Shot Down in a Blaze of Glory!

Ghost Rider

(2007)

With wildly popular film series based on Spider-man, the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and reboots for both the Superman and Batman franchises in the recent past, the movie industry is scrambling to mine the comic book world for their next golden geese. The appearance of a film based on Marvel's Ghost Rider character makes it seem as though Hollywood has finally begun scraping the bottom of the comic book barrel. I mean, what's next? A film adaptation of Andy Capp (sponsored by Hot Fries, naturally)?

Yes, it's painfully obvious that the Ghost Rider character is merely the default, 2nd tier hero to get the film treatment in the wake of the comic film boom, but in reality, the character completely warrants a movie on his own merits. He's a a flaming skeleton sent by the devil himself to harvest the souls of the damned... on a motorcycle. It don't get much cooler than that. Plus, the themes in the story are cultural touchstones embraced by artists as diverse as Stephen Vincent Benet and the Charlie Daniels' Band. It's just too bad that the filmmakers couldn't seem to keep this one as simple as it needed to be. The character is essentially a refugee of the 70s and the film should have reflected that. Instead, in Ghost Rider, we get a mish-mash of style and substance that never quite coalesces.

The film starts off promisingly. You can't go anymore "classic" with your storytelling than to kick things off with a voiceover narration. Normally, I'm not a big fan of this device (film is a visual medium, after all), but in this case it really set a tone that should have been the foundation for the entire film. Instead, Sam Elliot (voiceover king) sets us up for a mythical chunk of hillbilly gothic that never quite materializes.

When we meet up with the team of baddies that our hero must confront, it becomes painfully obvious that the remainder of the film will consist of Ghost Rider devising clever ways to dispatch each of the underlings (ghostly manifestations of earth, wind and fire... the elements, not the soul group) and finally the big boss, Blackheart (the very son of the devil). It's almost like the screenwriter (director, Mark Steven Johnson) was working from the same set of notes as the creators of any third tier video game. In fact, I'd much rather have seen Ghost Rider take on Bowser than the puny demon Wes Bentley portrays.

As much as I was disappointed by this film, I do have to still recommend getting out to see it, as it is your first opportunity to see the Grindhouse trailer on the big screen. The old man sitting behind us commented, "Wow, that looks like total garbage." To which I say, "Yes it does. Sweet, sweet garbage."

Check out the Ghost Rider Trailer here.