Ghost Rider

Year: 2007
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Wes Bentley, Sam Elliott, Donal Logue, Peter Fonda

Every year there is a healthy supply of comicbook adaptations to hit the silver screen. I count four such films for this year, and this is the first one to arrive. In recent years, there have been eight Marvel comicbook characters adapted for celluloid. Spider-Man, X-Men and Blade were successful franchises. Elektra, Daredevil and Hulk were failures, while Fantastic Four and The Punisher fall in between. So where does Ghost Rider end up?

Ghost Rider tells the story of motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze, who makes a deal with Mephistopheles, the devil himself, to save his dying father. However, Johnny gets screwed when Mephisto kills his father, right after curing his lung cancer. Now Johnny is bound by the devil to serve his bidding when he is called upon. With that burden on him, Johnny leaves his past and his beloved girlfriend Roxanne behind.

Many years later, Johnny successfully becomes a world famous stunt rider. This is the time when Mephisto calls upon him to honor his agreement and become his bounty hunter. It turns out that Mephisto's power hungry son, Blackheart has arrived on earth to claim the souls from an old agreement Mephisto failed to take. And now, Mephisto wants Johnny to stop him. Despite his objection, Johnny is forced to become the Ghost Rider and do exactly that, which makes things even more complicated when Roxanne walks back into his life and tries to reconcile with him. The only person that can help him is a mysterious man called The Caretaker, who seems to know a lot about the bounty hunters created by the devil to do his bidding.

As far as comicbook films go, this one isn't quite bad. It's by no means great, but somewhat passable. Cage is a fine actor, and he is a fan of the book, so he does nicely enough as Johnny Blaze. Mendes is forgettable as the love interest, she can't quite pass off as a reporter, but she does look gorgeous. Bentley gets the worst lines in the film as Blackheart, and his acting suffers because of that. Elliott is memorable as The Caretaker while Fonda is creepy as Mephisto, though I have to admit, in some scenes he's unintentionally funny, which is most unfortunate.

The special effects are mostly impressive, but I can't get past the rather robotic movements of the Ghost Rider himself, the very convincing flaming skull notwithstanding. When you first see Johnny transform into GR, it is quite impressive though. The hell cycle and all the stunt work and the action sequences involving the bike are alone worth the admission price. However, Mark Steven Johnson, who also directed Daredevil, should have polished up on the dialogue a little more. Some of the lines uttered by Cage, especially at the end, are quite laughable. A little more time spent on storytelling and character development won't hurt either. And Blackheart's goons? They're quite similar to the villains in Elektra, very cartoonish and easy to kill. Hmph.

So to answer the question at the end of the first paragraph above, I'd say Ghost Rider is in between, but just a little better than Elektra, which isn't great. Cheesy but quite fun, indeed. You can chew on this while waiting for Spider-Man to swing back into cinemas for the third time in May. (2.5/5)