Nicholas Cage is Ghost Rider in the 2007 Film
Written and Directed by Mark Steven Johnson based on Marvel Comics
Aug 24, 2009 Christopher Sharman
The basic premise of Ghost Rider is that a young man, Johnny Blaze a motorbike stunt driver, sells his soul to devil in order to cure his father’s cancer. Years later he is called upon to destroy the devil’s wayward son, Blackheart. The devil does this by turning Johnny Blaze into his bounty hunter named the Ghost Rider.
Ghost Rider's Plot and Characters
Liking or disliking this film depends for the most part on the viewer’s feelings regarding Nicholas Cage (people seem to either love him or hate him) and whether the presence of rather unconvincing CGI is enough to put you off enjoying what is one of the more likable Marvel adaptations. Nicholas Cage carries the role of Johnny Blaze with a tongue-in-cheek style that does work effectively, and Cage does ooze charisma that makes up for some of the film’s failings.
Peter Fonda takes the role of the devil, Mephistopheles, and is suitably forbidding everytime he is on screen. His true identity and appearance are only shown by brief glipses on his face as lightening flashes or when his shadow is seen it does not look human. Wes Bentley play Blackheart who, even though he doesn’t look very scary, manages to look at the humans he encounters in the same way a person might look at a bug right before they squash it. Assisting Blackheart are three elemental demons, the water-demon Wallow (Daniel Frederiksen), the earth-demon Gressil (Laurence Breuls), and the air-demon Abigor (Mathew Wilkinson).
Johnny is assisted by the Caretaker (Sam Elliott) a man who seems to know a lot about the legend of the Ghost Rider (and no prizes for guessing how he knows so much).
Roxanne (Eva Mendez) is Johnny’s love interest but her presence in the film seems to have very little to do to the story. She seems to just be there throughout the film so that Blackheart can use her to manipulate Johnny towards the end.
The Pros and Cons
Nicholas Cage is either what makes the film enjoyable or causes it to fall flat depending on your opinion of him. Ghost Rider’s powers are a delight to behold, especially his penance stare, which makes anyone who looks into his eyes feel the pain that they have inflicted upon others. Regrettably he only does this on screen a couple of times during the film. He also only attacks the guilty, which does put him in a position of seeing the world as black and white, good and evil.
The fight scenes between Ghost Rider and the various elemental demons are fun to watch but unfortunately they are over a little too quickly with Ghost Rider able to defeat each on of them in short order. It does make you wonder why Blackheart bothered to recruit them, or why they attacked Ghost Rider one at a time instead of all going at him together.
The CGI is also obvious. Ghost Rider’s flaming head clearly being computer generated, and although it is a negative point, if you can accept it as a bad thing and move on, then you will enjoy the remainder of the film.
Ghost Rider falls on slightly shaky ground, on the one hand it is entertaining, if not one of the best Marvel adaptations But on the other hand Ghost Rider as the devil’s bounty hunter could have been a far darker story in a similar vein to the original Batman and Batman Returns. However, it seems that Johnson was seeking to deliver something with greater mass appeal; hopefully, any sequel will dare to take the character to a far darker place.
3/5
Nicholas Cage and Peter Fonda do well in their respective roles, but not enough effort was taken to make Blackheart and his minions scary because clearly they are no match for Ghost Rider.
Ghost Rider
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