Enjoyable comic book adaptation.

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2011)

Ghost Rider starts as the teenage daredevil motorbike stunt rider Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) discovers that his father Barton Blaze (Brett Cullen) is suffering from incurable cancer, a complete stranger named Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) offers Johnny a deal that will cure his father of cancer. In return for his father's health Mephistopheles who is in fact the devil wants Johnny's soul, Johnny agrees & signs a contract. The very next day & Johnny's father is cured but dies in a motorbike accident later that morning, devastated Johnny dumps his girlfriend Roxanne (Raquel Alessi) & goes it alone. Years later & the adult Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) is now a motorbike daredevil superstar & travels the country risking life & limb in ever increasingly dangerous stunts. Meanwhile Mephistopheles son Blackheart (Wes Bentley) wants to rule the world & goes in search of the Contract of San Venganza which contains the soul's of the hundred most evil people that ever lived which will give him the power to do so but Mephistopheles calls in on the deal he made with Jonny & turns him into the Ghost Rider, a powerful supernatural bounty hunter with flaming skull...
This American & Australian co-production was written & directed by Mark Steven Johnson who previously made the lacklustre Marvel comic book superhero film Daredevil (2003), here Johnson turns in a much more enjoyable comic book film that has quite a bit going for it. Available in both it's original theatrical version & an extended cut which adds about fifteen minutes of character development (notably Johnny Blaze's father & Sam Elliott's character) which probably fleshes things out a bit more, while I saw the theatrical cut when it was originally released many years ago I will be basing my comments on the extended version which I saw last night. While there is nothing outstanding about Ghost Rider as far as silly comic book films go I did actually quite enjoy it, there's just enough story to keep you interested & there are plenty of cool moments that are fun. Johnny Blaze's first transformation in the Ghost Rider takes nearly forty minutes but it's worth it as the Ghost Rider is a cool character, maybe a little silly looking at times but cool none the less. I loved the shots of him speeding along on his motorbike with it's front & back wheels on fire leaving a huge trail of flame in it's wake for instance. The plot is alright, the script seems to try & incorporate parts of the Ghost Rider mythology & I am sure fans will be fairly happy with the continuity here. The character's are OK, the supernatural plot about demons from hell taking over the world is standard stuff & not that original but it's a decent enough excuse to have Ghost Rider ride around looking cool. OK, so I enjoyed Ghost Rider more of a visual spectacle than as a coherent engaging film with a deep story but sometimes it's good to just sit back, relax & have a bit of fun watching a silly film such as Ghost Rider.
Although many may not agree I actually enjoyed Ghost Rider as much as any of the other recent spate of big budget comic book films such as X-Men (2000), Spider-Man (2002), Hulk (2003), Elektra (2005), Fantastic Four (2005) & Iron Man (2008) as well as numerous associated sequels. I think Ghost Rider with his exposed flaming skull looks cool & the scenes as he rides his bike are very cool, from riding on water to sitting on top of a bridge to the spectacular scene as he rides up on side of a skyscraper & down the other while finding time to stop & fight a helicopter & kill a fallen angel between! The CGI computer effects are quite good here, some of the morph effects look a bit cheap & trying to make a man with a burning skull for a head look realistic was always going to be difficult but generally there are no really bad effects here.
With a supposed budget of about $110,000,000 no expense was spared, Ghost Rider is a great looking film & has the glossy Hollywood production values you would expect. Filmed in Australia with some re-shoots in Canada. The acting is alright, Nicolas Cage is alright but he's not the greatest actor while Eva Mendes looks nice but does little else. Veterans Peter Fonda & Sam Elliott provide good support.
Ghost Rider is a comic book superhero film that I liked more than I thought I would (& remember the theatrical version being), sure it's not high art or going to change the world but as a daft superhero who has a flaming skull for a head this is maybe about as enjoyable as it could have been. There's just enough plot, there's just enough action & plenty of cool visuals to make Ghsot Rider far less painful to watch than it could have been & what I was expecting it to be. A sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012) is currently in production.