'Ghost Rider' - One Hell of A Ride
By: Tim - aurora - Dunn

Hollywood is obsessed with two things, the first being turning comics into movies. More often then not those attempts have ranged from abysmal to mildly entertaining. The latest venture into the comic book superhero genera, 'Ghost Rider' lies on a real fine edge between heaven and hell in more ways then one. While our hero if such may be the case, Ghost Rider (played by Nicolas Cage) is the only creature able to walk in among all worlds, Earth, Hell and in his hope Heaven. But so does the movie it's self. It seems lost between two worlds as well as success and failure.

The story starts out establishing the origins of the Ghost Rider, well at least the latest version. As with Buffy, 'in each generation there is one chosen.' Also like Buffy, the Ghost Rider is called to be a slayer, or more appropriately in this case the devils bounty hunter. As a young motherless child (was Disney involved here?) Johnny Blaze and his father perform motorcycle stunts in the carnival circuits. Johnny is young, in love and a showoff. Learning that his girlfriend is set to leave they make plans to run away together the next day. But as fate would have it Johnny finds out his father is dying that very night. In steps Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) all but tricking Johnny into signing his soul over to save his fathers life. Semi-true to his word Mephistopheles cures his father only to cause his death in a show the following day. Johnny does indeed runaway as planned but he also leaves his girlfriend behind.

Sidestep several years later and Johnny is an Evil Knievelesque super star performing ever more death defying (literally) motorcycle jumps. Out of the blue jumps in now TV reporter Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes) and mysteriously love sparks anew. Again just as Johnny and Roxanne are about to get together Mephistopheles reappears calling in the soul selling deal and transforming Johnny into the Ghost Rider. This Rider though has a special mission and that is to send his son, a fallen angel and his henchmen collectively known as the Hidden, back to hell. So off in a blaze (pun intended) Ghost Rider goes collecting souls for Mephistopheles and dealing with the Hidden.

Naturally there’s more to the story including the main story line of an old west town full of a thousand souls that were not collected by the previous Ghost Rider 150 years ago. This happens to be the goal of the Hidden, to get that contract and open the End Days of the world. But here’s where things start falling apart with this movie. There’s lots of story lines and none of them get the full attention to detail they both deserve and cry out for. It’s like they knew they needed something more then a comic book translation and VFX so they started throwing different ideas into a hat, somehow managed to film them and brought them together in a potpourri sort of way.

The love story between Johnny and Roxanne is the perfect example of all the broken pieces of this movie. Instant love renewed after a tragic separation as kids, followed up by Roxanne getting stood up on their first date, followed by Johnny announcing why and then shortly later Roxanne instantly seeing and believing. If there is a weak link in the chain of this story it’s in this love story.

On the other hand they did throw something important in. The movies based on a comic book, so lets through some comedy in and that comedy played out well. As if in a movie of my own when I went to view this movie I had a gang of the largest, ugliest, bike riders sitting a few rows behind me. Who would ever think that you could have a scary group like them laughing so hard that you question if it’s Halloween and these were just comic book geeks in custom. Most of the comedy thrown in is intentional and with short quick jibes. Often cheesy but it had everyone, including a mother of a young kid that was more interested in her cell phone then the movie, laughing long and hard.

The second, and for us, more important part of the movie are the effects. After watching previews I was not very excited in see this movie, especially not being a Nicholas Cage fan. The flaming skull just looked cheesy as heck. Happily that is pretty much the worst of the VFX in the movie. While not in the same league as Peter Jackson’s latest works, Ghost Rider does ride above the average in its effects. Diffidently much better then say 'Van Helsing', heck even better then 'The Fantastic Four'. There are plenty of technical mistakes in this movie but it does not disappoint you with lame effects. While we have seen the basics of most every effect shot in the movie, the way they are used provides for a happy two hours of fun.

One area that needed more work was in the skeletal structure of Ghost Rider, it was almost like a newbie created a semi-matte finish for the skull and then relied on the flame effects to cover it up. Plus there’s the horrible issue of lip synching the skull when he talked. That was way and by far the saddest thing to have to watch in this movie. As for the flames they have their good times and their bad times through out the movie. As the movie progressed it seems like so did the studios confidence and skill with creating the flames. While no where equal to LOTR's Balrog scenes, they are better then normal HV flame effects of other past films.

Then there's the Hidden. Four fallen angels who, cast out of heaven, take the form of human mixed with the elements, earth, air, water and well Johnny has fire so I guess that was taken so BlackHeart, the leader of the Hidden just simply evil. Again, nothing new in what we see in how they transform into ethereal beings and how they fight. Following the lead of 'Pirates' all five creatures, seven really but Mephistopheles is minimal in the VFX arena and the seventh I'll keep quite on, these creatures shift back and forth between human and demon. They paid attention well to how it's done by the 'Pirate' big boys at ILM, yet still not quite at the same level, close, oh so very close, but just a tad under the same bar. Not the best but better then average and thus not disappointing.

Another area this movie had some problems in is, is this a real world adaptation of a comic book or is it a celluloid comic. It can't really decide were its styling truly belongs. It flashes back and forth between the two worlds. In just a few weeks we have the long awaited release of '300' which knows its styling place and holds strict to it, that as a graphic novel on film. On the other hand we have 'Spider Man', X-Men', 'F4' and the like that are real world stylings. 'Ghost Rider' well like I said rides lost between both worlds.

Lastly I have to talk about the bike. Man this was the ultimate walking in two worlds. On one hand it's a Stephen King Christine-esque chopper with a mind of its own, and on the other its Herbie the Love Bug with two wheels. The 'living' concept of the Ghost Riders motorcycle is the epitome of cheesy and campy in this movie, even worse then the attempt at a love story. Heaven forbid the Ghost Riders bike actually exists in the same universe as Herbie, for surely they will meet and their kids may very well be the scariest thing ever created!

In the beginning I said there were two things Hollywood is obsessed with, the second is sequels. And yes you guessed it, they left this movie very open for a sequel. Normally I'm opposed to sequels since its extremely rare for them to be any good. But I personally had a great time watching this movie and actually find myself hoping that we see a sequel in another summer or two.

Conclusion:
'Ghost Rider' is straight from the pages of a comic book. It does have some extremely weak points in it both in story and effects. However I had more fun watching this movie then I have had in a long time. By the time the movie was over I was ready to go buy the DVD and watch it again. While it won't win any awards and well may be totally forgotten in a few years I do recommend seeing this movie. Don’t get critical with it, just hitch along for the ride and enjoy it. One other note worthy event along with the movie was a preview of the upcoming 'Resident Evil III - Extinction'. I thought that would be the highlight of the day, happily I was wrong.

Ratings:

IMDB Film Ratting (at time of writting) - 6.0/10 [499 votes]

- For a movie going experience I give it: 4 out of 5 stars.
'Ghost Rider' like most comic to movie projects lacked in a decent story, well at least a complete one in this case but on the whole it was a fun movie.

- For a technical piece of CG and VFX work I give it: 4 out of 5 stars.
While not on the same league as LOTR or Pirates the effects whould not disappoint unless your going in with the intent on ripping them apart. In which case no movie will satisfy you.

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