2012
Formats
HDTV
Premise
Nicolas Cage returns as the titular Marvel comic book character.
Liked
Nicolas Cage doin' his thang.
Disliked
Not enough of Cage doin' his thang.
Thoughts
I had very low expectations, so it actually met them.
I just really wanted to relish Nic Cage Nic Caging it, and man, there was some fantastically campy entertaining moments in the second act. Ciaran Hinds, taking over for Peter Fonda as Roarke, pitched in some fun moments of scene-chewing. When in doubt, cast a British dude as the Big Bad.
Other cast included: dreamy Idris Elba joining Chris Evans in the "hey you can't be two different characters in the Marvel universe!" Club, Connor MacLeod and Rupert Giles both as mysterious priests. Poor Violante Placido, incredibly hot and eye-shadowed, went from the artistic The American to this.
While I wasn't looking for anything special visually, it had solid computer graphics and action, integrating stunts, CGI fire, and gratuitous slow-motion trickery. Best part was Cage turning a giant mining machine thingy into a giant fiery machine thingy.
Listing the movie's flaws would be a silly exercise, though I guess I should mention that I couldn't tell what the plot was about, and I didn't care about any of the characters. But the biggest problem would be its lack of enough charm or camp. There was some hilarious Cage over-acting, but I had to wait 25 minutes before I got any. Movies that try to be half-goofy/half-serious end up being neither.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance had some moments of stupid guilty pleasures and unintentional comedy, but not enough to be memorable. I recommend just fast-forwarding to when Cage starts "scraping at the DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOR!".
