Ghost Rider
Year: 2007
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Wes Bentley, Nicolas Cage, Peter Fonda & Eva Mendes
Runtime: 110 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 27/06/23
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Starring: Wes Bentley, Nicolas Cage, Peter Fonda & Eva Mendes
Runtime: 110 mins
BBFC: 15
Published: 27/06/23
By the mid 00’s the superhero genre was in full swing and dominating box office charts, and whilst Twentieth Century Fox saw the greatest financial success with their numerous properties at the box office, Sony were no slouch with their highly successful Sam Raimi helmed Spider-Man films. But Spider-Man was not the only Sony owned Marvel property, and they had an opportunity with Ghost Rider to appeal to a more mature demographic, something that had proven to be a success in the past with New Line Cinema’s Blade trilogy, but had also proven to be a failure with Lionsgate’s The Punisher in 2004. Getting cold feet right before walking down the aisle, 2007’s Ghost Rider scaled back a lot of the more mature elements for a more ‘family-friendly’ approach, but there is only so family-friendly you can get when your film is concerned with subject matter akin to that of Ghost Rider.
After signing his soul away to the demon Mephisto (Peter Fonda), motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) finds himself cursed to be the Ghost Rider. An ancient bounty hunter tasked with collecting the souls of the damned. When Mephisto’s son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), seeks the contract of San Venganza to absorb a thousand damned souls and exponentially grow his powers, the Ghost Rider must stop him at all costs.
For me, Ghost Rider is a bit of a guilty pleasure. I will absolutely hold my hands up and say that the film is substantially lacking in a number of areas, yet no matter how many times I watch it I find myself having a good time. As with the majority of Marvel’s output in the 00’s, Ghost Rider is an origin story, but unlike most of the other films Ghost Rider manages to successfully avoid many of the tropes that come with origin stories with one simple trick; just don’t give the main character the opportunity to understand what his powers even are.
For the most part this works to the films detriment as Blaze has almost no character arc as a result, but there’s something to be appreciated about the film not having loads of time dedicated to Blaze learning how to use his powers. He just seems to get it, immediately, without even thinking about it.
After signing his soul away to the demon Mephisto (Peter Fonda), motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) finds himself cursed to be the Ghost Rider. An ancient bounty hunter tasked with collecting the souls of the damned. When Mephisto’s son, Blackheart (Wes Bentley), seeks the contract of San Venganza to absorb a thousand damned souls and exponentially grow his powers, the Ghost Rider must stop him at all costs.
For me, Ghost Rider is a bit of a guilty pleasure. I will absolutely hold my hands up and say that the film is substantially lacking in a number of areas, yet no matter how many times I watch it I find myself having a good time. As with the majority of Marvel’s output in the 00’s, Ghost Rider is an origin story, but unlike most of the other films Ghost Rider manages to successfully avoid many of the tropes that come with origin stories with one simple trick; just don’t give the main character the opportunity to understand what his powers even are.
For the most part this works to the films detriment as Blaze has almost no character arc as a result, but there’s something to be appreciated about the film not having loads of time dedicated to Blaze learning how to use his powers. He just seems to get it, immediately, without even thinking about it.
There is a lot of time spent giving exposition about the legacy of the Ghost Rider and the San Venganza contract which can slow the pace, but honestly basically all of it is somewhat entertaining because of Cage’s performance. Say what you will about Cage, but he always gives one hundred and ten percent, and in Ghost Rider that definitely leans into one of his slightly goofier roles. It works in the long run because it’s a campy comic book movie, and the hammy performance generally helps because of the awful dialogue.
Eva Mendes is not only wasted in this film, but she’s also belittled and objectified so much it hurt to watch. Every outfit she wears is skin tight with her boobs basically spilling out of it, and all her character cares about is how attractive she is because she thinks she’s not attractive…and to make matters worse literally every single character tells her she’s below average attractiveness. Firstly, this is a problem because her character only exists as an object of sexual desire and the film doesn’t even try to hide that, but what’s arguably worse is that everyone acts like Eva Mendes isn’t one of the hottest women on the planet. Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but let’s be reasonable here, it’s Eva Mendes!
I really think Fonda had a great time playing Mephisto. Do I think it’s a good version of the character? No; but I’m willing to look past that in favour of Fonda having a total blast with it. Must better than Bentley’s wooden performance as Blackheart, and his forgettable henchmen.
Ghost Rider doesn’t actually have many action scenes, and the ones it does have don’t have much happen in them. But, despite the CGI effects being a bit ropey in places, I really like the way they look.
I think the art direction was on point for his film, and that in combination with the rather active cinematography makes Ghost Rider, for me at least, an engaging watch. I also appreciate that Ghost Rider leans into the horror elements of the story with a few jump scares and some generally unpleasant imagery. It doesn’t fully commit to being a mature rated superhero film, feeling as though some of the more graphic elements were toned down or cut out to achieve a teen friendly rating. But there’s enough there that allows it to stand out from the crowd and at least entertain the idea of being a film about demons and satanic evil.
Don’t get me wrong, Ghost Rider isn’t good, but I have a good time with it and I think a lot of that comes down to the cheesiness striking the right balance against the more lacklustre elements.
I like the way the film looks, and it never gets bogged down with the minutiae; that does come at the cost of character development and fully exploring what’s possible with the Ghost Rider property, but screw it, Nic Cage dicking around on a motorcycle for an hour and fifty minutes whilst Eva Mendes just exists speaks to me on some kind of base level apparently.
Eva Mendes is not only wasted in this film, but she’s also belittled and objectified so much it hurt to watch. Every outfit she wears is skin tight with her boobs basically spilling out of it, and all her character cares about is how attractive she is because she thinks she’s not attractive…and to make matters worse literally every single character tells her she’s below average attractiveness. Firstly, this is a problem because her character only exists as an object of sexual desire and the film doesn’t even try to hide that, but what’s arguably worse is that everyone acts like Eva Mendes isn’t one of the hottest women on the planet. Sure, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but let’s be reasonable here, it’s Eva Mendes!
I really think Fonda had a great time playing Mephisto. Do I think it’s a good version of the character? No; but I’m willing to look past that in favour of Fonda having a total blast with it. Must better than Bentley’s wooden performance as Blackheart, and his forgettable henchmen.
Ghost Rider doesn’t actually have many action scenes, and the ones it does have don’t have much happen in them. But, despite the CGI effects being a bit ropey in places, I really like the way they look.
I think the art direction was on point for his film, and that in combination with the rather active cinematography makes Ghost Rider, for me at least, an engaging watch. I also appreciate that Ghost Rider leans into the horror elements of the story with a few jump scares and some generally unpleasant imagery. It doesn’t fully commit to being a mature rated superhero film, feeling as though some of the more graphic elements were toned down or cut out to achieve a teen friendly rating. But there’s enough there that allows it to stand out from the crowd and at least entertain the idea of being a film about demons and satanic evil.
Don’t get me wrong, Ghost Rider isn’t good, but I have a good time with it and I think a lot of that comes down to the cheesiness striking the right balance against the more lacklustre elements.
I like the way the film looks, and it never gets bogged down with the minutiae; that does come at the cost of character development and fully exploring what’s possible with the Ghost Rider property, but screw it, Nic Cage dicking around on a motorcycle for an hour and fifty minutes whilst Eva Mendes just exists speaks to me on some kind of base level apparently.