Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider had been in the production phase since the year 2000. After struggling to find the lead, Nicholas Cage (who then later pushed production back even further to shoot other films), and fnding a script that they thought worked, the film was finally released in this year of 2007. I find it to be quite a shame that even a film that has been in production for seven years has still managed to be a real disappointment.

Based on the Marvel Comics anti-superhero, Ghost Rider follows the story of a teenage motorcycle stunt rider, Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage), who lives in a trailer with his father (Brett Cullen), both working together as father and son with a Texas Circus. When he learns his father has lung cancer, the Devil, known as Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda), proposes a deal. If Johnny signs over his soul, he will rid his father of the disease. Of course Johnny signs the contract, but days later his father dies while performing a stunt. Mephistopheles informs Johnny he now owns his soul. Johnny fleas the area on his bike, leaving his girlfriend, Roxanne (Eva Mendes) and his troubles in the past.

Many years later, Johnny has become a famous stunt rider traveling across the country to perform amazing feats. Roxanne has also grown up to be a journalist and pursues Johnny for an interview and the two renew their relationship. Mestopheles also returns with a message that his son, Blackheart (Wes Bently), and his fallen angels must be destroyed for they wish create hell on earth. Still owning Johnny’s soul, he forces him to change into his bounty hunter, known as Zarathos, a skeletal form with the power of hell’s fire, to destroy his son and his minions. He has become the Ghost Rider.

The performance of Cage carries a rock hard intensity though his character but lacks a lot of depth. Mendes’ character works similary functioning only as the amazed and distressed weakness of our hero who functions more as a subject in the story rather than as a character. Their chemistry that they share is not expected, but they do manage to pull it off.

Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider feels not only empty, but sounds empty as well. To put things fairly simply, the film is much like the skeleton on fire the film expresses. It is nothing but the skeleton of an old idea and with some fire that tries, but fails, to dress things up. The biggest problem with the film is that the director and producers did not learn when to throw the towel into the ring. Production lasted an amazing seven years, yet they still produced something even less than entertaining.
Ghost Rider has never been a hugely popular Marvel Comic book series, reading the storyline I don’t find that one bit surprising. Marvel already had a hugely popular hero with a powerful curse, The Incredible Hulk, produced years before the official Ghost Rider comic.

Johnson’s screenplay is as dry as the comic book story itself. The story line moves predictably and with dialogue that sends you home with nothing to remember. The action sequences are short and any real competition between Ghost Rider and Blackheart, along with his minions, seemed remote. Crack of the whip, punch thrown here or there, is this film over yet? The dialogue feels more like a video game than it does a motion picture. Even the one liners are something to spit at…
Bad Guy: “Please, show some mercy!”
Ghost Rider: “Sorry, all out of mercy.”

The film has a very dark feel to it and about three quarters of the settings take place at night, in garages, or in the midst of cemetaries. One particular set was a marsh shrouded in fog, that couldn’t have looked more like a set than if they put Nicholas Cage in front of a cartoonish-looking back drop. Wait. That did look as if that happened after the final battle between the Ghost Rider and Blackheart.

Ghost Rider also relies on the overused portrayal of demons/vampires/the devil. Flashes of lightening always reveal a skeletal or deformed shadow and anger also emphasizes the veins and in their faces. Though these were overused, the other visual effects were quite impressive (but nothing new and amazing). The Hell Cycle is as exciting as one may expect it to be, tossing over cars and leaving a stream of fire behind its tires. The bike runs up a building and then flies down as its engines breathe flames.
Hopefully in the future filmmakers will stay away from B-list Marvel heroes that can only yield B movies, or better yet, learn that if you shouldn’t waste so much time on them if you know they can’t possibly get much better.

Rated PG-13 for horror violence and disturbing images.

Running time 114 minutes (too long).