I just now got back from watching Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and have decided to try my hand at a review of the movie. Spoiler free, might I add?
Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, the guys that brought us the Crank films, helmed 2012's return of our flaming-skulled antihero. Did they do a good job? Yes and no. Mostly no. But here's why"
This movie is kind of hit and miss throughout...And then more miss. I went into this movie, purposely, with very high hopes, knowing I'd be let down. But the parts that let me down weren't what I thought they'd be.
Now to get this out there... I am a Nic Cage fan. I've always enjoyed his acting. Aside from a few of his roles, and was looking forward to seeing how he'd step it up in this sequel? Well...he didn't really step it up. His Johnny Blaze was far different from his portrayal in the first film, and just a bit(a lot) on the worst side. He seemed to portray Johnny Blaze as a crackhead. It was off-putting and just unnecessary. As much as I love Cage, his overacting in this film rivaled Jim Carries in all of his films. And that is saying something. To say this portrayal was dull is truly an understatement.
In the first film, I could kind of buy him as Johnny Blaze. But this time around, he just seemed like an addict, looking to bully people for drugs.
When we see his portrayal as Ghost Rider, the special effects are spot on and very visually brilliant, imo. I enjoyed every scene with Ghost Rider in it. However... There are parts to his GR performance that really, and I'm bringing up a Jim Carrey reference again, seemed very much like the Ghost of Christmas Past, from Jim Carrey's Christmas Carol. You could tell he channeled his snake companion as influence for his performance, and it did not pay off. But GR was still very menacing most of the time, and I enjoyed every scene with him in it. As I said before. The quarry scene stands out as a very good scene. But it is over way to quickly.
Idris Elba does make good from what little he's given, and A little more backstory to Moreau would have been nice. Ciarin Hines was just dull, and left you wishing Peter Fonda had come back for the sequel.
Blackout was just terrible. I didn't think that Blackheart could be beaten in the lousy villain awards for GR films, but it happened. I would have preferred Johnny Whitworth to remain as Carrigan, rather than become a terrible Blackout.
Violante Placido is beautiful, and like Elba, did the best she could with what she had. Fergus Riordan is forgettable as Danny, and Christopher Lambert's small role wasn't enough to really judge his performance.
All in all, I say the action scenes were done very well, and I enjoyed that part of the movie. The story between wasn't anything other than flat, and the plot was just nothing to praise. We got another Ghost Rider movie with even less intimidating villains, and even worse acting/story.
I'm glad I saw the movie in theaters, if for nothing more than the need to say I saw it, and I'm guessing that Marvel will eventually get the rights back. (crosses fingers)
2012, the year of the CBM has indeed started. Just not with the "BANG" we were hoping for.
I rate Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance 5 out of 10. But only because I did enjoy the action scenes. Cheers!