{"id":9663,"date":"2007-09-17T02:22:40","date_gmt":"2007-09-17T06:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=9663"},"modified":"2007-09-17T02:22:40","modified_gmt":"2007-09-17T06:22:40","slug":"ghost-rider-2007","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/17\/ghost-rider-2007\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghost Rider (2007)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ghost-rider-2007\"<\/a>I tell you. I tell you. \u201cGhost Rider\u201d had potential, friends. \u201cGhost Rider\u201d under the right set of creators, competent direction, and writers it could have been one hell of a violent horror thriller with Ghost Rider not only serving as a horrifying anti-hero, but also a potential villain if not careful. With someone like maybe Clive Barker, along with a hard R and zero camp, \u201cGhost Rider\u201d would have been a horror fan\u2019s wet dream, but alas, we\u2019re left with this. One of the most brutal crimes from Johnson\u2019s screenplay is that he shamelessly cribs from the \u201cSpawn\u201d film. And if you\u2019ve ever seen it, you\u2019ll know that it\u2019s hardly the source material capable for a competent film to begin with.<\/p>\n

One of the truly entertaining aspects about Johnson\u2019s film is the surefire visual quality ensured. The technical quality is just utterly eye catching and many scenes were a blast to watch. The first Ghost Rider transformation is wicked as we\u2019re given a surprisingly interesting horror element to Blaze\u2019s first realization that he\u2019s becoming a demon whether he likes it or not. Johnson constantly teases us by showing the seeds of a better movie that are sadly never revealed in the overall product and the Rider\u2019s metamorphoses are handled very well. Ghost Rider looks fantastic on screen, I loved the way he looked in flames, in spite of what many have lambasted as sub-par. The constant changes of Mephisto and Black Heart is pulled off very well as they\u2019re constantly shifting from human to monster form as they speak in low growls, and their whole dichotomy works, even in the minute instances Johnson provides us.<\/p>\n

Hell, I dug Black Heart in the end, even when he was whiny petulant monster intent on absorbing the powers and taking over the world, and Peter Fonda is very good as the demon lord Mephisto who hearkens back to his old biker days for this particular role, and I rather liked this reference. The pun of having Fonda endorse a demonic biker is flat on arrival, but the performance he gives here is competent enough to make me believe he\u2019s the deceitful Mephisto. And if that\u2019s not enough, there\u2019s even a reference to the original Ghost Rider that I rather enjoyed. At rare times, \u201cGhost Rider\u201d shows the potential that Johnson seems hellbent on squandering. The Penance stare provides some powerful moments, the Ghost Rider ensuring suffering to the criminals is a wonderful plot device, and Black Heart\u2019s soul sucking proved to be eerie on many occasions.<\/p>\n

\u201cGhost Rider\u201d is still a wonderful character, and still needs a proper adaptation. We have the hero making a deal with the devil becoming a demonic soldier, being mentored by a past bearded warrior who is basically Obi Wan with a Southern twang, and the inevitable chase by police that leads to a showdown atop a high monument, all proof that Johnson himself never knew what Ghost Rider was anyway; which all serves to prove how lazy Johnson was when it applied to story and characterization. We\u2019re only able to learn what Johnson feels is necessary to learn about the characters around us. We know Johnny was motivated to save his father and is a bit of a nut, we know he has a goofy sidekick, is in love with a vapid news reporter, and\u2026 the devil and his son are a whiny dysfunctional family, yet again. After Johnny makes a deal with Mephisto, there\u2019s simply nothing that focuses on the sheer impact of making a deal with this demonic lord.<\/p>\n

After Johnny has it made clear to him that he\u2019s forever the Devil\u2019s whipping boy, there\u2019s never any tension that the devil is looming over Johnny\u2019s shoulder, no urgency that his life is under control by the prince of darkness, no dread of the underworld just waiting to break under his feet, and Johnny is never completely extrapolated as a three dimensional individual whose time is simply running out. Instead he\u2019s a boring stunt biker who is apparently a demonic biker; if you\u2019ve never read a comic book then that\u2019s all this character will be to you. The set up for the entire mythos is so incredibly rushed (what\u2019s the need for the black and white footage in the beginning?) that when we\u2019re finally introduced to Ghost Rider, we only know so very little about him.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s also the horrible dialogue that will constantly inspire a cringe from any reason minded viewer; Johnson just drips his film in camp from minute one and includes horrible one-liners like \u201cHe may have my soul, but he doesn\u2019t have my spirit\u201d all the while padding the film with some of the most unnecessary sequences. What was the point of the robbery sequence in the alley? What was the point of Ghost Rider tussling with a helicopter? One of the most obvious forms of padding is Johnson adding Johnny as a suspect for a murder, which will leave the audience scratching their heads wondering: Why suspect him? Why would they suspect a celebrity with a motorcycle for killing a bunch of folks in a motorcycle bar? Is Johnny the only one with a motorcycle in the city? It made no sense and was inherently hackneyed and lazy.<\/p>\n

As for the performances Donal Logue does what he\u2019s signed up to; he\u2019s there to be a comedic sidekick we couldn\u2019t care less for, Mendes, an actress who is consistently overrated and over hyped, provides her usual mediocre performance with zero charisma or chemistry failing to ever convince me that she\u2019s an actual news reporter. When all is said and done, she provides no purpose beyond the clich\u00e9 romance angle ever hero film apparently must have. \u201cGhost Rider\u201d could have been one hell of a horror epic, instead of this mediocre camp thriller Johnson chucks at us. Hell I didn\u2019t mind it; sure at the end of the day it\u2019s far from a masterpiece with irritating camp, mediocre performances, horrible dialogue, and cribbing from another terrible comic adaptation, but \u201cGhost Rider\u201d is entertaining, has rousing action, and great special effects. Is this how I wanted this character to end up? No, but it has much more going for it than the last \u201cX-Men\u201d sequel, in the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I tell you. I tell you. \u201cGhost Rider\u201d had potential, friends. \u201cGhost Rider\u201d under the right set of creators, competent direction, and writers it could have been one hell of a violent horror thriller with Ghost Rider not only serving as a horrifying anti-hero, but also a potential villain if not careful. With someone like […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[58,64,71,134,219,276,349,385,407,477,633,874,897,1008,1087],"class_list":["post-9663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-action","tag-adaptation","tag-adventure","tag-bikers","tag-comedy","tag-demons","tag-fantasy","tag-g","tag-ghost-rider","tag-horror","tag-marvel","tag-romance","tag-satanic","tag-supernatural","tag-thriller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9663\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}