[Movies] The What Rider Now?

In these modern times of rampant DVD piracy and illegal movie downloads, you have to admit it there's little reason to see a movie in an actual theater, what more one of those decked out theaters with the boosted sound features and such. Given that, some friends and I decided to go see the new Ghost Rider movie, given it was the only action movie showing here in the Philippines.

I have to admit that my expectations weren't all too high. The movie was directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the same genius that brought his unique interpretations of Daredevil and Elektra to the screen with, well, mixed reviews. While they were recognizable as the characters in question, I always felt his efforts felt somewhat short in so many little things that would add up to one big loss.

Sadly, Ghost Rider was not spared this.

I have to admit that to begin with, Ghost Rider's story isn't all that great to begin with. He was created as a possible for for Daredevil and ended up as a modern Western hero with his own comic book. The movie tried to get the best of most of the various Ghost Riders (yes, there's been more than one of them) in typical Hollywood pick-and-choose fashion. Flaming head here, Penance State there and presto - one Hollywood Ghost Rider.

One of the biggest failings of the film has to lie with its principal actor - Nicholas Cage strange acting methods throughout the film. One has to admit he looks really old in this movie, which makes his on-screen romance with Eva Mendes even stranger since it felt like it bordered on a new form of pedophilia. He had a number of overacting sequences that made cheapened Johnny Blaze as a character and overall made things go less than well for the movie.

Throw in a cheap, mostly human version of Blackheart and a posse of weak-willed elemental flunkies who's only claim to fame is their ability to die at the hands of Ghost Rider ridiculously fast. What a waste of good demonic sons from the Underworld!

What was good about the movie? Well, the guy who played the young Johnny Blaze, a fresh actor named Matt Long was pretty cute - why couldn't he have had more screen time? Plus there was that whole riding the flaming motorcycle up the building bit that everyone got to see in the trailer. You know what I mean - especially that big sequence with him riding the bike of the roof, throwing his chain to catch onto the side of the building then he races down. Yeah, that scene. That piece of trailer eye candy was the only sequence worth anything in this movie.

The rest of the movie is littered with excessive dialog of questionable intelligence. All they seem to do in this movie is talk, talk, talk, fightforfiveminutes, then talk some more. Yeesh.

So should you go see it? You might be better off waiting for it on home video. Or better yet, wait for it on HBO. You don't even need to wait up for it - if you just happen to see it at random, that's probably more than enough.

Related Links:

• Wikipedia: Ghost Rider (comics)
  
• Marvel Directory: Ghost Rider