Grade: D
Yin: Cage’s wacky acting overshadows a tedious script. Neveldine/Taylor bring a style to the proceedings that remains a true acquired taste that few will ever understand.
Yang: More focused narrative and an earthier Ghost Rider give this a slight edge over the original, but neither is enough to save this flick.
In-Between: Pissing fire is kind of cool.
You will believe a demon stunt cyclist can piss fire. You just won't care.
Crank maestros Neveldine and Taylor's shot at the once thought dead Ghost Rider franchise, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, is a oddly frantic yet tedious exercise. Picking up some time after the first movie, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) has run to Europe in an effort to escape the clutches of the devil’s dealmaker, Roarke (Ciaran Hinds)--because there's no way a demon can travel across time and space without using his frequent flier miles. Resigned to remaining in hiding for fear of the rider overtaking his fragile soul, blaze is approached by French holy warrior Moreau (Idris Elba), who enlists the rider's aid in finding one--because there must be more--of the devils offspring. This offspring (Fergus Riordan) and his mother (Olga Kurylenko knock-off Violante Placido) just happen to be on the run from a rakish gun-runner Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth) who has been hired to retrieve the boy for a mysterious benefactor with a vested interest in awakening the child's inner hellfire. Goaded on by the surefire promise of reclaiming his soul, blaze must try to control the rider and race against time to stop the boy from becoming some kind of Antichrist.
Neveldine and Taylor have found a perfect collaborator in Nicolas Cage; Ghost Rider just isn't the right project for either. I hate to call for more grim, gritty comic adaptations, but the story of a guy who sold his soul to the devil and is tormented by his decision probably isn't he best fit for Neveldine/Taylor's spastic stop and go vision. The mythology also doesn't Mach cage's unrestricted scenery chewing. Ghost Rider doesn't need to be dour and grim throughout but it deserves some reverence. In Spirit of Vengeance, Neveldine/Taylor, and cage seem to balance a minimum of reverence--they at least acknowledge the fact that ghost rider is actually an angel, per the current comic mythology--with a tongue in cheek outlook, which would be something if the flick was remotely funny or clever. In lieu of legitimately intelligent or clever moments, Neveldine/ Taylor allow Cage to chomp down on scenery and tweak about like he just snorted three lines of primo white. Cage’s Rider doesn’t rein hellfire and brimstone down on the evil; he stutter steps and stares and jerks and schleps around, casting quizzical glares. This languid approach carries over to at least two of the three mediocre action scenes that populate this farce with only the climatic chase—curiously the only action scene shown in any length in the trailers—offering any significant energy.
The performances—actually, performance because nobody else really tracks in Cage’s shadow—don’t particularly help to elevate the proceedings. With Cage’s wackiness dominating nearly every scene, only Idris Elba makes a go at competing for attention, with his curiously accented Moreau. Johnny Whitworth’s Carrigan gets a character upgrade midway through the flick that gives him a chance to try to out ham Cage, but he is hopelessly outmatched. Hinds and Placido do little more than meet the bare minimum requirements of playing Rosemary and Rosemary’s baby’s daddy—to snatch a corny line that could only come from Cage’s Blaze.
Performances and vision aside, Spirit of Vengeance shows marked improvement over the first movie. The plot is far more streamlined and focused, as less time is spent on fleshing out Blaze’s backstory and more attention is given to thrusting the, admittedly thin, narrative forward. Also, the Rider is a much more authentic and visually threatening presence. Far less shiny, but no less cartoonish, the Rider is noticeably dingier and earthier than his previous incarnation—the fiery skull alone crackles with more authenticity than before. As mentioned earlier, the climatic chase is also a solid set piece that, while mediocre by modern standards, is leagues beyond the travesty that wrapped the original.
Despite these improvements, Spirit of Vengeance does little to improve the state of the franchise. Ghost Rider has always been one of Marvel’s most off-the-wall creations, and in the right hands an clever adaptation is surely possible, not related to the X-Men, Spider-Man, or the Avengers, and thus one if its red-headed stepchildren. Maybe be one day we’ll get a better Ghost Rider movie, but that day won’t come until Nicolas Cage becomes solvent.
Crank maestros Neveldine and Taylor's shot at the once thought dead Ghost Rider franchise, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, is a oddly frantic yet tedious exercise. Picking up some time after the first movie, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) has run to Europe in an effort to escape the clutches of the devil’s dealmaker, Roarke (Ciaran Hinds)--because there's no way a demon can travel across time and space without using his frequent flier miles. Resigned to remaining in hiding for fear of the rider overtaking his fragile soul, blaze is approached by French holy warrior Moreau (Idris Elba), who enlists the rider's aid in finding one--because there must be more--of the devils offspring. This offspring (Fergus Riordan) and his mother (Olga Kurylenko knock-off Violante Placido) just happen to be on the run from a rakish gun-runner Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth) who has been hired to retrieve the boy for a mysterious benefactor with a vested interest in awakening the child's inner hellfire. Goaded on by the surefire promise of reclaiming his soul, blaze must try to control the rider and race against time to stop the boy from becoming some kind of Antichrist.
Neveldine and Taylor have found a perfect collaborator in Nicolas Cage; Ghost Rider just isn't the right project for either. I hate to call for more grim, gritty comic adaptations, but the story of a guy who sold his soul to the devil and is tormented by his decision probably isn't he best fit for Neveldine/Taylor's spastic stop and go vision. The mythology also doesn't Mach cage's unrestricted scenery chewing. Ghost Rider doesn't need to be dour and grim throughout but it deserves some reverence. In Spirit of Vengeance, Neveldine/Taylor, and cage seem to balance a minimum of reverence--they at least acknowledge the fact that ghost rider is actually an angel, per the current comic mythology--with a tongue in cheek outlook, which would be something if the flick was remotely funny or clever. In lieu of legitimately intelligent or clever moments, Neveldine/ Taylor allow Cage to chomp down on scenery and tweak about like he just snorted three lines of primo white. Cage’s Rider doesn’t rein hellfire and brimstone down on the evil; he stutter steps and stares and jerks and schleps around, casting quizzical glares. This languid approach carries over to at least two of the three mediocre action scenes that populate this farce with only the climatic chase—curiously the only action scene shown in any length in the trailers—offering any significant energy.
The performances—actually, performance because nobody else really tracks in Cage’s shadow—don’t particularly help to elevate the proceedings. With Cage’s wackiness dominating nearly every scene, only Idris Elba makes a go at competing for attention, with his curiously accented Moreau. Johnny Whitworth’s Carrigan gets a character upgrade midway through the flick that gives him a chance to try to out ham Cage, but he is hopelessly outmatched. Hinds and Placido do little more than meet the bare minimum requirements of playing Rosemary and Rosemary’s baby’s daddy—to snatch a corny line that could only come from Cage’s Blaze.
Performances and vision aside, Spirit of Vengeance shows marked improvement over the first movie. The plot is far more streamlined and focused, as less time is spent on fleshing out Blaze’s backstory and more attention is given to thrusting the, admittedly thin, narrative forward. Also, the Rider is a much more authentic and visually threatening presence. Far less shiny, but no less cartoonish, the Rider is noticeably dingier and earthier than his previous incarnation—the fiery skull alone crackles with more authenticity than before. As mentioned earlier, the climatic chase is also a solid set piece that, while mediocre by modern standards, is leagues beyond the travesty that wrapped the original.
Despite these improvements, Spirit of Vengeance does little to improve the state of the franchise. Ghost Rider has always been one of Marvel’s most off-the-wall creations, and in the right hands an clever adaptation is surely possible, not related to the X-Men, Spider-Man, or the Avengers, and thus one if its red-headed stepchildren. Maybe be one day we’ll get a better Ghost Rider movie, but that day won’t come until Nicolas Cage becomes solvent.
