Ghost Rider
Year: | 2007 |
Studio: | Columbia |
Director: | Mark Steven Johnson |
Producer: | Avi Arad/Michael De Luca |
Writer: | Mark Steven Johnson |
Cast: | Nicolas Cage, Eva Medes, Sam Elliott, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley |
Another year, another comic book movie, each one lamer than the last, with a name actor who comes out saying they loved reading the comic book as a kid and a director who craps on about bringing something fresh to the genre and everybody over-using the word 'dark'.
The Marvel motion graphic at the beginning is starting to be the mark of doom for these increasingly turgid films. This time Nicolas Cage is a motorcycle stunt driver who sells his soul to the devil to be invincible. When the devil comes to collect he turns into a demon-thingy whose head turns into a flaming skull at night and whose motorcycle turns into a thing of steel and chains. That's the visual gimmick. But underneath he's the same vigilante template as Batman and a million others.
As over-designed and under scripted as expected, and another wide misfire in Cage's career after the critical and box office kerthunk of The Wicker Man.