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GHOST RIDER premired last night. I made sure to go see it. I paid good ‘ole U.S. currency made by my toiling in the corporate sector. Unfortunately, I want a refund and I want it in the form of a personal check from Mark Steven Johnson.
Ghost Rider was not the worst ever comic book movie ever,  but in this age of comic movie over population, something this bad shouldn’t have been released.
First, I’ll be the first to admit I was scared going into the theater. I had a few naggin fears.
Will Nic Cage go all over actory with his goofy mannerisms and over shadow the plot?
Will they go overboard with comic geekery and not take the characters to a real place, in the real world to hook audiences like Blade did?
Is this movie gonna out camp, the campy Batman movies?
Am I gonna be writing a really pissed of review of this movie and feel guilty that Nic Cage finally got a comic movie and it sucks?

I will say this good friends, and mean it. Nic Cage did not ruin this movie. It wasn’t his fault. For you Cage haters out there it’s true, it’s true.
Ghost Rider has horror roots, but cheap pops are for wrestling, and Sarah Michelle Gellar movies. And “director”  Johnson is very liberal in the use of that time reviled movie staple.

Without giving too much away I’ll go through the movie pointing to the things that pissed me off, and made dozens of people walk out of the theater before the credits rolled.
It’s no secret the villain in this piece, are the devil(one Marvel’s devil analogues-Mephistopheles), and BlackHeart his kid.
We meet Johnny Blaze his supporting cast, and then Blackheart….. cue the aforementioned Cheap Pop. We then are forced to waste a few minutes on him, I’m sorry way too much time on him in a terminator rip off scene.

Back to Johnny, and his buddy “Quinn” from Blade. blah, blah blah, some funny acting.
then some flashbacks, and a motorcycle stunt. Sprinkle in some of The Mendez, Eva(she’s soooo F’n hot)
and we are just in time for more crap.

It’s so annoying that instead of anticipation for Ghost Riders on screen debut, people are wanting it just so they don’t have to see the non CGI character’s on screen.

When he appears , he’s worth it. Unfortunately not worth it enough to take away the pain searing my eyeballs and burning into the back of my brain. All this movie needs is some tweaking and it could be passable. I won’t discuss my thoughts as they are spoilerish as hell.

Cops, Guns, supernatural fighting, (really weak, supernatural fighting) ad we come to the close.

To be honest this movie crapped all over my 2007 is the year of the geek movie buzz. It reminded me that with genre films, especially comic, and video game movies, very often the consumer is playing Russian Roulette with their ticket purchase. In my case I bit the bullet and t took a giant chunk out the back of my skull, and a grotesque Rorschach, pattern on the annoying people who were talking behind me.

“I wish I had four arms so I could give this movie 4 thumbs down, the Milk’s Gone bad!!!”
P.S. The trailers for Spidey were excellent.

And Knocked Up, brought to you by the team that did 40 yr-old Virgin (and stars half the cast of that one) looks hilarious.

I agree.  The best thing about the movie were the opening trailers.  Ghost Rider just bored the shit out of me.  It could have been so much better.  I’m hoping for a director’s cut that a director’s cut is in the future.

Is a Director’s Cut gonna fix the fact that Johnny Blaze is a goofy bastard? I understand making Johnny a little eccentric, but the damn jelly beans in the martini glass?!?! I think that’s just stupid.

I did notice scenes from the trailers that didn’t show up in the movie, so a director’s cut could happen, even though Johnson claims there would be no cut.

I understand the limitations of having to create elaborate action scenes for a character that hass a flaming skull for a head, but they could have done so much more. Mind you, I enjoyed the motorcycle scenes, as I never get tired of him riding up the side of the building.

It’s a shame, ‘cause I always liked the theatrical version of Daredevil, and was doubly impressed with the director’s cut, and figured, “Maybe Johnson did get a bum wrap”. But if this is what he comes up with when he has free reign, I just don’t know.

Can’t help with the Daredevil front.

Even the trailer looked dumb.  How many more “Ghost Riders”, “Daredevils”, “Catwomans”, and “Fantastic Fours” can a person really endure before they stop forking over their hard earned loot.  Talk about a dollar movie lineup. 

On the whole, it’s pretty hard to make a great comic movie, IMO.  Not impossible, but difficult.  Flaming skulls just don’t seem to foster suspended belief.  After all, it’s “suspended belief”, not “checked out for good belief.”

First even a director’s cut wouldn’t assist the team forming crap that happens so conveniently for Blackheart at the beginning.
Nor the piss poor performance of Eva Mendez (WhoI love)
Daredevil was just OK, not great but certainly not worth enough to make me ever think this guy should have been allowed to direct again, let alone another comic movie.

Mike you are right about how these flops as a whole really do affect the odds of good comic book movies being made. Marvel needs to reign in some of these ideas and scripts.The quality is generally crap. Blade and Xmen got ruined on their respective 3rd times out. Spider man shouldn’t since Raimi is still in charge.
But what’s next, for marvel, another movie with big name characters Iron man, I shudder to think how badly that could turn out.

Comic movies don’t have to be great. Most Hollywood movies aren’t great. But Comic movies should at least not be horrible so they can stand above the rest. Especially since they are essentially genre movies. They already have a bad rap going into them so why continue making bad ones?

Better yet can my inner geek be kept from making me see another bad one and regretting it 15 minutes in?

Better yet can my inner geek be kept from making me see another bad one and regretting it 15 minutes in?

Well that’s the hook, isn’t it? Depending on the character or the stars involved, enough people will be interested in seeing it. And what’s more interesting than a biker with a flaming skull?!?

KenKRK - 19 February 2007 08:37 PM

Better yet can my inner geek be kept from making me see another bad one and regretting it 15 minutes in?

Well that’s the hook, isn’t it? Depending on the character or the stars involved, enough people will be interested in seeing it. And what’s more interesting than a biker with a flaming skull?!?

Sadly, most episodes of Nature and Frontline.

Personally, I never understood why they would make a movie about this character.

There’s no history to it, unless your a comic book fan and even then Ghost Rider was hot over ten years ago.

And paying ten bucks just to see the effects is a waste of money, IMO. That gets boring even quicker than bad acting.

estee - 07 March 2007 10:22 AM

Personally, I never understood why they would make a movie about this character.

There’s no history to it, unless your a comic book fan and even then Ghost Rider was hot over ten years ago.

And paying ten bucks just to see the effects is a waste of money, IMO. That gets boring even quicker than bad acting.

Blade had even less of a following, but the success of the first film led to two sequels (even though Trinity sucked) and a television series (yes it was cancelled, but not for lack of quality, but sheer stupidity on the part of Spike). By your logic, movies like V for Vendetta, Sin City, and the soon to be released 300 shouldn’t have been made into films.

Ghost Rider by and large was a waste. Did it suck?....not completely. The problem they run into is going for some laughs when taking it seriusly would be a better road to take. Certain comics lend themselves to having comedy in them…...Spiderman can get away with it but that is becuase Spidey is always making jokes at the expense of his enemies. Ghost Rider is a spirit of vengence. This movie should have had more serious tones like the first Blade Movie or Contantine. Both of these movies were chracters that the public had never heard of. Quality is the deciding factor and this movie lack it in many areas.

Leslie

The problem is that Ghost Rider the comic book makes for a decent comic book.  Ghost Rider as a movie makes for a pretty poor movie concept.  Audience expectations are just different for both media.  Cartoonish?  Not a problem in a comic book, major problem on the screen. 

There are just some comic books that are never going to make good movies, and Ghost Rider is one of them.

I thought the two biggest reasons not to see this movie were obvious; Johnson and Cage.

Daredevil was NOT a good film. It has its moments, but it was a terrible movie. I think Johnson should go back to non-comic book dramas—Simon Birch was a pretty good film.

Do I really need to go on about Cage?