It seems as though Marvel is starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel with their superheroes. It was a surprise to just about any comic book fan that the Blade films managed to do as well as they did considering the Blade character was nothing more than a third string backup who guest starred in titles from time to time, but with little to go on, it was hard to really mess things up. Spider-Man, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four; these films were all expected to do well, and they did. But, with some of Marvel’s biggest superhero teams and individual characters making box office bucks, it seems they’ve taken to giving the okay to make anything into a movie.

Ghost Rider; not a hero that is at the top of the charts, but not necessarily one that is on the low end of the scale like Blade. Nonetheless, it’s still a character that has lived in the shadows more or less, and certainly isn’t at the top of most lists when it comes to “must-see” comic book films. In fact, there’s long been a rumor that a director once attached to the film had completed his script and wasn’t pleased when the studio sent it back, heavily edited. He wondered why and was told it was to get the rating down to a PG-13. As the legend goes, his response was that Ghost Rider wasn’t a character that they could make Happy Meal toys out of, they didn’t get the character, and he quit. If in fact this is true, it was probably a good idea.

So, who needs to stick to the source material of the Ghost Rider comic book? Apparently not screenwriter/director Mark Steven Johnson who has already under whelmed us with his adaptations of two other Marvel characters; Daredevil and Elektra, and it seems that Ghost Rider shouldn’t be any different. The movie begins with a young Johnny Blaze (Matt Long) who works along side his father, Barton (Brett Cullen) at carnivals performing death defying motorcycle stunts. Young Johnny has just found out that his girlfriend Roxanne is moving away and is planning to run away with her, but he’s also discovered that his father is dying of cancer (it was Johnny’s mentor Crash Simpson in the comics, his father died in a motorcycle accident.)

Anyway, a despondent Johnny finds out about his fathers illness and one night while working on his bike, he’s approached by a mysterious man who is the prince of darkness himself, Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda.) The man tells Johnny that he can make his dad better in exchange for his soul, and John inadvertently signs to pact. The next day, his father is healthy, but John still wants to leave with his girlfriend only to return when his dad dies in a motorcycle accident. Years later, Johnny is one of the hottest stuntmen in the circuit, but the devil is about to come calling.

According to the film, one of the earlier Ghost Riders, Carter Slade was to retrieve a pact for the devil, but found it was too powerful. He opposed the devil, fled, and was supposedly buried with the contract. Now Blackheart (Wes Bentley), the “son” of Satan has come to Earth looking to retrieve it and take his fathers place. Mephistopheles has come to collect on is contract, transforming Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) into Ghost Rider, and undead soul with a blazing skull who hunts the night in search of those who have wronged the innocent.

Okay, so let’s forget for a moment that Johnny Blaze was actually under a family curse. What/ You didn’t know that? Oh, well, I guess the screenplay forgot to mention that. Let’s also forget that the story of Carter Slade in no way connects to the Ghost Rider comic and instead belongs to another character, the Phantom Rider, who has none of the powers that Ghost Rider does. Oh, you didn’t know that either? Well, I guess it could be worse. I mean, Ghost Rider could have a kid or something, which he doesn’t, but that’s something better left for the reboot of other superhero franchises.

Ghost Rider is what happens when licensed comic characters suddenly go horribly wrong and in fact, this hero has as much business at becoming a live action film as do some of Marvel’s other, upcoming films like Ant-Man and Namor (seriously, I can’t make something like that up, though I could make up that there’s a Frog Man movie coming, but that’s isn’t happening.) Cage first of all is the wrong choice for Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider for a number of reasons. Blaze is supposed to be a young hot shot, much like Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four, and, you can see the problem; too old for the role. I can get over difference in hair color, but no one wants to see an aged Johnny Blaze, and the other major problem is that Cage really isn’t a good actor. His work here is really on par with the rather wooden and unimpressive Keanu Reeves, and Cage has only one tone here; bland.

Sure, the effects aren’t bad, in particular the transformation from Ghost Rider back into Blaze sticks out, but it doesn’t help. The film actually plays more on the lost love between Blaze and former girlfriend Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes) more than anything else. For the record, yes, Johnny Blaze did have a girlfriend in the comic book, and it was the very same Roxanne, but the movie really makes it a point for that to be a big focus and it leads to some incredible predictability from the onset of the movie. Even the villains are unimpressive. Blackheart uses one method to kill his victims, and it grows stale very quickly Having along three henchmen, Gressil (Laurence Breuls), Wallow (Daniel Frederiksen) and Abigor (Mathew Wilkinson) (who exist no where in the true Ghost Rider mythology) only tells us one thing; cannon fodder. That’s exactly what they are, and any time one begins getting some screen time, you know that there will be a rather mediocre fight followed by their death. I guess it’s important to have some comedy now, and Ghost Rider, the character, has plenty of one-liners. That’s right, comedy from a dark superhero, what a great idea. Okay, not really, and it really doesn’t help the movie in the least. It just continues to make it worse.

Nothing about Ghost Rider works and nothing is really a mystery. The Caretaker (Sam Elliott) who Johnny meets early on that happens to know and understand the curse; fairly obvious who he is. If you can’t figure it out, just think about that old, 1800’s style pocket watch he continuously looks at. Gee, can’t figure out what the connection is here. It’s not like it isn’t spelled out in the beginning of the film but then again, just about everything is.

Let me also point out that filled our DVD release with enough special features to fill two discs isn’t going to help, nor is the moniker of extended cut. The movie includes two different commentary tracks, the first with Mark Steven Johnson and Kevin Mack, the visual effects supervisor, the second is with producer Gary Foster. The second DVD has a few more bonus features including a behind the scenes look at Ghost Rider. This is actually one of the better making of features that I’ve seen (though again, it can’t help save the movie) and is divided up into three different sections that both run about 30 minutes each. You also will find a look at the animatics, the computer animation that is used in the movie before it is fully processed. Also, the origins of Ghost Rider, as seen in the comic, is covered from the 1970’s up through 2000, and there have been a number of changes with the character as any fan knows.

I can understand messing with some origins when it comes to comic book heroes making a transition to film. Covering each and every backs story for The X-Men would be close to impossible, doing some minor tweaks with the Fantastic Four and seeing it in the present time is fine, but there’s really not that much retooling that is neither needed nor necessary for Ghost Rider. But, it’s not this that makes the movie unbearable, it’s everything else. It’s the ridiculously written script, it is Cage and his acting, it’s over predictability, and Ghost Rider, like many films before it, shows that special effects cannot save a movie. While Johnson does a bit better here than he has with his past comic book efforts, Ghost Rider still isn’t great, it’s not even memorable, and this is a movie that should have simply stayed where it was; the pages of a comic book, not the silver screen or DVD.

- mike -