Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance

All the warning signs were there. Nick Cage has been tremendously awful for quite awhile now. Not in that "hey, I'm a crazy loose cannon weirdo who makes bizarre choices, but backs them up with solid, powerful performances" way he did as recently as a decade ago. No, he's been genuinely awful in that "lazy, paying off the IRS, taking every obvious piece of tripe that comes down the pipe" sort of way. I keep going to these films, expecting to be laughing along with a madman, yet walk away feeling as drained and disinterested in watching another as he seems to be in making them. Also, the first Ghost Rider was maybe the least compelling superhero film of the new millennium boom. The character is inherently anti-cinematic in exactly the same way as The Hulk, who is equally troublesome to adapt to the silver screen. The problem being that when your flesh and blood actor transforms into a CGI construct, there is a total disconnect. That connective dissonance, coupled with the character's seemingly limitless power renders the whole affair a toothless one without stakes or any reason to be concerned about the outcome.

It was the Neveldine/Taylor aspect that threw my barometer off and inspired such reckless hope. The 2 Crank films are pop art masterpieces in my opinion. Crude, deconstructions and reconfigurations of tired action tropes, set to experimental soundtracks and shot with exploratory ingenuity. Gamer is a straight up brilliant work of sci-fi and social satire. A psychedelic slap in the face to our crass culture and atom bomb wake up call to where we are all technologically heading. These dudes are visionary psychopaths with an established aesthetic and prescient preoccupations. I find their work to be viscerally exciting, artistically compelling and most important of all, fun. Unfortunately, the dynamic duo is no longer batting a thousand after this listless attempt to graft their revolutionary sensibilities to such uninspired and predictable drivel.

My ill advised excitement began to slowly evaporate as the plodding first fifteen minutes played out. There were a couple nice shots to look at and all, but the action felt low rent and unfocused. Once Cage showed up to start chewing scenery, I realized how disinterested I was in the proceedings and started to long for the first set piece featuring the Rider. That set piece turns out to be a painfully static affair, comprised primarily of the Rider staring at indistinguishable heavies for what seems like an eternity until they explode into ash. Not exactly pulse pounding stuff. The main baddie is unforgivably uncharismatic, the sort of guy I wouldn't hesitate to give the back of my hand if he threatened me. I need the nemesis in my action film to be imposing, or at the very least off putting. This guy is just a run of the mill douchebag with bad hair and male model stubble. The plot settles into an endless cycle of Cage chasing after a kid, acquiring him, losing him, chasing after him, reacquiring, ad nauseum. So, with a story this achingly familiar and unadorned, if the action is underwhelming, what are you left with?

Not much, but there's enough to save it from being a total loss. Cage has a couple amusing, if frustratingly self aware moments. Christoper Lambert is a welcome presence and Idris Elba looks suitably cool. Best of all, Ciaran Hinds manages to turn in a wickedly bad ass portrayal of the devil in human form. Other than those above board performances and commendable casting choices, there are some very nice visual flourishes, but nothing boundary pushing in the Neveldine/Taylor paradigm. There is some interesting stuff with the character Blackout, in which his decay based powers blot out the periphery, but it's impossible to tell whose perspective we're seeing it from and what precisely it signifies. Cool, but ultimately meaningless. The Rider looks fantastic, as do the vehicles he commandeers, but the novelty wears off quickly. The 3-D is competent, never inducing a headache, but certainly never adding anything to the film.

I guess Ghost Rider just doesn't translate to film or have a mythology rich or resonant enough to support the character beyond his bitching look. The film looks cheap and reeks of a lack of studio confidence. Every action beat is in the trailer up to and including the finale money shot. The climactic car chase sequence is a pathetic letdown, with the Rider destroying 3 older model trucks by jumping on the hoods and yelling at the drivers. Neveldine/Taylor working with this source material and budget is like watching Steve Vai try to wrest a blistering solo out of banged up acoustic missing the top 2 strings. I'm sure Spirit of Vengeance will provide for passable Sunday afternoon Cable TV viewing in the future, but it is a minor, forgettable blip on the cinematic radar and a regrettable, missed opportunity for the talented film makers who accepted the thankless assignment.