Ghost Rider A Halfway Decent Comic Book Movie

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 2009)

Ghost Rider is a halfway decent comic book movie brought to the big screen but it's not memorable like Spider-man 2, X-Men United, Batman Begins, or The Dark Knight. The movie isn't all that bad. Ghost Rider is no Elektra, Punisher War Zone, Daredevil, or Spider man 3 but it's not that much better either. Director Mark Steven Johnson does an okay job of bringing Ghost Rider to big screen but the bad outweighs the good in this one. I'll get back to that later. Nicolas Cage whose recent films (The Wicker Man and Bankok Dangerous to name a few) haven't been that great but fortunately in this one he's all right as Johnny Blaze who becomes a hell blazing vigilante with a skull thats covered in flames for a face. Eva Mendes is decent as Johnny's love Roxanne Simpson but she doesn't really get much to do. The rest of the cast are admirable in their roles including Wes Bentley as the devil's son Blackheart, Sam Elliot as a mysterious cemetery caretaker, and Peter Fonda as Satan himself. Donal Logue makes a brief appearance as Johnny's friend Mack and he does a good job with the small part but he like many other characters in the film doesn't have much to do and lacks screen time. Some other flaws with this movie was that the dialogue wasn't the greatest at times, the CGI to create Ghost Rider and his bike looks cool but nothing we haven't seen before, the action/fight sequences are good but none of them stand out and the lack of a central villain. There are about three other villains for Ghost Rider to face besides Bentley and Fonda. The special effects used to create their powers were impressive but none of them are in it long enough to leave an impression. If you're a Nicolas Cage fan you might like this one better than I did because Ghost Rider isn't one of his best movies. No offense to Cage who is a good actor but Ghost Rider overall is a movie that could've been much better than it was.