My Two Cents

Rating: 8/10 (10 March 2007)

My issues with the movie (and if someone's already covered this - my apologies) were:
1. After the Ghost Rider gets his face rearranged by a cop with a nightstick, all the Rider does in reaction is stick his jaw back in place and wave his finger like Dikembe Mutumbo (sp?)or Hulk Hogan and says "Ah, ah, ahhh". Childish. Even for a PG-13 rating. The Rider isn't supposed to be THAT forgiving.
Solution: Zarathos (the Ghost Rider) is a DEMON from HELL. The least he could've done was grabbed the officer by the collar and said or done something more effective (which we might not be able to get into here) to scare the officer into thinking "not a great idea" than just wave his finger and say that line. The officer is no longer "innocent" in Zarathos' eyes after that and deserved more in my opinion. The guy tried to take his head off. Yes it's a comic book and a fantasy but c'mon. Wish this movie was produced to be rated R.
2. Wes Bentley's face isn't weathered enough to play Blackheart. Nicholas Cage's natural look is more threatening than Wes' - not to mention Sam Elliott's (and Wes is wearing makeup to make him look more sinister...he doesn't). Unfortunately for him he's too much of a babyface to pull this mean of a character off at this point.
Solution: Cast an actor with a harder look or more of an edge.
Side Note: The "Hidden Elemental" villains overall were about as threatening as the portrayal of "The Hand" in Elektra. These guys were written almost the same way. You didn't feel anything for them. Could've been cooler and should've been darker and given the Rider more of a fight. They were killed just as quickly as you got to know them. Not a ton of screen time for them. Sometimes people say "the movie could've been (X) minutes shorter". In this case the fights should've been longer.
3. Some of the delivery from the actors seemed forced or unnecessarily over-the-top. (ie: when Nicholas Cage calls Blackheart an S.O.#, and later when Peter Fonda goes into the Johnny Blaze "you'll pay for this" part of the dialogue)
Solution: Another take and/or better directing of your actors.
That said, I still enjoyed the movie enough to recommend seeing it if you're into good popcorn movies related to comic book characters. Special FX were cool especially on the side-by-side desert ride of the 2 riders. The positives outweigh the negatives on this movie. Being a fan of the Ghost Rider character and Marvel comics growing up, I had no expectations of this being as good as the Spiderman or X-Men flicks because it doesn't have the production manpower or budget of those...and the Rider was never an A-list character for Marvel anyway - but I liked it that way. He was cool to me.
I thought Nicholas Cage was OK. Not a huge fan of his work, but this I could deal with. Eva Mendes is beautiful. Kudos to her for going thru with the self-deprecating scene between her and the waiter. Some actresses wouldn't allow their egos to do that. Sam Elliott bleeds cool.
It won't be considered by the academy for best picture (it's not trying to be) but it's fun for anyone that likes Halloween season-type images. I will be getting the DVD and wouldn't mind a sequel produced equally or better.