2007’s Ghost Rider faced an awful lot of critical scorn and a lot of disparagement from fanboys wanting a better framework for their favourite superhero with a flaming skull. The film was directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the guy who directed the charming 1998 film Simon Birch and the less-than-charming 2003 superhero film Daredevil. Johnson also served as a writer on Daredevil, Elektra, and the two Grumpy Old Men films from the mid-1990s. He wrote the screen story for Ghost Rider along with Shane Salerno, who is known as a script rewrite doctor having rewritten large components of Ghost Rider to “make it better” and also having rewritten the Kurt Russell film Breakdown.
The story behind the film of Ghost Rider all began back at Cannes, of all places, in May of 2000. Marvel Studios reached an agreement with Crystal Sky Entertainment and has Jon Voigt and his car attached as the producer to the film. Production was supposed to begin in 2001 with Johnny Depp allegedly interested to play the lead role. A year later, though, the project seemed to be in development hell as the production company shopped around for more financing and the Depp allegations never materialized. Nicolas Cage stepped in to talks about the role and closed the deal. He was Ghost Rider. Eventually, the film sat on the shelf again. It was picked up again after the success of the Spider-Man films and casting began to fill out, including Eva Mendes and Peter Fonda. That Peter Fonda? Yes, that Peter Fonda. The rest, as they say, is history.
Cage stars as Johnny Blaze, a stunt motorcycle rider. Apparently, Cage wanted to bring more “depth” to the character of Blaze and didn’t want to merely play him as a “badass.” This led to some interesting choices, to say the least, as Cage appears to be channelling Elvis for the majority of the film and presents a rather goofy veneer as opposed to a compelling character. Blaze eventually discovers that his father has terminal cancer and makes a deal with Mephistopheles (Fonda) to save his father’s life. The devil deceives Blaze, however, and eventually dispatches him to become the “Ghost Rider” and help him defeat the son of the devil, Blackheart (Wes Bentley). Eva Mendes is along for the ride as the eye candy/girlfriend of Johnny Blaze, Roxanne. Sam Elliot co-stars.
For those familiar with the comic book, Ghost Rider is probably not the most faithful adaptation of the source material one could have hoped for. For one thing, several thematic elements were downplayed for the film. A new role for the father of Johnny Blaze was established to avoid the problem of having Blaze fall for his adopted sister, as is the case in the pages of the comics. These changes, and a few others, likely didn’t do the film any favours among the comic book faithful, so that could be a huge part of the problem as to the negative reviews from fans and critics alike.
In my view, Ghost Rider was not all bad. The delivery by most of the characters and performers was rather wooden and bland, that was for sure. I wasn’t interesting in the love story between Blaze and Roxanne nearly as much as I should have been, as the pain and anguish of the situation was far from exemplified in any tangible way on screen. The chemistry between Cage and Mendes was sorely lacking. Other problems included the tepid performance from Fonda as Mephistopheles, giving the film a rather boring and uninteresting villain. With this in mind, it was hard to grasp any cohesion coming from the story and the mythology of the Ghost Rider became flat.
Still, Ghost Rider isn’t as terrible as many assume. There are some nice moments with CGI and some decent jokes along the way, although the deliver of those jokes was rather problematic. The Eva Mendes character is probably the best of the film and it doesn’t hurt that she’s incredibly nice to look at when she’s on screen. Cage as Ghost Rider is somewhat fun as he tries to channel his deep love for Elvis and attempts to turn Blaze into a bit of a disconnected rock star. With designs for a sequel and with Cage’s willingness to darken up Johnny Blaze, this tale could head in an interesting direction for the unpredictable and inconsistent actor.
All in all, Ghost Rider is far from the worst superhero adaptation we’ve seen from Hollywood. With tricky source material, Johnson’s effort is below average. Some moments of excitement do occur, but most of those are washed over as the result of the bland projections and misfiring of key components to the story. This lack of heart and engaging core give Ghost Rider a snowball’s chance in hell of being good, really. The whole project appeared damned from the start and the performers and screenplay do little to find salvation.
3/10
Trailer:
