A movie that should've gone straight to DVD hell

Rating: 3/10 (28 September 2007)

I'm soooooooooo glad I didn't pay to go see this at a cinema, it's just a terrible movie in every sense.
I'm a comic book fan, but I've never really read the Ghost Rider comics, so didn't know much about the character and his story from the comics. Luckily, it doesn't matter, because I don't think the screenwriter/director does either because there is lame character development in this movie.
The first 30 minutes or so promise much, seeing a young Johnny Blaze and how he came to sell his soul to the devil is intriguing, but when it fast forwards to his adult life, and Nicholas Cage comes on screen, all sense of interest quickly drops. Cage's acting is terrible, there's no soul to it (pun intended), which is surprising considering that supposedly he is a massive Ghost Rider fan. the actual moment when he finally become Ghost Rider for the first time is also hilarious, I mean you are literally laughing at it, it's so badly acted and directed.
Eva Mendes character is pointless, it's plain to see she is only in the movie to show off her ample chest in low cut tops, and not much else. As a love interest for Johnny Blaze she's unconvincing, as a news reporter she's unconvincing, which means her time on screen is met with a host of laughs, mainly because her dialog is lame and her reactions to the demons etc is a joke.
Speaking of the demons, the antagonists in this movie, talk about them being a walkover. There are no epic battles in this movie, Ghost Rider seems able to dispatch them within 30 seconds of any fight starting, so by the time it comes to the end of the movie and the final boss, you're not anticipating a great end fight sequence, and nor do you get one, meaning the whole movie ending is an anticlimax. The last thing any movie director or producer wants is for people walking away from the end of the movie feeling unfulfilled, but that's precisely what you get here.
It's fair to say that Mark Steven Johnson was given his big break with DareDevil, which failed miserably, was given a second shot with this, and failed again. Sorry Mark, but your time is up.
All in all, another example of a cult character being commercialized and failing badly. I'm sure Ghost Rider fans who saw this must be in shock of what's happened to their beloved character. I'm not a Ghost Rider follower, but I'm shocked for them too.