Ghost Rider
Sometimes in the neverending cycle of comic book movies, some of the best and most interesting ones were those that covered the second tier or āBā level heroes of the genre (The Punisher, The Crow, Judge Dredd) while the so called āmainstreamā heroes with their movies can get increasingly boring and repetitive, possibly because the filmmakers can take these lesser known names and expand upon some pretty interesting ideas and themes that would be out of place in something like Captain America. Thus when this motorcycle riding supernatural badass was given his own $100 million dollar cinematic treatment in 2007, it didnāt take much to get Nicolas Cage to sign on to be the star. Long known as a voracious comic book reader (who even named his own son Kal-El!), it should come as no surprise then that Cageās lifelong favorite comic character is none other than Ghost Rider himself, so much so that he even carries a tattoo of the character (which was covered up with makeup during filming) on his own person. As for the themes and ideas contained within the material, it was some pretty heady stuff, that of Heaven and Hell and redemption and the value of oneās soul, and for those unaware of how the fictional religious order is in the so called make believe āMarvel Universeā, it basically comes down to this: Although society itself believes in the tenets of The Bible and Judeo Christian beliefs (as we do in real life), the truth is that āGodā in the strictest sense is in reality actually Odin (as seen in Thor and played by Anthony Hopkins) and that The Devil is not really any one individual but several different demons (thus the reason why The Devil āgoes by many namesā) who are all capable of taking souls and whatnot, but who are also in heated competition with each other over just how many souls they can rack up on their scorecards along with the occasional power struggles where if need be, one would destroy another and collect their vanquished rivalās soul collection with the intention being that at the end of time they could proclaim themselves as being the āone true Devilā and achieve ultimate power in the process (which is not all that different from Highlanderās Immortals). Enter Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles, still loving life almost 40 years after Easy Rider and bringing all of the suave, subtle nuances that such a figure should have. He approaches a young Johnny Blaze (played by a younger actor as Cage was well into his forties by then) when he notices that his mentoring father (a stunt bike racer who works with his son on the carnival circuit) is suffering horribly from cancer. His offer? To cure his fatherās cancer in exchange for the young manās soul. The youthful Blaze agrees and the next day, his father is cured of his illness but then dies that very same day when his motorcycle malfunctions during a routine jump (obviously a situation manipulated by Fonda). Blaze curses Fonda for what he did (even though he held up his end of the bargain), but Fonda laughingly reassures him that he does indeed have a purpose for the young man in the future and that he will be in touch. Flash forward many years later and Cageās Blaze is now a world famous daredevil motorcyclist who has just set the world record for a motorcycle jump at 300 feet (a record that would be broken in real life 6 months after the filmās release). Always carrying around with him the secret of his pact with Fonda, Cage lives life on the edge when he does his stunt shows in front of large stadium crowds, but privately doesnāt drink, listens to soft music like The Carpenters, watches cartoons and innocently goofball TV shows to unwind, and has a large collection of literature about demonology and the occult in order to keep himself informed. More importantly, he longs for that āsecond chanceā in his existence, that when the time comes where he is forced to choose between good and evil (despite the absence of his soul), he will make the right choice and prove that he is worthy of redemption. That chance seems to appear in the form of Roxanne (Eva Mendes), the long lost love from his youth whom he abandoned after his fatherās death but who now represents the possible road back to being who he once was. But alas, Fonda also reappears, and he has a serious purpose for Cage as a wayward son of his named Blackheart (Wes Bentley, much maligned unfairly for his petulant Antichrist performance here but actually doing quite well considering that he was in the midst of a major substance abuse problem at the time during filming) has come to Earth looking to rule after he overthrows his father and needs a large contract with over a thousand souls on it to do so. It is then that Fonda grants Cage the power of the Ghost Rider (explained as being The Devilās Bounty Hunter who collects souls for him) and tells him that his mission is to destroy Blackheart and then he can have his soul back. Thatās pretty much the story here along with having Sam Elliott on board as an old caretaker at a large cemetary who himself is a former Ghost Rider and mentors Cage along the way. The film thankfully finds an even tone for the material, allowing Fonda and Bentley the luxury of having their villainous one liners but never letting them (or the story) cross the line into truly campy stupidity. Cage does fine as well with a role which he waited years to play, showing Blaze to be an even tempered, matter of fact guy who straight up and bluntly tells Mendes the truth about himself while quietly accepting the fact that she thinks heās crazy and walks out on him. I could have done without the character of Cageās best friend and main member of his stunt crew (Donal Logue) who seems to do nothing else with his screentime except whine and constantly second guess his boss right up to the moment of the stunts themselves (which makes one wonder why he would do something like this for a living and why Cage even keeps him around) and whose quick and abrupt death at the hands of Bentley comes off as being completely meaningless for such a major character, so much so that even Cage himself barely reacts when he sees his ābest friendā dead. There is also the glaring plot hole of having Ghost Rider stop a mugger and get stabbed in the process, requiring Elliott to stitch him up the next day when heās āhumanā again, but later on when he gets pumped full of enough bullets to drop an elephant, he just shakes it off like nothing has happened and has no bad reaction either when he returns to normal later on. But probably the biggest disappointment is when Elliott himself offers to ride alongside him on his āghost horseā to the final confrontation (making for a great little sequence of seeing them together side by side) but when they finally arrive at their destination, Elliott suddenly informs Cage that he has to go now and vanishes into thin air, leaving Cage to take on Bentley and his goons by himself. That being said, the themes of religious and moral convictions and holding onto them no matter what the odds through the power of choice are still sound, with Ghost Riderās main weapon being his āPenance Stareā, where he basically judges evil beings by making them look into his eyes and suffer for all their sins mentally (although it doesnāt work on Bentley since he has no soul to begin with, nor does he have to play by the rules of other demons since he was born in Hell and not cast out of Heaven), something that allegedly reduces the evildoer to being a pile of whimpering jelly but doesnāt necessarily kill them. Even as Cage (in many peopleās eyes) has seemed to become a walking parody of himself in recent years, the fact that he believed in the project enough (unlike the heavily considered Johnny Depp who probably wouldnāt have brought the same passion) to even go so far and do a sequel (which barely anybody saw since it slipped under the radar) out of respect for the character shows that his particular background and dedication as an actor made him a perfect choice here for playing a superhero with a tortured soul even though he doesnāt actually have oneā¦
8/10