Just because it's a comic book movie doesn't mean that it shouldn't be serious

Rating: 5/10 (18 February 2007)

First off I kind of enjoyed this movie being a ghost rider fan but then the more I thought about it as a movie fan I lost a lot of faith in Marvels ability to make the proper choices regarding some of their more popular brand names. This movie had a lot of potential and at points it really delivered. One of the weaker links in this film were it's inability to stay true to blackheart an mephisto's characthers. They both fealt more like a soap opera digest version of their comic book companions. The other thing that bothered me were the desert and western town sets. For such a large budget movie they looked oddly like they were filmed in a studio and not out in I don't know a spaghetti western or actual ghost town set in the middle of a desert.
My other major complaint about this movie was the acting. I don't claim to be an Eva Mendez fan although I do thoroughly enjoy Nicholas Cage. I have witnessed his acting skill in numerous films and am well aware of his potential. It appeared as though that any and every moment before he is about to redeem himself in his role as Ghost Rider his acting takes a drastic and campy turn for the worse(If he was really such a huge fan he wouldn't have taken the role as Johnny Blaze knowing he wouldn't be able to do it justice).It was almost as if they were reading off of cue cards for some of the more dramatic parts of the film. In my opinion the only one who stayed in character throughout the film was Sam Elliot but who would expect anything less from him.
I understand to a point that this movie does not take it self seriously and it is meant more as a fun and easy going cash cow for the marvel movie empire and in that it succeeds. What I don't get is why marvel won't grow a pair and make another movie for adult audiences (like the first Blade) just because a movie has am 18+ or R rating does not mean it can't become a blockbuster. Think about it a movie about a man who sells his soul to the devil and is forced to become his bounty hunter only to experience the endless torments of hell and such by any other name would be directed at an adult audience if marvel is worried about it's more impressionable viewers it always has the Fantastically disappointing Four and the good, good and alright X-men movies.
Overall i put this one behind Daredevil (thats right)and X-men but way out in front of Electra and Fantastc Four. On that note I just want to say Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (if you've seen both the movies you'll know what I am tali-king about)!