One hell of a ride

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2007)

As far as comic book titles too often the directors or producers try to present the characters in their own vision. This can at times be OK, I mean let's look at the X-Men trilogy, Spiderman trilogy, Hellboy and Daredevil. All were presented in the director's visions while at the same time capturing the feeling of the characters in their respective environments (e.g. Hellboy's color and cinematography were dead on as far as the comic books go, and to me remains one of the best comic to movie translations ever.) Sometimes even making steps to create a certain realism which would pass off as more true to us moviegoers! To me Ghostrider delivers as well as these other flicks.
Ghost Rider is a personal favorite in terms of comic books and novels because of the tragedy which is Johnny Blaze. And Mark Stephen Johnson manages to capture the concept and look, feel and vibe of this great Marvel Character. It even has the feel of an old 70's motorcycle flick! The story revolves around the protagonist Johnny Blaze (Cage) and his life since making a deal to save the life of his father from the ravages of cancer with Mephisto (Fonda). Sticking directly to the comic book and its storyline we move forward many years later where Johnny is now a celebrity biker/stuntman/daredevil and Mephisto comes calling on his end of the deal. He tells him if he will bring down his son Blackheart he can have his life back and their deal will be fulfilled.
Along the way we see Johnny trying to deal with the agonizing pain of losing loved ones (his father and girlfriend played by Eva Mendes.) To me this was a good part Cage played, and the acting while not the best ever was certainly not bad at all. I'll give it a 7 out of 10.