With the Avengers soon to arrive, the new Spiderman and the conclusion of the new Batman trilogy, comic book fans are in store for quite a treat in the coming months. So last night I went to see the first of the comic book films released this year the new Ghost Rider spirit of Vengeance movie which like the first instalment was released early in the year rather than the summer. This time the flaming skull and his human host Johnny Blaze played by Nicholas Cage are in eastern Europe, where he must try to save a child “Danny” played by Fergus Riordan being perused by the devil in return is the promise of getting his soul back and being ride of the demon that lives within him. Unlike the first one Johnny blaze seems to be more struggling to embrace the skull and is almost trying to run from it, this gives the film a much darker feel than the first one and while the usual jokes are in play they are a little more limited, Cage brings his own style to the role and at times is a little over the top as only he can do.
A film directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (responsible for Jonah Hex) is always likely to look visually stunning and this is no exception, the flaming skull was extremely well made and anyone who wants to go see a movie purely for action and effects this is certainly worth a watch. However as with most films special effects can only take you so far at the core there needs to be a story that gets you interested and this is where like the first effort I feel this film is extremely lacking. It is a story that is more classic Hollywood than comic book and becomes overly predictable and has well more than one or two holes in the plot line, I was not a huge fan of the first film and it seems it has not been improved upon here.
Cage does what he can with the role and is not a bad choice but he can only work within the parameters of the story, Ciaran Hinds an actor I do like a lot is not perhaps the best choice as the devil he is a little creepy but he does not come across well as the trickster devil from this comic. Violante Placido plays the gypsy mother who has her own pact with the devil and Idris Elba plays the mysterious French priest looking to help save the boy, even a little appearance from Christopher Lambert as a monk trying to keep the devil at bay as well is not enough to improve this film. on the plus side for the film the role of Danny played by young Fergus Riordan for me steals the show and is the one bright spark in an otherwise lacking film.
The story of Ghost rider in the comics prays on those who do evil of any kind, a tale that hits home with people who not only generally have demons inside us but who among us has not once done one kind of evil, he is a complex character and this complexity is oft ignored in the film version, it has the potential to be a great comic book story but so far in my opinion the makers are 0 for 2 in terms of bringing it from the pages to life. In an ideal world the rider himself would ensure the evil of making another in this series would not happen and instead the studio may re-boot it in the future or perhaps the studio did a deal with the devil themselves to get money from un-suspecting movie goers. if you want to just go and see some very well done special effects by all means go and see this, but if you want to go see a movie that is genuinely worth watching then go to something else, it would seem comic fans will have to wait for the three films mentioned above in order to satisfy them this year.