Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Year: 2011
Director: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Fergus Riordan & Johnny Whitworth
Runtime: 95 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 03/07/23
Director: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Idris Elba, Ciaran Hinds, Violante Placido, Fergus Riordan & Johnny Whitworth
Runtime: 95 mins
BBFC: 12
Published: 03/07/23
In my review of 2007’s Ghost Rider I say that despite being an inherently flawed film I enjoy it regardless. I remember watching it a lot when I was growing up, and it’s likely got a lot to do with nostalgic attachment, but I do find it fun. But its sequel, 2011’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, I never watched. I remember it coming out at the cinema at the height of the post-Avatar 3D craze, where everything was 3D for no particular reason, and I remember seeing the trailer and thinking it looked good (I’ve even re-watched the trailer just now, and yeah, I think it looks halfway decent). But abysmal reviews stopped me from going to see it, and then it just faded out of memory for me until I decided to watch all of the Marvel ‘Legacy’ films. I was prepared to give Spirit of Vengeance the benefit of the doubt, prepared to enjoy a flawed film like I did with the original. But honestly, I think it might be one of the worst films I’ve ever seen.
Eight years after becoming the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) is hiding in Romania (which is hilariously just reffered to as ‘Eastern Europe’ for the whole film) to try and keep the demon at bay. But when he is contacted by Moreau (Idris Elba), to help recover a kidnapped child, Danny (Fergus Riordan), from Mephisto (Ciaran Hinds), Blaze mounts his flaming motorcycle once again to reunite a mother, Nadya (Violante Placido), with her son, and stop Mephisto from becoming more powerful.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve spent a lot of time and energy bitching about how underwhelming Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, and whilst my opinion hasn’t changed, watching Spirit of Vengeance has certainly put things into perspective as to what a bad superhero film actually is. This isn’t even a case of the film being bland and lacking a personality, this is outright awful creative decision making, and a lack of talent behind those in the director’s chair.
I work at a university and I because of my affiliations with the film department I often get to check out student film projects, and it should come as no surprise that you see some real stinkers from time to time. But honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a student film even look this bad. I’ve made a handful of short films in my time, and I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, but I genuinely could have made a better film than Spirit of Vengeance. There is not a single component of Spirit of Vengeance that is well made, nor do any of the parts work together to make a cohesive whole. It’s just stuff on a screen, and not even good stuff at that. Allow me to elaborate.
Eight years after becoming the Ghost Rider, Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage) is hiding in Romania (which is hilariously just reffered to as ‘Eastern Europe’ for the whole film) to try and keep the demon at bay. But when he is contacted by Moreau (Idris Elba), to help recover a kidnapped child, Danny (Fergus Riordan), from Mephisto (Ciaran Hinds), Blaze mounts his flaming motorcycle once again to reunite a mother, Nadya (Violante Placido), with her son, and stop Mephisto from becoming more powerful.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve spent a lot of time and energy bitching about how underwhelming Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe is, and whilst my opinion hasn’t changed, watching Spirit of Vengeance has certainly put things into perspective as to what a bad superhero film actually is. This isn’t even a case of the film being bland and lacking a personality, this is outright awful creative decision making, and a lack of talent behind those in the director’s chair.
I work at a university and I because of my affiliations with the film department I often get to check out student film projects, and it should come as no surprise that you see some real stinkers from time to time. But honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a student film even look this bad. I’ve made a handful of short films in my time, and I don’t like to blow my own trumpet, but I genuinely could have made a better film than Spirit of Vengeance. There is not a single component of Spirit of Vengeance that is well made, nor do any of the parts work together to make a cohesive whole. It’s just stuff on a screen, and not even good stuff at that. Allow me to elaborate.
The story is wrought with problems. First off, we’re given a quick recap from Johnny at the start of the film as to how he acquired the power of the Ghost Rider, and what it has done to him. But the problem is that the recap recounts events differently to how they happened in the original film. So, is this a sequel? Because if it can’t even remain continuity in the backstory then I’m thinking no, not to mention that Cage plays Blaze totally differently to how he did in the first film (but more on that later). The whole film is centred around rescuing this teenager, Danny, and Blaze manages to do this during every single action sequence, but then Danny is immediately and often inexplicably stolen back the moment the action sequence ends. Mephisto’s plan isn’t ever really explained, we know that Danny is his son, and he wants to take over his son’s body, but the explanation as to why is mostly absent (something about him needing a younger body to be more powerful, but as I say, it’s not properly explained). Plus, Mephisto is never referred to as Mephisto, he’s always called Roarke for some strange reason, and it’s made even more confusing as Peter Fonda doesn’t return to play Mephisto/Roarke from the original film. So, for the majority of the film, I thought that Roarke and Mephisto were different characters, only to do a quick Google and find out that they are one and the same.
Anyway, back to the plot. Danny was under the protection of monks in a monastery, but Nadya seems to think they’ve been on the run and without aid for several years. Plus, the guy Roarke has sent to track Danny down is Nadya’s ex-boyfriend who is also the leader of some kind of militia. It’s just all so cobbled together by convenience, rather than events and people put together from good writing.
The story itself could be looked past if the production values were at least as good as the first films, but as previously stated, this looks like a low-budget fan film, and not a very good one at that.
Directors Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor are perhaps most well-known for Crank, a low budget Jason Statham action film that was mostly criticised for being poor quality and juvenile. Spirit of Vengeance shares those facets. Their ‘signature’ filmmaking style is utilising consumer quality full-HD camcorders and strapping rollerblades to their feet (rather than using professional cameras and a dolly or rig system). So, it’s immediately obvious that Spirit of Vengeance looks off because of how low quality the image is. Sure, it’s 1080p, but the image has no depth, there’s almost no colour because it’s so washed out, and it’s just so shaky because they’re just holding camcorders the whole time. The editing is just as bad, with so many short, sharp cuts piled on top of each other that it makes the action impossible to follow. Most of the shots don’t abide by the generic rules of filmmaking too, so you’ll often find shots that cross over each other, making you wonder whether the shot you just saw was the continuation of the shot that preceded it, or just something that got slipped in by accident. There’s also some questionable direction going on anyway because there’s a scene where a goon is trying to break open a car door to get to Danny, but rather than smash the window the guy hits the door handle with his gun until it falls open somehow. Such poor direction, mixed with some of the worst editing I’ve ever seen makes you wonder whether Neveldine & Taylor have ever actually seen a film before, or know how normal people function.
Using such low-quality equipment also poses problems for the 3D version of the film. Because the film wasn’t shot in 3D, any 3D post-production relies on the image having as much depth as possible. Because the image looks completely flat due to the choice of cameras, it means that there are next to no 3D elements in the film whatsoever. No depth, no foreground, nothing. The only elements that are 3D are the CGI ones, which then laughably stick out like a sore thumb because they clearly don’t look like they belong in the same environment as the rest of the film. But even then, the 3D on the CGI doesn’t work very well, so why bother? Watching the film in 2D then means that the colour has been sapped out of it even more than it was originally, and the brightness has been whacked right up to compensate for the 3D making everything darker. So, the result is similar to Saw 3D where every white actor looks like their skin is the same shade as paper, grey environments look a bit green, and what little blood there is appears pink.
Anyway, back to the plot. Danny was under the protection of monks in a monastery, but Nadya seems to think they’ve been on the run and without aid for several years. Plus, the guy Roarke has sent to track Danny down is Nadya’s ex-boyfriend who is also the leader of some kind of militia. It’s just all so cobbled together by convenience, rather than events and people put together from good writing.
The story itself could be looked past if the production values were at least as good as the first films, but as previously stated, this looks like a low-budget fan film, and not a very good one at that.
Directors Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor are perhaps most well-known for Crank, a low budget Jason Statham action film that was mostly criticised for being poor quality and juvenile. Spirit of Vengeance shares those facets. Their ‘signature’ filmmaking style is utilising consumer quality full-HD camcorders and strapping rollerblades to their feet (rather than using professional cameras and a dolly or rig system). So, it’s immediately obvious that Spirit of Vengeance looks off because of how low quality the image is. Sure, it’s 1080p, but the image has no depth, there’s almost no colour because it’s so washed out, and it’s just so shaky because they’re just holding camcorders the whole time. The editing is just as bad, with so many short, sharp cuts piled on top of each other that it makes the action impossible to follow. Most of the shots don’t abide by the generic rules of filmmaking too, so you’ll often find shots that cross over each other, making you wonder whether the shot you just saw was the continuation of the shot that preceded it, or just something that got slipped in by accident. There’s also some questionable direction going on anyway because there’s a scene where a goon is trying to break open a car door to get to Danny, but rather than smash the window the guy hits the door handle with his gun until it falls open somehow. Such poor direction, mixed with some of the worst editing I’ve ever seen makes you wonder whether Neveldine & Taylor have ever actually seen a film before, or know how normal people function.
Using such low-quality equipment also poses problems for the 3D version of the film. Because the film wasn’t shot in 3D, any 3D post-production relies on the image having as much depth as possible. Because the image looks completely flat due to the choice of cameras, it means that there are next to no 3D elements in the film whatsoever. No depth, no foreground, nothing. The only elements that are 3D are the CGI ones, which then laughably stick out like a sore thumb because they clearly don’t look like they belong in the same environment as the rest of the film. But even then, the 3D on the CGI doesn’t work very well, so why bother? Watching the film in 2D then means that the colour has been sapped out of it even more than it was originally, and the brightness has been whacked right up to compensate for the 3D making everything darker. So, the result is similar to Saw 3D where every white actor looks like their skin is the same shade as paper, grey environments look a bit green, and what little blood there is appears pink.
Cage’s performance is perhaps the one saving grace to those who enjoy his most over the top style performances. In the original film, Cage played Blaze with a kind of cocky arrogance that served him well as a quippy one-liner type anti-hero. Here Cage swings wildly from moody manic depressive all the way to a borderline Wicker Man style performance as he screams and yells with a crazy look in his eyes. For some people that may be enough to make the film worth watching, but I’m not the biggest Nic Cage fan at the best of times so to see him hamming it up as much as this just added insult to injury.
Idris Elba presents a true career worst as he struggles with a French accent (that sometimes sounds Jamaican) and has no sincerity behind anything he says. This was early in his international career, but having been a big name on British TV for a while before this came out, he really has no excuse for being this awful beyond some crappy direction (which is most likely the culprit).
The rest of the cast often fumble around like they don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing, where they are supposed to look, or what the motivation of their character is. Cage is a professional at being in bad films so he makes it look easy, but you can really see the rest of the cast struggling to convincingly get through any scene.
I hadn’t expected to dislike Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance as much as I have, but it has shot straight into my list of the worst films I have ever watched. There are no redeeming qualities to it, for me anyway, and whilst some people may get a kick out of Nic Cage doing what he does best, it just made it all the more unbearable for me.
Every single creative decision made in this film seems like the wrong one. Rarely have I seen a film that’s so poorly mishandled as this, and it genuinely makes me thankful that even in their current state, the MCU and DCEU have never actually sunk this low. I think this may be the worst superhero film of the twenty-first century by a significant margin, and I would genuinely rather sit and stare at a blank wall for ninety minutes than subject myself to Spirit of Vengeance ever again. I’m not even going to sell my copy of the Blu-Ray, I’m going to burn it so nobody else has to go through the torment of watching it.
Idris Elba presents a true career worst as he struggles with a French accent (that sometimes sounds Jamaican) and has no sincerity behind anything he says. This was early in his international career, but having been a big name on British TV for a while before this came out, he really has no excuse for being this awful beyond some crappy direction (which is most likely the culprit).
The rest of the cast often fumble around like they don’t know what they’re supposed to be doing, where they are supposed to look, or what the motivation of their character is. Cage is a professional at being in bad films so he makes it look easy, but you can really see the rest of the cast struggling to convincingly get through any scene.
I hadn’t expected to dislike Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance as much as I have, but it has shot straight into my list of the worst films I have ever watched. There are no redeeming qualities to it, for me anyway, and whilst some people may get a kick out of Nic Cage doing what he does best, it just made it all the more unbearable for me.
Every single creative decision made in this film seems like the wrong one. Rarely have I seen a film that’s so poorly mishandled as this, and it genuinely makes me thankful that even in their current state, the MCU and DCEU have never actually sunk this low. I think this may be the worst superhero film of the twenty-first century by a significant margin, and I would genuinely rather sit and stare at a blank wall for ninety minutes than subject myself to Spirit of Vengeance ever again. I’m not even going to sell my copy of the Blu-Ray, I’m going to burn it so nobody else has to go through the torment of watching it.