Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - Rate & Review Thread

[the_ultimate_evil]

honestly i'm just back and all i can really say the film just left me cold

bad acting, bad script bad pacing. a lot of stupid little things, the constant bird like movement of GR or that annoying squeal when he was about to appear

i was really annoyed that all GR was boiled down to was a growling attack dog, the first film had its flaws lots of them but at least they got the idea of the rider being a personality, also if its the the guy he made the deal with what the hell was all this Roarke crap why not just call him Mephisto

it had elements better than the first, but the first had stuff better than this. sadly it seems GR is not destined to have a decent movie

[Iron_Stark]

Originally Posted by BigThor

It's funny to me when people say that this film didn't have enough action, just go watch the first GR now there's a film that didn't have enough action.

Exactly. I put in the first GR movie just before I left to see SOV and the second one blew it out of the water in terms of action.

I especially loved the final chase sequence. The fight with that decaying dude could've gone longer, but the rest was top notch.

[Snikt]

Originally Posted by Iron_Stark

Exactly. I put in the first GR movie just before I left to see SOV and the second one blew it out of the water in terms of action.

I especially loved the final chase sequence. The fight with that decaying dude could've gone longer, but the rest was top notch.

This!!! I watch Ghost Rider before I saw GR 2. It had its moments. But yes, in terms of action and Cage, GR 2 blows it out of the water.

The only part that I think is better than GR 2, is seeing the Rider go up the building; and ramping off, pulling himself back onto the building with his chain.

But GR using the moutains cutter alone, bests all the action in GR.

[wonderwoman5757]

This is so odd. I am a HARSH grader, and I'll nitpick a movie to death. I went in with low expectations, and even though there is a terrible start to the film, and a few so over the top scenes of Nic Cage ... I actually found the film surprisingly gggg ood. Wow, that was hard to say. The directors who I've blasted time and time again actually crafted some artistic images that were way above par. The gimmicky camera tricks and angles, didn't feel forced with this film,. They really felt very natural ... being so unnatural.

If they could've created a more polished beginning, and kept Cage at bay, this would've been getting glowing reviews in my opinion. I'm willing to look past the faults, and give this a thumbs up. This is far superior to the first one, which is absolute fluff. That was a film that was based on hitting a ton of different audiences, and you got a watered down turd.

But this second one was a deep dark ugly bit of poetry, and it worked.

[Riding Ghost]

Originally Posted by BigThor

It's funny to me when people say that this film didn't have enough action, just go watch the first GR now there's a film that didn't have enough action.

There is absolutely no way this GR had MORE action than the first. Now I liked the rare action that was in SOV So I suppose an arguement can be made that there was better action in SOV but it was so far and few between it was kinda a wash on that.

As far as GR screen time the first movie showed waaayyyyy more GR. I like the new GR look and attitude better but the first movie GR looked cool too, so 1st wins that handily.

Keep in mind you really cant count any of the "action" that doesnt include GR. People and monks drivin cars fast and totin guns around the whole time....just dont count as action in a GR movie.

Im a big fan of GR and will buy the dvd just for the couple of % GR was in the SOV movie but as a fan this movie was an embarassement. The first movie was not an embarassement. It had an actual story to tell (though flawed) and did a nice job of basically explaining the comic origin story intertwined with a lot (at least in comparison) of GR time. For me anyone who watches both movies and thinks the SOV was the better movie has lost all credability and will be with others as a testament as to why it is hard, if not impossable for studios to make good movies when there trying to please an audience that .......well lets just say, aint right in the head.

SOV better GR, maybe, it is debatable but better movie, not even close

[Riding Ghost]

Originally Posted by the_ultimate_evil

also if its the the guy he made the deal with what the hell was all this Roarke crap why not just call him Mephisto

it had elements better than the first, but the first had stuff better than this. sadly it seems GR is not destined to have a decent movie

Agreed and agreed

[Riding Ghost]

Originally Posted by Iron_Stark

Exactly. I put in the first GR movie just before I left to see SOV and the second one blew it out of the water in terms of action.

I especially loved the final chase sequence. The fight with that decaying dude could've gone longer, but the rest was top notch.

What?? Blew out of water ?? Top Notch??

Fine to each his own but lol I dont see how they can put about ten minutes of something cool in a movie and end up having some people runnin around saying how much better of a movie it is than one that was actually good and had more.
Blew out of the water...ridiculous

Now if you compared the best 10minutes of action in SOV to best in first than maybe your right. But we're talkin about having to sit through over an hour movie for both. And SOV was dreadfully painful whereas 1st only made you cringe every now and then

[Riding Ghost]

Originally Posted by wonderwoman5757

this is so odd. I am a harsh grader, and i'll nitpick a movie to death. I went in with low expectations, and even though there is a terrible start to the film, and a few so over the top scenes of nic cage ... I actually found the film surprisingly gggg ood. Wow, that was hard to say. The directors who i've blasted time and time again actually crafted some artistic images that were way above par. The gimmicky camera tricks and angles, didn't feel forced with this film,. They really felt very natural ... Being so unnatural.

If they could've created a more polished beginning, and kept cage at bay, this would've been getting glowing reviews in my opinion. I'm willing to look past the faults, and give this a thumbs up. This is far superior to the first one, which is absolute fluff. That was a film that was based on hitting a ton of different audiences, and you got a watered down turd.

But this second one was a deep dark ugly bit of poetry, and it worked.

wow.

[BigThor]

Originally Posted by Riding Ghost

There is absolutely no way this GR had MORE action than the first. Now I liked the rare action that was in SOV So I suppose an arguement can be made that there was better action in SOV but it was so far and few between it was kinda a wash on that.

As far as GR screen time the first movie showed waaayyyyy more GR. I like the new GR look and attitude better but the first movie GR looked cool too, so 1st wins that handily.

Keep in mind you really cant count any of the "action" that doesnt include GR. People and monks drivin cars fast and totin guns around the whole time....just dont count as action in a GR movie.

Oh please, the fight scenes in Ghost Rider 1 consisted of about 2 to 3 attacks on average before the demons were defeated.

They're might have been more GR in the first film but most of the time GR was on the screen he wasn't even doing anything cool.

[Drz]

Thoughts & Rambles: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is much better than the first movie, but has its own share of flaws which stop it from being the perfect ideal Ghost Rider movie out there. The director duo Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor from their Crank fame unite once again to a deliver an over the top, nasty, outright fun action flick with Nicholas Cage back as Johnny Blaze aka the Ghost Rider. I had a hell of a time watching this, but i will share my criticism at the end on how I’d love to see some improvements and the future direction with Ghost Rider.

The movie has a nice recap explaining and showcasing Johnny’s origin making this a proper “Requel” which serves as both a re-boot and a sequel to the previous movie, the best example I can think of is the Incredible Hulk by Edward Norton. No longer is Johnny Blaze the Elvis Presley alike charmer, but in this time he truly is a man cursed with a vengeful spirit inside him that’s just forcing himself to come out, because this Ghost Rider will punish any sinner out there, yes, even illegal downloaders aren’t anymore safe from the Rider’s wrath. That’s how bad things are with Blaze that he lives by himself in Eastern Europe. I really love Nicholas Cage’s whole performance during this entire movie, not only does he nail the aspect of a cursed human being who has to fight his inner demons like the Hulk, but the movie also shows him as a compassionate father figure, a stunt driver and a hero on his own right, as the movie progresses with a “character redemption” arc for Johnny Blaze, he gets rid of the Demon Spirit for a while and the movie takes a rather “Drive Angry” take on the character, which was pretty funny if you ask me. I think my favorite Nicholas Cage moments have to be when he is interrogating a arms dealer by unleashing the Rider bit by bit, and later on the movie when he has to confess his deepest guilty secret.

The Ghost Rider is also a vast improvement from the 1st movie, the poster (above) already shows how much darker and scarier he looks. When the Rider gets out, he sort of becomes this Mike Meyers a like trickster, because majority of the threats in this movie are simply humans with guns, he’s just toying around with them and playing them for laughs like a cruel nasty vengeful spirit and I loved that about him. Sadly, the one thing this movie really needs was a stronger antagonist, but I’ll get to that later.

Idris Elba (Heimdall from Thor!) is playing Moreau, an alcoholic French warrior monk in this film, and he comes off with a lot of charm. In fact my favorite joke in the movie has to be his reveal how God gracefully saved him from falling off a cliff, it was pretty funny and this movie is full of Crank a-like sense of humor, but not so much sexually perverted humor because this is a pg-13 movie. Moreau needs the Rider’s assistance to stop the Devil from capturing Danny, whom he has, plans when it comes to bringing hell on earth. Moreau in return offers to free the spirit of vengeance from Johnny and that’s the basic pitch of this movie, save the boy, save your soul.

Violante Placido plays Nadya, the mother of Danny and a pretty badass woman on her own right, but Danny really comes off as a tough street kid with alot of guts and thankfully the screenwriters realized not have him say tons of lame ass puns or try to act like a smart mouth, he lets the little scenes do the magic and comes off as very likeable child who just happens to be the son of the Devil. See the Devil saved Nadya’s life in return for giving birth to his son and with Danny becoming a teenager, the Devil wants to transfer his soul to Danny’s body so he can finally walk the earth in full power. I love the idea, because it’s totally the opposite of Jesus’ story, very clever if you ask me.

The Devil is played by Ciarán Hinds and the movie really shows the Devil as the ultimate deal maker, his lackey in this movie is Ray Carrigan (played by Johnny Whitworth) who comes off as this jackass arms dealing mercenary soldier, but at the end of the day he is just a loser villain against Ghost Rider and becomes the demon Blackout, but a super powered loser villain is still just a loser villain and that’s why I really feel a Ghost Rider movie needs another Rider as the antagonist/main opponent, because the Devil is the schemer here, he’s not the fighter, but you need someone who can put up a match against him. That’s why I’d love to see a Ghost Rider movie with Steel Wind, Orb or better yet Vengeance himself as the perfect antagonist for the Rider. Heck, Christopher Lambert plays a bald tattooed warrior monk who is another minor villain in this movie, but he is only in the movie for about 5 minutes, I think he could have been another fine side opponent.

Another disappointment besides the weak opponent against Rider is that at times the cutting between scenes seemed rather rushed, there is one scene where Nadya is somehow in the enemy base already before Ghost Rider, and how on earth was she faster than the Rider? I guess the Rider went to kill some pirates before getting his hands dirty with bigger threats.

Overall, this is another visually entertaining movie from the Neveldine/Taylor duo, the movie also has 3 animated sequences that serve as storytelling tools to explain parts of the mythology with the demons & angels in this story and I thought those we’re really well done, the music is also wonderful with a mix of techno, heavy & solo guitar rock play giving a good high pumped action feel to this all. I’d also like to really recommend Drive Angry from Nicholas Cage & the Crank movies from Neveldine/Taylor if you haven’t seen them before, because I really felt this was sort of an “remake” of Drive Angry with Ghost Rider, added with the Neveldine/Taylor visuals and humor. It’s a fun movie, but nothing hugely special, just a solid fun roadie action movie with Ghost Rider being a total badass.

I voted "better than 1st one but flawed"

[Mr.T]

Watch Ghost Rider then immediately go watch SOV. That's what I did and thats why I think SOV was a much better film. You're expectations are driven so low after seeing the first. I loved the grungy tone the 2nd flick took on. It was definitely geared towards adults. The first movie seemed like it was trying very hard to take GR subject matter and make it appealing for kids/teens/family. Forcing a square peg into a round hole, Spawn like, it didn't work..

[dodgers2213]

Annoying 20 fps, lazy and cheap cgi sequences, uninteresting characters from top to bottom, Ghost Rider screams for half the movie and is incredibly ineffective to shot guns, and just boring hunk of turd

I can't really give it a star rating. Its just ass

[Doc Phosphorus]

There's literally nothing interesting about the first one except for Peter Fonda, Sam Elliott and a couple of good spazz-outs by Cage. It is the definition of average, middle-of-the-road, by-the-numbers superhero movie. Blackheart was maybe the least threatening villain to ever "antagonize" a hero.

SOV at least went for something different. I thought it was fun and hilarious, but I feel that even if I came out not liking it, I'd still respect it. It's always more interesting to watch a movie that tries and fails than a lazy piece of product.

[spideyboy_1111]

my official verdict is as follows

Pro's
-better than the first (but that doesn't say much)
-the CGI was pretty stunning
-the Cinematography was perfect for Ghost Rider
-I loved every scene with Ghost Rider
-The "horror" element of GR was felt imo
-I thought the boy, his mom, and Idris Elba worked
-the touching upon the demon, and it's fallen angel side (though it should have been more explored)

and now the Cons...
-Nicholas Cage, get rid of him. He was the largest glaring problem with this...
-stop letting the demon's insanity effect Johnny Blaze upon transforming. It comes off really cheesy and stupid. It's also glaringly awkward when the demon acts nothing like that
-the whole devil/mephisto thing was kinda stupid, they shouldn't of changed such a petty thing from the first film
-johnny blaze is too old, get a 20 something year old to play him, or (if there is ever a third film, have him pass the torch to a young ketch. I can't even begin to think of the horror of Nic Cage mooning the audience while doing a flip on his bike
-Rourke.. the actor felt like stereotypical garbage lucifer villain
-Black out... waste of a potentially awesome villain, and the actor was horrendus
-the movie lagged at times.

All in all this isn't marvel's worst film... i can think of 3 or 4 i'd throw under it. But it's not anywhere near perfect, but it was a step in the right direction. I'd recommend the next ghost rider film, to have more of a tone of the Nightwatch and Daywatch films

this film also makes the first look like a "disney" version imo...

[WOLVERINE25TH]

I went in with really low expectations based on the trailer, but I was pleasantly surprised by how enjoyable it was. Was it a great movie? Not at all. But it was pretty good, and I'm a harsh critic as anyone who knows me can tell you.

I did a full review here, but these are the basics of what I thought:

The good:
-Ghost Rider looking darker and creepier, playing up the horror aspect of the character that often gets ignored in most depictions. The dirty bike and bubbly outfit, along with the darker skull, made for some perfect looking scenes.

-The SFX were great, especially in the object transformation scenes. One of the best moments in the film right there.

-The supporting cast, for the most part, were much better at their jobs than in the last one. Although I think Peter Fonda woulda made a *****ing devil had his role been expanded instead of recast, this guy didn't do too bad selling it.

The bad:
-Cage's Cage-ness tends to stick out. Overall, he did a decent job, but that's because Cage was playing himself on screen: bat-**** insane.

-The snake movements. Really? I think a guy with his head on fire would be mesmerizing enough.

-The contrivances to give normal people a chance against GR tend to stick out, but very few people can handle that balance effectively to have humans plausibly fight against the supernatural.

-The lack of penance stare or altered GR voice.

-Blackout didn't really present much of a threat. His effect was also poorly done.

-The seriously misplaced moments of comedy, especially the very first bit. If you want to add levity, let it happen naturally. Like the Twinkie moment. THAT was genius.

[spideyboy_1111]

i thought he did the penance stare in the film.. twice actually.. but i thought it was handled completely differently? Maybe you missed it? or did i see something non existent?

[WOLVERINE25TH]

I meant the effect. They didn't do any kind of effect for it, and basically said in exposition that he was sucking their souls. Not to mention that it seemed virtually ineffective.

[Mr.T]

Originally Posted by WOLVERINE25TH

I meant the effect. They didn't do any kind of effect for it, and basically said in exposition that he was sucking their souls. Not to mention that it seemed virtually ineffective.

Yeah, they could've made the victims eyes turn black while his eyes glowed or something along those lines of the first film.

[S. Grundy]

Originally Posted by the_ultimate_evil

honestly i'm just back and all i can really say the film just left me cold

bad acting, bad script bad pacing. a lot of stupid little things, the constant bird like movement of GR or that annoying squeal when he was about to appear

i was really annoyed that all GR was boiled down to was a growling attack dog, the first film had its flaws lots of them but at least they got the idea of the rider being a personality, also if its the the guy he made the deal with what the hell was all this Roarke crap why not just call him Mephisto

it had elements better than the first, but the first had stuff better than this. sadly it seems GR is not destined to have a decent movie

The movie was basically a subtle reboot attempt. Roarke is clearly not supposed to be the first movies Mephisto, considering the differences in how strong and weak the two are in their respective movies.

[Microchip]

**1/2

Pretty forgettable, definitely not terrible. Absolutely better than the first.

The writing was mediocre mostly and awful in parts, but the cast made do with it. Moreau and Blaze probably worked the best.

I also really liked the idea of GR being after Danny's mom as well, too bad they didn't expand on that.

The action needed to be better. Not executed well enough.

All in all, this movie would have benefited from a better writer and better action. The plot itself actually wasn't bad in my opinion, just the execution. I wouldn't watch it again but I enjoyed it while I did. Barely passable.

[DigiCom]

It had the elements of a good film, but it really dragged between set pieces.

[Incredible Hans]

Just came back from the cinema.

The film is little bit worse than Elektra, and it had much more of a B-Movie than Ghost Rider I.

Strangely, it appears as if the film could not decide what it wanted to be: a sequel or a reboot. It was a little bit of both which didn't really work. Somehow I feel that we won't see part 3.

The only thing I really liked was Blackout.

[Drz]

Hans, the directors call it a Requel. It works as both a Sequel and reboot. Best example is the Incredible Hulk.

[Midnyte_Sun]

Originally Posted by Drz

Hans, the directors call it a Requel. It works as both a Sequel and reboot. Best example is the Incredible Hulk.

TIH was entirely a reboot. GR 2 to me was more of a retcon.

[Incredible Hans]

Originally Posted by Drz

Hans, the directors call it a Requel. It works as both a Sequel and reboot. Best example is the Incredible Hulk.

Yes, but that's what simply doesn't work.