Hardly a "Ghost" of a chance for quality

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2007)

So, let's be honest right up front: Ghost Rider has a somewhat silly premise. Sort of a modern-day homage to Faust, it involves motorcycle stunt rider extraordinaire Johnny Blaze selling his soul to the devil to save his father from cancer, only to have the devil pull a fast one on him (that sneaky devil). The deal Johnny agreed to transforms him into Ghost Rider, the devil's bounty-hunter, who goes two-wheelin' on a motorcycle with flaming tires, complete with flaming skull of his own for a head, whenever he is in the "presence of evil". So, yeah, whatever you want to say about men crawling up buildings or people who can heal themselves, Ghost Rider has it beat. So, it's perhaps fitting, although unfortunately so, that Ghost Rider the movie is a somewhat silly affair as well. Hardly bottom-of the-barrel film-making, Ghost Rider can't help but come up a little short of the mark that would allow it to be classified as good.
As with any "origin story" comic book film, there is some backstory to Ghost Rider, involving a host of contracts the devil made in a town in the old west named San Venganza. The devil's son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley) has decided to take a vacation from Hell to obtain this contract and use it to conquer Hell, or Earth, or something (the film is a little vague on this point), because this particular contract made these souls apparently a special kind of evil. Well, the devil, known by his traveling name of Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda), isn't quite ready to let sonny boy dethrone him, so he calls in Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) aka Ghost Rider to stop Blackheart and his minions. Johnny is a somewhat reluctant hellish bounty hunter, however, as he is trying to reconnect with former teenage love Roxanne (Eva Mendes) who is now a television news reporter, and find a way to get a second chance after his mistake of taking the devil's deal.
Writer-director Mark Steven Johnson, who last brought Marvel superhero Daredevil to the screen, appropriately realizes that this material doesn't exactly lend itself to a straight faced approach, so Ghost Rider has it's tongue firmly implanted in its cheek. Many scenes involve characters explaining some of the plot to others and appearing to hardly believe it themselves. Bystanders in the film have the appropriate slack-jawed reaction to a guy on a motorcycle with a flaming skull for a head that you could imagine yourself wearing if you were in their same position. However, Johnson makes the mistake of not stopping short of letting the film become borderline camp. In one scene, Ghost Rider gives the middle finger salute, tells cops they are "Pissing him off" in another, and features a ridiculous scene in which Johnny, during an interrogation, tells two cops how much he respects their profession and has plans to be a police officer himself once his stunt-riding days are over. There is a degree of self-referential humor that works for this material, but then Ghost Rider just keeps going past the point of light humor into near parody.
Ghost Rider also manages to be fairly lame action movie when the fights between Ghost Rider and Blackheart's henchmen kick in. Those scenes are relatively rote, lacking any excitement and energy, and most of the scenes involving Johnny riding a motorcycle are without any visceral thrill as well. There is also the practically unnecessary love story between Johnny and Roxanne that lacks any chemistry. Why do comic book movies always think they need a romance subplot? The cynical side of me knows it's to provide something of interest to the girlfriends who get dragged to this movie by their significant others, but if the filmmakers are just going to phone it in, they should leave it out. Yeah, he's supposed to be a tragic hero saved by love, but in this case, you don't believe these two are really in love.
Ghost Rider's silliness isn't helped by Nicholas Cage's performance. Cage knows he is working with material that is pretty ridiculous and takes his performance a bit too far over the top. His performance falls into the "quirky" category, and while amusing at times, doesn't help save Ghost Rider from being interpreted as a joke. Eva Mendes is just, well, there, as Roxanne, not terrible, but hardly memorable or outstanding. Ghost Rider really comes up short in the villain department. Wes Bentley's Blackheart is a clichéd, one-dimensional villain who doesn't inspire much fear or distaste from the audience. His minions are both silly and non-threatening and may be cause for a few snickers. The only saving grace here is Peter Fonda as the devil. He's not around much, but he is effective.
Ghost Rider would be sunk without decent visual effects, and on this front, the film is reasonably successful. The flaming skull effects are believable (well, as believable as flaming skulls get), and most of the bike-riding while on flames scenes hold up well also. The music score, by horror specialist Christopher Young, also is strong, being something of a fusion of Gothic orchestra, western and hard rock. Unfortunately, these elements can't completely save a screenplay that is wallowing in tired dialogue such as "You will pay for this!" or "Mephistopheles, I knew you would come!" For $110 million, you would hope that would buy something a little deeper than a guy who just looks really cool with his head on fire.