the entire movie, her voice makes her sound like she doesn't care. Also, WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PENANCE STARE?!?!?! That was my favorite power that Ghost Rider had in the first movie and it's not here at all! I wouldn't of minded if he used it once, but instead, he uses his new power where he just sucks the soul out of his enemy. Another thing missing is the Hell-cycle. The design of that thing in the first movie was awesome. It really represented what Ghost Rider was:the devil's bounty hunter. Here, he just rides a normal motorcycle that catches on fire. If I hadn't seen the first film, I wouldn't of been able to guess that he was the devil's bounty hunter. As for the script, it didn't seem like a script for a comic book super hero at all. It seemed like it barely even cared that it was a Ghost Rider script since most of the writing doesn't have anything to do with Ghost Rider. The only thing that seemed to be like a Ghost Rider movie was having the devil in it, but even then, it still doesn't. It feels like they just stole a script from another movie and threw in random Ghost Rider scenes.
So is this film worth watching? Not really. If you liked the first Ghost Rider movie, it's worth a look, but you won't come back to it. As for everyone else, stay away from this movie. It's just so bad that it's not even worth looking at the movie poster or the DVD case.