Monday, February 19, 2007

Ghost Rider: A Pleasant Surprise


8/10

So as you might guess from the title of this post, I enjoyed the movie Ghost Rider starring none other than Nic Cage. Believe you me, no one is more shocked than I.

Maybe it was unfamiliarity with the source material that made me like what a die-hard Ghost Rider fan might have hated, or perhaps it was the fact that I had low expectations to begin with, but GR was a fun super-hero movie that didn't try to take itself too seriously. I mean come on, it's a friggen biker dude on fire for God's sake!

So short thought review time: the movie told the origin of the Ghost Rider legend as well as provided a solid backstory for our hero Johnny Blaze. The addition of the romantic interest fueled Johnny's fire (so to speak) and the elemental villains gave a good show, though they were snuffed out a bit too quickly in my opinion. The final fight with the main villain Blackheart was well done and the way in which Johnny thought to extinguish him was rather clever.

The special effects in the film were scorching for the most part, as they should be when trying to convincingly convey a person with a flaming skull for a head. The only slip was some of the villain shots which left me a little cold. I guess the CGI folks decided to burn most of the money on the Ghost Rider effects and it definately shows as all his scenes looked incredible (especially driving up and off the building - hot momma!).

So from this movie we have learned a few things: Nicolas Cage CAN pull off playing a super-hero (thank god they didn't choose him for Superman though), Eva Mendes HATES her top three buttons, and guys with flaming heads that ride flaming transportation (bikes and horses) kick major ass. And it was better than the Hulk movie, so that's at least worth something.