By David C. Morgan
I really wanted to write a funny review ripping apart the new Nicolas Cage film, “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance,” but I just can’t. I was surprised about how much I enjoyed this film. I don’t understand. I should know what good movies are. I went to film school; I studied what good moviemaking should look like. I have a critical eye for everything I watch now, but I almost loved this movie to the point that I am sick to admit it.
This is a sequel to the 2007 Marvel superhero film, which I never watched, entitled “Ghost Rider.” That movie also stared Nicolas Cage as the main character, Johnny Blaze, who is not your ordinary superhero. This is a man who gets his powers from the darkest depths of Hell! You see, Johnny has been cursed by having a demon live inside him that bursts out when he’s angry to kick ass and feed off the souls of bad guys. How cool is that? His main nemesis is the Devil himself, oddly named Roarke, which I didn’t fully understand. He’s played by Ciarán Hinds, who actually does an incredible job being a sinister asshole. The worst actor in this, Johnny Whitworth, does such a horrible job as Roarke’s goon that it was too embarrassing to watch. Idris Elba does the best he can as Johnny’s partner, and Violante Placido does something in the movie. Don’t get me wrong. This is not a good film at all. In fact it’s pretty awful! The acting is really cheesy, and the dialogue is atrocious. But that’s why I liked it. I don’t know if it’s intentional at this point, but the one-liners like, “We’ll see. Oh yeah, we’ll see,” are so cliché, I can’t tell if the writers are having fun or just being lazy. I’ll go with the latter, but it still works. Why? Because we’ve heard these lines so many times before that now when I hear it, I laugh. I’m sure there will be a point where it gets too tiring, and the cliché’s become a cliché, but that hurts my brain to even start thinking about it.
What really makes this movie for me is every scene with Nicolas Cage, who’s now known for acting like a lunatic in most of the roles he’s taken since the early 2000’s. The man’s so nutty; he even took his last name from an actual Marvel superhero, Luke Cage. His dedication to the character of Johnny is so magnificently ridiculous; it’s like watching a demented child going on every rollercoaster at a carnival. There’s a scene where Nicolas Cage fights off the Rider spirit from coming out of his body while frantically screaming and making the sickest faces. It’s remarkable. You have to appreciate the fun that this actor is having in every way.
Maybe all of this has to do with expectations. I really was expecting to watch the worst film. Maybe I enjoyed it because I have not been in a movie theater for a while. I relished all the action scenes. Maybe the movie struck a weird chord with me, and I should just accept it. Now, would I recommend this movie to a friend? Not a close one, but maybe an acquaintance. I would definitely have this movie play on my TV while having some friends over, laughing about how preposterous “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” can be.
