Reviewed by Lamar Kukuk
2/17/07
It cost a reported one hundred
twenty million dollars and didn't screen for critics. Its' production
and release dates have danced around the calendar for years. Editing was
still going on just weeks ago. Despite a super-cool trailer, there
were many reasons to fear that Ghost Rider, the latest Marvel Comics
movie adaptation would prove to be a turkey. It does have its' issues,
and shows signs of substantial editing and reshooting, but Daredevil
writer/director
Mark Steven Johnson has set out to make a fun crowd-pleaser about a flaming,
leather jacket-clad skeleton who fights evil, and for the most part, he's
succeeded.
The movie begins Years Ago,
when young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) joins his father (Brett Cullen) in
a motorcycle daredevil act. He plans to run away with his girlfriend
Roxanne (Raquel Alessi) until he learns that his father suffers from terminal
cancer. A mysterious visitor (Peter Fonda) offers a chance for his
father to be healthy again in exchange for Johnny's soul. Mephistopheles
keeps that deal, only to ensure that an accident kills Mr. Blaze shortly
thereafter. He promises to call in his marker someday and leaves
an adult Johnny (Nicolas Cage) to a life of ever-increasing risk taking.
He runs into Roxanne (Eva Mendes) again just around the time that Old Scratch
comes calling. It seems that his son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley) is
out to retrieve a legendary scroll that will permit him to Rule the World,
and he needs the Ghost Rider to stop him. Before Johnny can ask “Who's
the Ghost Rider?”, he's been transformed into a cliche-spouting burning
skeleton who rides 200 MPH atop a burning skeleton bike. And, with
the help of the mysterious Caretaker (Sam Elliot), the battle is on.
For all the money and massive
production values on display, seams show all over Ghost Rider:
characters abruptly move within the frame and between scenes. A scene
where Johnny is amazed that the Caretaker doesn't know about the massive
manhunt for him (“Don't you watch TV?”) is followed by one where his best
friend (Donal Logue) tells Roxanne that he's “heard he got himself into
some kind of trouble”. There are moments when Cage seems to be playing
Elvis rather than Johnny Blaze. And a moment where Roxanne looks
on in awe at something we never see that the Ghost Rider's done to hold
off an assembled group of cops (“INSERT SPECIAL EFFECT HERE”?) tickled
the hell out of me. But Ghost Rider's saving grace is that
the loopy tone it's shooting for is not necessarily out of line with an
occasionally shaky production. Cage personifies a certain kind of
larkish cinemania (he was, after all, the “real” Castor Troy in Face/Off),
and here the movie seems to be along for the ride. I really liked
the way Mendes (a skilled comedienne even if her dramatic skills could
use some polishing) crafted the kind of Magic 8-Ball shaking goof who would
actually be drawn to someone as odd as Cage's Johnny. Peter Fonda
is an absolutely perfect Devil: his diabolical line readings make
his power of Serlingesque Irony palpable. You can't trust ANYTHING
this guy says! And what a great run of popcorn movie performances
Sam Elliott is reeling off at this stage of his career. While I don't
want to give too much of the Caretaker's backstory away, there's a twist
late in the game that he plays to the hilt. Wes Bentley has fun as
Blackheart, although the movie could have used a more commanding villain.
I no longer suspect he might have made a better Lestat than Stuart Townsend
had he not dropped out of The Queen of the Damned: the performances
are quite similar.
Befitting its' budget, the
special effects are as skillful as they are massive. I only wish
the characters they created were more consistently interesting. Three
elemental Blackheart henchmen reminded me of the villains in Elektra
(NEVER a good thing!). And while the Ghost Rider certainly looked
cool, his dialog is like that of a living Talking Action Figure:
pull his string and he spouts random tough guyisms like “You're going down!”
and “You're starting to piss me off!”. He even finds time to flip
off the cops. On the plus side, I did enjoy the way the movie sticks
to the character's duty to sort the Good from the Evil: once he's
pointed at someone and snarled out “Guilty” or “Innocent” he never harms
the Innocent, and God help the Guilty. And the Caretaker and Blackhart's
climactic transformations (I'll leave it at that for the unspoiled) are
super-cool.
Like many an FX extravaganza
released during an off-season, Ghost Rider clearly isn't everything
its' makers had hoped for. The plot sometimes feels like cans being
dragged behind the truck of Johnson's screenplay, and characters appear
and disappear as needed (I did like the way a throwaway line about how
Blaze never locks his elevator explains why people come and go from his
home at will). On paper, it actually bears a strong resemblance to
Constantine,
another good-looking supernatural comic book flick released in February.
The big difference is that Constantine aspired to be dark, serious
and great, and so when it fell flat in the end was nothing but a disappointment.
Ghost Rider only aspires to show you a good time, so even when
it fails, it's still good for a few laughs. |
