To The Big Screen
Most of us have probably seen pictures or maybe heard the name Ghost Rider, but few know the details of his origin. As portrayed in the movie, Johnny Blaze is a motorcycle stuntman at a carnival during his last teens, early twenties. He makes a deal with the devil, played by Peter Fonda, and in return Blaze must become the next Ghost Rider, a bounty hunter for the devil. What the Rider must hunt are demons who’ve escaped Hell onto Earth and must be returned. One such demon is Blackheart, played by Wes Bentley. Blackheart is the son of the devil and wants to take over his father’s role and bring Hell on Earth; he is the Ghost Rider’s primary rival throughout the movie. At the same time there is a very forced and uninteresting love story between Blaze and Eva Mendes’ character, Roxanne. A lot of this love story, and the movie for that matter, is very much predictable long before it happens. There is also Sam Elliot’s role of the caretaker, who is basically Blaze’s mentor.
The sum of the parts makes for a pretty fun one-time view, but Ghost Rider is not what I would call a great film. I still don’t see Nicholas Cage being the ideal choice for Ghost Rider. He just doesn’t fit the part in my opinion because he seems too rigid and confused, and not nearly ‘badass’ enough. Cage is a good actor, but only in the right roles, he seems out of place here. The plot feels a little dispersed, too, and it’s a bit distracting and makes the film on the whole less interesting and captivating. I thought the love story angle with Mendes’ character was unnecessary and made the entire plot less serious and less dark, but I suppose it’s true to the comics although I wouldn’t know for sure.
So while the movie itself is kind of muddled and not captivating, there are some very cool action sequences utilizing some very nice CG. The chain Ghost Rider uses that is doused with Hellfire is cool as are the effects used on his face in close up shots are also neat looking. The bike doesn’t look too bad either. My favorite effects are those of the evil demons, however. The morphing used to show their true form is really cool and Blackheart’s new form at the end of the film looks excellent, too.
Eye And Ear Candy
On Blu-ray, Ghost Rider looks and sounds superb. It’s one of the best-looking Blu-ray releases I have viewed, and I’ve seen probably fifty or sixty to this point. The visuals are crisp and hold up without problem under a variety of lighting, color, and angles. CG and non-CG shots alike are well done. The sounds of Ghost Rider are also excellent. The variety of voices in the movie showcases this well from the dark, quiet voice of Peter Fonda to the stoic voice of Sam Elliot to the demonic booming voice of Ghost Rider. Sony did an excellent job with the presentation here.
There are a good bit of extras to be had with this release, too. There are two audio commentary tracks, one featuring both the director and the effects supervisor, and the other featuring the producer. The real meat of the extras though is three making of features totaling just over 80 minutes. These extras are in high def, which makes viewing them a lot more enjoyable. They’re broken up into three sections called “Spirit of Vengeance,” “Spirit of Adventure,” and “Spirit of Execution.” Each of these is, in a way, the same thing as they show plenty of interviews with everyone from Nicholas Cage to the guys who worked on building the motorcycle used in the film. It might seem like overkill to some, but I enjoy a lot of extra features for a film, and for those that enjoyed the movie they’re always a treat to have.