Sunday 19 February 2012

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance [Review]

Immediate sequels have always been hit-or-miss fare, especially when it comes to superheroes. Spider-Man 2 is far superior to the still excellent origin story of the original Sam Raimi film Spider-Man. Iron Man 2 couldn’t be any further from its predecessor in terms of quality; where the original was refreshing, exciting and well-acted, the sequel was bloated, self-indulgent and seemingly without direction.

It’s disappointing, then, that I have to place Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance alongside Iron Man 2 in my ‘SUPERHERO HALL OF SHAME’ (a page which might become reality in the near future, depending on how badly The Avengers turns out). I always enjoyed the first Ghost Rider (2007), critical slamming notwithstanding, and had high hopes for this sequel - despite a change of director and pretty much every cast member apart from Nicolas Cage.

Yes, the sole returning actor from the original film is good old Nic Cage, playing the titular Rider Johnny Blaze. This is our first hint that directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (of Crank fame) want to put the 2006 flick behind both them and the audience. We’ll come to realise this more as the film goes on, but I’ll come to that later.

For those unfamiliar with the background to the fiery demon that is the Ghost Rider, allow me to fill you in. Johnny Blaze, a young stunt biker, sells his soul to the Devil in order to save his father from cancer. Of course, the Devil being the Devil, he then kills Blaze Senior anyway, and forces Johnny to do his bidding as the Ghost Rider. Effectively, he’s the Devil’s bounty hunter, who comes alive around evil to punish those who have sinned. You might be sensing a few religious undertones - luckily, these were played down in the first film, in favour of some badass elemental action. In Spirit of Vengeance, we’re not so lucky.

I don't ever recall seeing this many flames on him during the actual film.
This origin story was the focus of the first film, and as it’s been five years since then, we get a quick recap in the form of an animated intro. This actually serves two purposes: one; to remind us of who the hell Ghost Rider is, and two; to completely rewrite and gloss over the original film. Pretend it never happened. The conclusion of that film [spoiler alert] lead to Blaze rejecting the Devil’s offer to remove the curse, claiming he would keep it to hunt down and destroy the villain. As Spirit of Vengeance opens, however, it’s clear that Blaze wants nothing more than to be rid of this curse - he’s hiding out in the barren wastelands of Eastern Europe because of it - and clearly never had the option to abandon it.

The film’s very loose plot revolves around the affliction, obviously, and sees the biker offered a chance to lift the curse - if he can save a young boy from the hands of the Devil’s henchmen. Why this boy is so important isn’t explained to us until pretty much the final act of the film (so I won’t spoil it for you) and it turns out Johnny Blaze never knew either. Why he agrees to a potentially fatal task without knowing why the hell he’s doing it is beyond me. Until then we’re forced to wade through a sea of confusion, trusting that this child - who, might I add, is one of the most annoying children you will ever have the misfortune to watch - is actually someone we should give a damn about.

Back to that point about religion - the film opens with a shootout in a monastery, and ends with a daft Pagan ritual, that supporting-actor-of-the-moment Ciarán Hinds (who here plays Roarke, also known as, yes, the Devil) only just manages to get through with his dignity intact. Everything in between seems to have some heavy religious overtone, from angels and devils to spirits and rituals. The source comics might have been laden with this stuff, but the film needn’t be. Mark Steven Johnson’s 2007 film managed a way around it all.

On the whole, Spirit of Vengeance’s main problem isn’t that it’s pacing is all over the place; nor is it the tedious religious overtones. It’s not even the irony of its refusal to acknowledge the original film when the sequel is so much worse. No, the main problem with Spirit of Vengeance is its lack of action. Throughout the entire 95 minutes, Blaze transforms into the Ghost Rider for any considerable period about three times. Considering directing duo Neveldine/Taylor’s main previous credit is Crank, which was basically batshit crazy action on a relatively minor budget, one could assume that with $57 million and a guy with a flaming skull to play with, we’d end up with the greatest ‘rollercoaster thrill ride’ since, well, Crank. Except in 3D (which predictably adds nothing here).

Here's some stupid 3D wankery as Blaze battles his demons. Lovely.
But no. After a few setpieces in the film’s first half, including a fantastic scene where Blaze turns into Ghost Crane Operator, that confusing, religious, barely-holding-it-together plot comes into full swing. At which point you can wave bye-bye to any more action worth seeing and don the nightcap. The film’s climax is depressingly dull, and really just makes you wonder whether the boys ran out of money in the early days of production. Instead, they seem content to piss about with, well, piss jokes - the boy asks Blaze ‘what happens when you need to pee?’ (to which we’re treated to a visual of the deed itself) - and wondering how someone can eat when everything they touch decays instantly. Essentially, it’s a film that might well have been directed by six-year-olds. Ghost Rider isn’t the most serious material, granted, but there’s no need to submit it to this.

Still, it’s not all bad (though it mostly is) - Nicolas Cage puts in a stellar performance and Johnny Whitworth as sub-antagonist Ray Carrigan is suitably menacing, especially when he later becomes super-villain Blackout. Presumably so the Rider has someone to ‘fight’ (read: roll about on a car bonnet with). Violante Placido also does a fine job as the mother of Danny (Fergus Riordan), that grating child who you’ll spend the 95 minutes just wishing someone would kill already.

But even if the acting is passable, the style’s actually been toned down since the last film. Ghost Rider’s flaming skull is more of a skeleton with a candle in its mouth, and looks like it would fit in better in Jack Sparrow’s living room than atop a flaming chopper bike. But nevermind, as Blaze has lost his chain-stomping, fire-tyre Harley anyway; now he’s on a regular old boring motorbike. But then, I suppose the ridiculousness of having a toned down action film from the boys who made Crank fits in well with the ridiculous ‘plot’, characters and sheer nature of the film.

I really wanted to like Spirit of Vengeance.  The first instalment holds a special place in my heart, as you’ve probably guessed by now - it’s a film that I constantly have to defend, and which I will be doing in writing in a future column. But its sequel is just disappointment after disappointment after disappointment. If you liked the original (and chances are you didn’t), don’t go see this atrocity. In fact, just stay away from it either way.


See also: Ghost Rider (2007)

Dir: Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Cast: Nicolas Cage, Ciarán Hinds, Idris Elba
Columbia Pictures, 95 mins, 17/02/12

Synopsis: Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage), aka the Ghost Rider, is called upon to stop the Devil himself as a means of removing his terrible curse, as a sinister plot involving a young boy and a few deadly deals unfolds around him...

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