Ghost Rider is one of the more beloved of Marvel's fantastical characters. Sadly, despite a vast and eagre fanbase, the character has yet to provide very well on the big screen. The main reasons for that are the fact the movies were poorly written, poorly directed, poorly designed and also, as is always the case when Nicolas Cage stars in something, poorly acted. Yet, I hold out hope that with the character now at Marvel Studios, we could see him again and done right this time. The only question we need ask is; what do I mean by done right?
1) Demons that look like demons
For me, one of the worst aspects of the other two movies was the fact that the demons were just humans with weird faces and long coats that reflected their personalities. Ghost Rider's rogues gallery is wrought with demons that could be adapted to look utterly horrifying rather than an emo in a trench coat. Blackheart, Mephisto, Lilith and Vengeance to name but a few would have been pretty awesome to see onscreen (done properly in the case of the first two) and also they can be adapted to look pretty terrifying. The poorly conceptualised demons in the other two movies really were an abomination when there's such a vast reservoir of villains to bring in and adapt well. All it would have taken was a bit of body paint and a few leftover Predator head tendrils.
2) Focus on horror, not action
A great thing about Ghost Rider is that it has its roots in old horror comics. The movies failed to put that across and focused a lot more on chase scenes, "cool" imagery and ridiculously stupid fight scenes. Ghost Rider's greatest potential for horror lies in his human rogues gallery. Characters like Jack O'Lantern would be scary as hell to see do what he does. For those who don't know, he hollows out people's heads and sets them alight. I think if Marvel were to continue to adapt Ghost Rider then their focus should stick with psychotic characters like Jack O'Lantern doing vividly disgusting things that creep out the audience and create that horror vibe. I realise Marvel's films aren't like this and that's why I'd prefer to see a Ghost Rider series on Netflix, which would have great benefit as they'd be forced to use the less demonic of his villains and focus more on the real life psychos.
3) Show us hell
Hell is very much a key aspect of Ghost Rider's character and stories. Despite that, we never even got to see it in those pas two movies. So, a great way to earn brownie points would be to show us hell and let us see what's going on down in the merry mead halls of Mephisto's realm. It'd also be a great place to throw in a bunch of Easter eggs for other well-known Marvel demons. The lack of hell and subsequent lack of low-tier demons in the other two movies severely irked me because of how quintessential hell is as a source of Ghost Rider's villains and allies. Not only that, some of his best adventures have happened down in the neather realm.
4) Make Johnny younger
I think we can all come to the very logical agreement that Nicolas Cage is one of the biggest comic book movie miscastings since Halle Berry's Catwoman. He was far too old to play Johnny Blaze, even though he was older in the movie anyway. Nevertheless, the character works better as a young guy trying to struggle, literally, with his inner demons rather than a middle-aged man who's become obsessed with the occult and testing his death limits. A younger Johnny makes a lot more sense from a character point of view and a story point of view.
5) Make Ghost Rider a hero
I can't be alone in thinking Ghost Rider didn't really do anything to help anyone in those other two movies. I mean, sure in the second one, he was helping that kid and his mother and in the first one he rescued Rebel Wilson, who's now gone on to have a more successful career than Cage could ever hope for. But, there was no real sense of superheroics going on. Ghost Rider's a powerful guy and though he's an anti-hero, the superhero aspect of him is still pretty strong and they didn't show that in the other films despite it being a dominant aspect of his character in the comics. If Marvel adapt Ghost Rider again, I'd want to see him genuinely helping people and not just hunting random demons.
What would you like to see from a revamped Ghost Rider? Would you even want to see a revamped Ghost Rider? Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments section below.