Not good

Rating: 3/10 (26 September 2007)

I'm usually very tolerant when it comes to comic-book movies. For some reason i like them even though i don't particularly like comic books. I guess it's the way that they can bend reality with an alibi to do so, as opposed to when they do it in a regular action movie. In the end though rocking action scenes, or a good solid story, is needed to make it work. There are loads of examples of movies that did work with different approaches. Like comedy (Spider-man), action (X-Men) and emotion/story (Hulk by Ang Lee). This movie however doesn't really have an approach...
I can freely admit to never having heard of the character Ghostrider before this movie. And i'm not surprised, it's not a very interesting character. And it works less well in a live-action movie. Considering the Ghostrider is basically just a special-effect with a flaming skull, there's not much acting to be done. Nicholas Cage is his usual self as the troubled man who turns into Ghostrider at night. Whether Nicholas Cage being himself is a good thing or not is up to you to decide. The rest of the performances range from dignified (Peter Fonda) to downright silly (Wes Bentley).
The real problem here is not the acting though, it's the fact that the movie has precious little to offer. It lacks direction and purpose almost completely. It's too slow and lame to be a good action-movie (although there are a few decent special-effects scenes), it lacks comedy almost completely and the story is too lame and shallow to carry the movie. I guess going for the action-angle would have been the best way, but the Ghostrider doesn't really have any interesting ways to fight. He punches people, strangles them with chains and looks deep into their eyes. The fact that the money seems to have run before they got the flaming-skull effect right doesn't help either.
The thing i was thinking when the movie was over was "Spawn" from 1997. This movie reminded me so much about Spawn that it could easily have been a sequel. Both movies are very heavy on special effects (although this one is obviously light-years better in that department, or well, ten regular years...), both have an anti-hero with connections to the devil, both seriously lack weight in the action-scenes. And in the end both of them are thoroughly dull, and while they make a lot of noise, they have precious little to offer in the way of entertainment.
I rate this 3/10.