Ghost Rider

“Are you o.k.”

“Yeah I just feel like my head is on fire, but I’m o.k.” …queue laugh track.

So shame on me if I expected great things, which I didn’t by the way, from Ghost Rider, but I have been in wrong before, so there was always the off chance I could be wrong. In this case I was not. Alright, alright, let me slow down. Ghost Rider is the first of three Marvel releases this year, sequels to Spiderman and Fantastic Four are fourth coming this summer, and the fourteenth released in the last decade or so. Marvel definitely has a cash cow on their hands and they are not afraid to just make movies, see Elektra here. One would hope over time the movies would get better, but I shame on me for expecting a movie about a stunt man who makes a deal with the devil to save his father life for the price of his soul and in turn becomes the devil’s dark angels of vengeance. I should not be so harsh considering I have never read a Ghost Rider comic before and have no loyalty to the character. What it comes down to is film making. Were it not for Sam and Toby Spiderman could have very easily become the Hulk or something worse instead of the great franchise that is has become. Mark Steven Johnson is not a bad director, he does have Daredevil under his belt, and while Affleck and Garner make for a better pair than Cage and Mendes, the latter pair are not terrible so it really does come down to story; and Ghost Rider is a weak one.

There are some really cool visual in this movie, like when the two rider are moving through the desert, but they do not do much to cover up for the shallowness of the story. Compounded by the fact Eva Mendes really is not that talented. Whenever she is on screen it is just blah at least Cage has a quirkiness about him that at least makes him interesting. Eva doesn’t even really have the hot thing going for her and it wasn’t for lack of trying. Her cleavage was a co-star in this movie. At the end of day this movie will probably be successful enough for the studio to consider a sequel, but if I could offer a word of advice… don’t.

GRADE - D