Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance strives to be even worse than it’s predecessor.
Artwork by Ed Gloor
How could a once serious actor become a sorcerer and a flaming skeleton from Hell?
Nicholas Cage (Drive Angry) has been around far too long for the liking of most people. A high school drop out at the age of 17, Cage has been in far too many bad movies to redeem himself in the eyes of his viewers. Cage truly only has two characters: he is either completely stoic, or full of psychotic rage and insanity. Cage combines both of these roles in this highly unwanted sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance.
The story of Ghost Rider revolves around religion, relating to the Devil and Hell. The Ghost Rider is the Devil’s bounty hunter in the sense that he must do whatever the Devil wants him to do. The last movie told the story of Johnny Blaze (a hardcore stunt biker, with an urge for danger) signing his soul off to the Devil, and hunting down the Devil’s son as his new Ghost Rider. A horrible script and sub-par acting plagued this average movie, which was a set up for the sequel to come. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is here, and it was one of the worst movies I have seen in a long while. The script and acting are still terrible, but they are not the only issues this time around.
Johnny Blaze has decided to move to Europe to get away from his job as the Ghost Rider. Little does he know that the Roarke/the Devil (Ciaran Hinds, The Woman in Black) will be there soon enough; not for him, but for a child named Danny (Fergus Riordan, I Want to Be a Soldier). Danny’s mother had a near death experience, and during this close call she was visited by the Devil. He saved her, and in return he received the soul of her son. However, he doesn’t want his soul as a Ghost Rider, he wants to possess his body and use it to have his full power on Earth.
Honestly, everything about this plot doesn’t matter at all. When watching this movie I didn’t care about any of the characters what-so-ever. Danny was an average irritating kid. His mother Nadya (Violante Placido, The American) was somewhat interesting, but didn’t really act like she cared about her son. After all, she did sell his soul to save hers. And Johnny Blaze was the worst character of all. In the beginning, Cage acted like a psychopath when he was trying not to transform into the Ghost Rider, then after he did, he didn’t express any emotions.
During this film, I could never escape the fact that it was just a terrible movie. Even Ghost Rider was a stupid character. All he did was make people explode into molten goo, and spew horrible one-liners like “Road Kill” after throwing a man in front of a car. The best character in the movie was a drunken priest named Moreau (Idris Elba, Thor). He, unlike Cage, made the movie a little interesting to watch the scenes he was in. Even Hinds as the Devil was a horrible character. Peter Fonda (Hawaii Five-O) played the Devil in the last movie, and he made a much better Devil than Hinds.
Sadly, I experienced this film in RPX 3-D, and what an expensive ride it was. The 3-D was practically non-existent, and who in their right mind wants better sound quality from Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance? The only bonus to seeing this movie under these conditions was the larger screen, and more comfortable seats in the RPX Theater. At least I got to sit in a nice chair while I was tortured.
The point of all this is, just don’t see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. 13 bucks down the drain and an hour and a half of wasted life is all I got out of this movie. If people are looking for a good action movie, they won’t find it here. If one wants to laugh, cry, or have a riveting experience, I can’t even imagine Ghost Rider coming to mind. If there are those who absolutely must see this movie, wait for it to come to redbox; it’s heading there soon.
Rating: ★☆☆☆☆
