Stalls too often to be memorable.

Rating: 3/10 (4 March 2007)

I was really looking forward to Ghost Rider, not only is the character one of the most interesting out of Marvel, but the actual idea is a lot darker than your average superhero fare. For starters Ghost Rider is actually working for the devil himself, not trying to be good for the sake of it like the X-Men or Spiderman. Ghost Rider did it to save his father, only for that to go horribly wrong for him. When I first saw the trailers for Ghost Rider I thought it looked quite good, the early scenes I saw of the Ghost Rider transformation was equally as impressive. However then the critics sunk their claws into it and refused to let go. What sounded a great movie was massacred by the critics. Now I don't always pay attention to the critics, but in this case I did. I still was looking forward to it as it looked like dumb fun. Unfortunately though Ghost Rider really almost fails to reach that status. The movie is unfortunately a series of letdown only jump started here and there by the all too brief appearances of Ghost Riders itself. What could have been a classic superhero movie becomes a shambles after a while. You see the major problem with it is that simply not a lot happens. It takes forty minutes before we see the first transformation, and after that the actual sequences with the Rider are all too rare. Instead we get a mish-mash of a storyline involving Blackheart and some nonsense to do with ruling the world. It didn't really make a lot of sense so I didn't pay too much attention to it.
So where do I begin with the faults of this movie. Well for starters I'll have to rip into the dialogue and storyline. The dialogue in a superhero movie is not something I always look out for. I like it to be average, so long as the action backs it up then I'm happy enough. Unfortunately the action is all to rare to back it up, so instead we get ridiculously cheesy dialogue and a cast that have nothing to work with. Matters aren't helped by the fact the main storyline just seems bland and unoriginal as hell (no pun intended). The opening with Johnny selling his soul to Mephistopheles (or the devil as we know him), works really well. The trouble is that that storyline soon links into the stupid one involving Blackheart wanting to create hell on earth and rule the world. Anyway his storyline is a mere excuse for the Rider to hunt down Blackheart's minions and for lots of bike sequences. The storyline doesn't even try to be original, when you compare the storyline here to something more complex in X-Men 2 or even in Hulk you realise just how pathetic the storyline here is.
The cast as well unfortunately failed to make me enjoy the movie any more. Nicholas Cage does a half decent job as Johnny Blaze, I didn't think much of him in the trailers but he does quite well here. Unfortunately the script is too weak for him to be brilliant, but had the script been better he might have done a great piece of acting here. Peter Fonda as well is inspired casting as Mephistopheles, he at least makes the dialogue bearable and whenever he comes on screen the movie seems to come back to life for a brief period of time. Alas the other two main cast members, Eva Mendes and Wes Bentley are pretty much diabolical. Eva Mendes has nothing to do and no decent dialogue to work with here. But judging by the way she performs she seems pretty terrible anyway, so not much of a loss here. But Wes Bentley is just awful. His job is basically to look evil and overact. Unfortunately all he comes across as is a spoilt teenager who wants to cause daddy as much hell as possible. His villain is ineffective that anytime he is off screen is a blessing. And that is not what a villain is supposed to be like, you're supposed to want them on screen, not to want to die whenever they walk on.
Thankfully Ghost Rider isn't all bad as this movie obviously gets a few things right. The special effects look brilliant, whenever Johnny transforms into the Rider it looks absolutely amazing. Sequences where he rides up a skyscraper on his bike also look superb. The movies action sequences also make the movie work. Unfortunately there's a certain lack of them for me to really care that much about then. But the movie also has a sense of fun that many comic book movies lack, yes I'm talking about you Spiderman! This movie knows its not going to win Oscars, it never tries to be anything more than a piece of popcorn entertainment. And as popcorn entertainment it does ultimately work, albeit in small doses. Its bound to get all the kids excited and I'm sure that a sequel is already in the works. Its fun at times so that's why I can't completely despise it, but its got too many faults for me to really like it either.
Overall Ghost Rider is one big disappointment that just redeems itself from being a bad movie by being entertaining. Unfortunately though it just scrapes average, bad storyline, bad dialogue and a lack of anything really special makes this movie forgetful. One of the weakest superhero movies to date, unfortunately in terms of quality it sits alongside movies like Elektra and Fantastic Four. The latter being more fun then both being combined however.