Moderately entertaining generic superhero flick.

Rating: 5/10 (14 February 2007)

Reviewed By Sarhan "MyWord" Rashid, Singapore
Every cinematic genre sooner of later arrives at a point of stagnation. A point where the characters, their conflicts, challenges and circumstances may vary but the plot doesn't stray too far away from a given formula.
Good examples are rom-coms. How many times have you sat through the story of an ugly duckling who transforms herself into a glamour queen so the high school stud would finally take notice of her only to realize in the penultimate scenes that her prince charming was always her nerdy best friend who saw her real beauty (Awww!). Make a few changes here and there and you have the script to another predictable and often lucrative rom-com.
No genre can be free of this curse as long as the Hollywood money machine is willing and able to fork out the big bucks for the "visions" of uninspired creative minds such as the director of "Ghost Rider" Mark Steven Johnson (MSJ).
Comic book adaptations, namely those based on superheroes, have largely stuck to a simple structure -
01. Lead protagonist gains one or more extraordinary powers. 02. Learns to use them. 03. The evil plan(s) of a sinister villain is unveiled. 04. Title character(s) sets out to stop sinister villain.
By now you should know how it ends. Just like rom-coms, or any other genre, sticking to a formula isn't always a bad thing (see "Batman Begins"). It is however a step backwards for the genre when the movie fails to set itself apart from the rest. "Ghost Rider" lavishly succeeds at that.
That isn't to say it is without any merits or that the makers didn't try.
Kudos to MSJ and his team for adapting a complicated character such as this whose convoluted back story would be enough to deter most away.
The problem lies in the entire movie feeling like one big "been there, done that" moment. Hardly anything grips you and each scene plays out just as you would imagine it to.
Fortunately there's Nicholas Cage to save the movie with his fun performance. His dual performance as both Johhny Blaze and the Ghost Rider light up (no pun intended) the screen.
The film makers however seem dead set on canceling out any positive element with a negative. Here it's Eva Mendes showing off the wonders of the push-up bra. Tantalising as her mammaries might be they can't distract from her miscast appearance as Roxanne, Johnny's love interest.
For a hero to win over an audience one needs to pit him against a formidable foe. A creation so reprehensible the viewers would want nothing more than to see his demise at the hands of their hero. In this case we're treated to Wes Bently hamming it up to laughable results as Blackheart, the son of the devil (Peter Fonda as daddy dearest Mephistopheles). A lot of detail has gone into the appearance of all the characters including the Blackheart's poorly utilised henchmen. Too bad they didn't spend as much time etching their characterisations.
Besides Nic Cage's energetic performance the only other saving grace are the fantastic effects on display. Don't be fooled by the shoddy special effects you've seen in the trailers. The Ghost Rider has been visualised perfectly. I just wish they didn't ruin his first transformation with all those quick jarring cuts.
"Ghost Rider" succeeds moderately as another generic superhero popcorn flick. Sadly it is easily forgotten by the time the end credits roll. This doesn't weigh in too well for the chances of a sequel but $30 million plus over the weekend (plus foreign box-office gross) will go a long way in proving any critic wrong.
Reviewed By Sarhan "MyWord" Rashid, Singapore