More than good enough to see - ignore the bad reviews

Rating: 8/10 (19 February 2007)

Sometimes, I think critics and such miss the point of a comic book movie. A comic book movie is not about romance, or exploration of self or moral sermons or parodies of real life. Comic books are about imagination and they move fast while taking some things for granted to let you work out on your own. A comic book movie should be similar in my opinion. To me, Spiderman is the best comic book movie of all so I will compare to that a lot. The Dolph Lundgren Punisher (not to be confused with the more recent far superior Thomas Jane Punisher) was one of the worst.
What makes them different? In Spiderman, things happened and people just accepted them and it moved to the next frame. Some wonder but not a lot of long speeches and introspection. Oh, you can shoot webs and stick to buildings, cool. In the DL Punisher, everything had to be discussed and thought out and the motivations pointed out, etc. Leave aside that DL's acting was bad and the other factors, it made for a boring slow story that even the critics hated. Spiderman snapped because it kept moving, made it points and left some things for people to just imagine or figure out on their own. Spend several scenes on making up believe that Uncle Ben loved Peter or just have Peter say it and assume we will take it at face value. You go with making the statement and keeping the movie moving. That is what a comic book would do. They would not spend an issue trying to develop a issue or emotion usually, just say it and then let it be motivation for the real story.
Well, that is a lot of how Ghost Rider (GR) is. Critics complain because too much is just assumed. Johnny Blaze gets bad news about his father yet barely reacts other than going to work on his bike. Johnny makes a deal with the devil and his dad is miraculously healed only to have an accident. It all happens quickly and is more of a matter of fact type situation without prolonged examination about the emotions. That is what it should be! A comic book would keep moving and so should (and does) this movie. No wondering that there is a devil, that the devil wants to make deals, etc. It just is what it is and the story keeps going. Just like a comic book.
Having said all of that, I actually liked this movie. I did not plan to like it but it was a lot like the Thomas Jane Punisher. It was clear, superficial and stayed in line with most of the comic book. Sure, in the comic there is more of the tortured soul but there was just not enough time for that in the movie so they fineesed it. There was a lot of flack about how in the Spiderman movie, Spidey's web was natural whereas in the comic it is a webshooter he made which showcased his incredible science talent. That is an important point in the comics because Spidey relies on his brain as much as his brawn usually but the movie saw that the time it would take to highlight the creation of the webshooter was just not worth the trade-off so ditched it in favor of natural ones. It maintained the crucial part (webshooter) while keeping the story moving and that is what GR does in many points. I would like to have seen more development of how he struggled with the curse, with having to try to gain control of the demon aspect and how if he relies on his power too much, the demon part gains strength but that will hopefully be for a sequel to explore. With so much to cover and only 1 movie to do it, many things have to be glossed over.
The visual effects are not incredible but they are perfectly acceptable. I did not like the thought of Nicholas Cage in the movie but he did fine. There are complaints about Eva Mendes doing poor acting but she was not hired to act in this one. She is eye candy and she does that really well just as the female love interest in a comic book would do. This is not Cannes and this film is not trying for an Oscar or critical acclaim. I would not want to see such a movie anyway. I wanted to see the Ghost Rider like I remembered reading when I was growing up in the 70s. I wanted the cool motorcycle (really a chopper). I got that. I got the visual effects I wanted and the story that made me remember the comic books. I was not inspired to save the world, to protest oil drilling or to volunteer for political duty but that is NOT what a movie like this is about. This is about the wonder of a comic book and the critics seem to be unable to understand that. I have it an 8 out of 10 only because it might have had some better scenes but I feel like I got my money's worth and to me, that is the real merit of any movie.
See this movie if you liked comic books. If you want art, go see Babel or The Queen or whatever and save yourself the frustration but leave the fun mindless movies to those of us who do enjoy them.