Taking a similar path to the Blade films and first Crow, Marvel should have pushed for a R rating to truly give the devil his due. Here, the humor – both intended and ridiculous – prevents that barrier from ever entirely withdrawing. Story aside, what made the Spider-Man and X-Men films successful is the fact that these unreal events were happening in the world right outside the window. What the film desperately lacks is any sense of a real and natural environment. And like all cliché Westerns or their rock-n-roll, comicbook counterparts, there seems to be nothing his American Chopper-possessed bike cannot do, which even comes to his side when whistled for like a loyal steed. Once the action begins, the film pits the flaming Ghost Rider up against elemental demons and, predictably, the police. Topping off the cast is the ultimate Easy Rider, Peter Fonda, playing a laughably-scary devil with a grin-and-a-wink that seems to channel Jack Nicholson. Even Cage and Sam Elliott, playing his mentor, camp it up at times playing mere parodies of themselves. Bentley pulls off acting the rogue with a smile but at times he and his cronies’ post- Matrix get-up have all the posturing of an upstart emo band. Opening with an origin that crawls throughout the entire first – and lengthy – act, the film finally roars into action as the damned Blaze (Nic Cage) fights against the devil’s son, Blackheart ( American Beauty’s Wes Bentley) and his demonic horde. Writer/director Mark Steven Johnson takes elements from the classic story and incorporates it with the styles of the more modern version in an attempt to please both worlds. Marvel revamped and updated the character in 1990 completing the skull-like visage with a flaming chain and spikes. The Marvel Comics anti-hero Ghost Rider got his start in Marvel Spotlight #5 in 1972 and the film’s origin resembles the comicbook tale close enough: motorcyclist Johnny Blaze makes a deal with the devil transforming him, at times, to be an fiery instrument of vengeance.
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