Ok, so I saw Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengance today. I went into this film with an open mind as I enjoyed the original for what it was, a mediocre action popcorn romp. I went into this film with similar expectations. Here is my rundown of the film.
Story:
The story follows Blaze as he tries to save a child named Danny (Ketch maybe ?)and if he succeeds his curse will be lifted. The premise wasn't terrible in my opinion. There are a bunch of weird spots in the story and a lot of lulls between the action. The dialogue is very poorly written and very predictable. Although I didn't go into the theater expecting a good story.
Acting:
None of the acting in this film was very good. The best one in the whole movie was Idris Elba, although I have seen him in much better roles. Nicholas Cage's acting skills seem to have deteriorated over time as he was terrible in this film. He would act really foolish when he was on the brink of transforming into the Rider. The child who played Danny was in my opinion the worst thing about the film. His character was intended to be played off as a badass and his lack of acting skills caused the attempt to fall short. He was as irritating as young anakin in Star Wars Episode 1. Yes, that bad.
Action:
There were only a few action scenes in the film and they were decent but I expected a little more to them. There were some very brutal kills in the film. Although the foes turned to ash when GR killed them, there were guys cut in half and other forms of dismemberment. The chase scene at the beginning of the film (the scene advertised with Elba shooting the van in mid air) was very cool. The camera angles used in this scene and the final chase scene were very cool. The camera was in front of the vehicles which created a very, very cool effect. Most of the shots of the Ghost Rider were shots from the final battle scene. Overall, the few action scenes there were, were fine but still felt something lacking.
Effects:
As most people have said, the Ghost Rider effects are much better in this film. The skull is charred and emits black smoke which is much more realistic. There is a very subtle effect where the riders jacket bubbles like tar, which I thought was very cool. The Rider's bike also left fire trails very much like Back To The Future, If only he could go back to the first film.... Other than the Rider, there wasn't anything that stood out to me.
Final Opinion:
The first movie was much better, story and action wise. The Ghost Rider effects in this film were much better. The film missed many cool scenes not, unlike the ones where the Rider rode up the building and when Blaze used the shadows to transform his gun. This was not a very good film at all, I actually enjoyed Punisher:War Zone much better and that was also bad. If the studios could've combined the few good elements from this film into the first film, we could've had a really cool Ghost Rider film. And am I the only one who though Nic Cage's hairpiece was terrible in this film? His hairpiece in the original made him look much younger. Johnny Blaze isn't supposed to look 50!!!!
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