Review - Ghost Rider

Ghost Rider is really a second-tier superhero, but he is certainly one of the coolest-looking. As is the trend with Marvel’s characters, his power is also his curse; a deal made with the Devil when a teen-ager has meant that Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) turns into a biker with a flaming skull at night, and is forced to do the Evil One’s bidding. This might be highly rad, but it plays havoc with your social life. This slice of hokum tells this origin story and has Ghost Rider bagging his first villain in a light and fun way.

Nicholas Cage is obviously having a blast finally playing a superhero (he is a huge comic geek), and he adds some great kooky touches to the character; he does his usual bad-ass Elvis shtick with great aplomb, making it obvious that this isn’t a film to be taken seriously. Peter Fonda is suitably menacing as Mephistopheles (the Devil in Marvel-speak), Donal Logue is charming as Johnny’s best friend Mack, and Eva Mendes has a nice spunky edge to her as the love interest. The whole tone is quite comedic, overlaid with some Goth and Wild West motifs. The focus is mainly on the fire- and motorbike-heavy action, which uses some very good CGI for the hero and his ghostly villains.

Ghost Rider has one major flaw, though. It doesn’t really make any sense. The MacGuffin at the centre of the plot (some sort of contract) is very sketchily drawn, and at the end when you expect answers, you don’t get them. Weirdly, I didn’t mind that that much, as it was a fun, if superficial, ride. This was the director Mark Steven Johnson’s follow-up to Daredevil, a film I liked, though no-one else seemed to. Other people did like the Director’s Cut, though, because the story actually made sense in it. Let’s hope there’s a director’s cut of this lying around somewhere to absolve him all over again.

But even if that never surfaces, this is still a good popcorn flick with a wonderfully enthusiastic central performance, which should enthuse the audience for its 114 minute running time.