El vengador fantasma

There won't be any Academy Awards for "Ghost Rider," and deservedly so. Great cinema it ain't. It is fun stuff, though, and very much in the spirit of the Marvel comic book of the same name. Nicolas Cage works well in the role; his dead-pan humor is well suited to the role of motorcycle stuntman Johnny Blaze, and the scene in which he attempts to explain himself to his long-lost girlfriend is classic stuff, full of awkward pauses and an eyebrow put to good use.

Granted, things get a little melodramatic from time to time, but that's as it should be. This is, after all, a movie based on a comic book hero, and what superhero worth his heat-vision doesn't indulge in a dose of the melodramatic every so often? It comes with the territory. Still, there's a sense of humor at work here, something that didn't play out well in the "X-Men" franchise and led to that abysmal third installation. There are a good number of laughs in "Ghost Rider." This isn't a movie that takes itself too seriously, which is a nice benefit considering how heavy the subject matter could become. It's rough around the edges, no doubt, and isn't quite up to the same level as the Spiderman movies to date.

I saw an early (11:45 AM) show and the theater was still nearly full. The audience laughed at points that were intended as humorous and even jumped at a couple of scenes. All in all, everyone looked like they were having a good time, from the six year olds with their parents to the older folks like me who were fans of this comic as kids. If you're looking for something fun, "Ghost Rider" isn't a bad bet at all.

I am a Nicolas Cage fan. I love all his comedies and think his serious ones are okay. After seeing the Wicker Man, I lost my respect for Cage in serious films, and went to see Ghost Rider thinking it would be an average movie, but probably easy to make fun of. It was bad. . . very bad. It was funny at times, I will admit that, but Cage just is bad in the role, the story is not very complex and has many plot holes in it. You know it is bad when you go into a movie only wanting to make fun of it and coming out just depressed because it was SO bad. In short, don't see this movie, if you want a superhero movie done right, see Batman Begins or Unbreakable, or basically, any other superhero movie was better than Ghost Rider. Thumbs extremely far down

Yea it isn't anything revolutionary but it was fun. Definitely elevated by Nicolas Cage.

Ghost Rider was always a cool comic book character. So why not make it into a movie? Although this movie had a great financial success, its screenplay is actually quite sloppy. I'm surprised it did so well. I liked Ghost Rider. I liked the visuals, the action, and the villains (a little). But I felt things could have been polished. Mark Steven Johnson who directed and wrote the story for this movie could have done better.

To start off, Nicolas Cage plays as the anti-hero Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider. I really like the way they made Ghost Rider look in this film. Just like a bat out of hell, his skull is cloaked in flames, his jacket has spikes on it, he has a flame chain, and his bike has a mind of its own! Much of it is fun to watch. Just seeing Ghost Rider for the first time on screen was pretty awesome to see. The action was good too. Any of the sarcastic comments Ghost Rider makes in this film is funny to hear. I even thought the actors who played the villains were good. What destroyed all these good moments, was how the character's dialogs were brought out.

Most of the dialog in this movie is weird, if not awkward. Mostly due to Cage's character, Johnny Blaze. I guess Mark Steven Johnson figured because Blaze lost his soul to the devil, he might as well lose his personality too. If that's the case, it was not a smart choice. It almost seems like Cage AND ONLY Cage is uncomfortable with his character. I know he's a fan of Ghost Rider but it seems like the script was written out of wack for him. There are parts where it seems like Cage is lost in himself and doesn't know what to say next. I don't quite understand that. One other thing I didn't comprehend was that there was way too much "pointing while zooming up on the face" business. Was the director trying to make a trademark for himself in this film? Not only is it redundant, it can be very obnoxious.

The other element that does not work here are the villains. I liked the bad guys in this movie. They looked frightening to me when I first saw them. But then I noticed a trend as Ghost Rider had finished one off at a time. None of the bad guys really did anything. Blackheart, the son of the devil, has henchmen who have powers like the characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender, except they don't involve all the martial arts moves. Before Ghost Rider is about to finish one of Blackheart's henchman, we don't even see him use any of his powers. Well that was kind of anti-climactic. Even Blackheart himself barely uses his "almighty" powers against Ghost Rider. It's really disappointing to watch.

Besides these parts of the film, I enjoyed Christopher Young's soundtrack. It has a lot of guitar in it and creates a punk tone to the action. Sam Elliot appears in this movie as a minor character, he's always fun to listen too but even he can't make up for the bad screenplay. It's unfortunate because I really like Ghost Rider as a character and was expecting something a little more darker for a dark character.

Ghost Rider will please fans to a point, with its good action and awesome special effects. But nothing can help the film recover from its lazy screenplay, awkward dialog and dull villains.

Ghost Rider

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Eva Mendes, Peter Fonda, Wes Bentley, Donal Logue and Sam Elliot

Genre: Action/Fantasy/Drama/Thriller

Rated: PG-13

Ghost Rider is just one of those movies where you don't have to take it so seriously in order to like it. This movie is almost like the Blade movies in terms of how Ghost Rider fights evil that's from hell but this is way better than Blade. So anyway, Nicolas Cage plays the wild stunt biker, Johnny Blaze who makes a deal to Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) in order to save his father and in return has to forget about his life and his love, Roxanne Simpson (Eva Mendes). A few years later, Johnny's path crosses again with Mephistopheles to give up his soul to have Johnny become the fiery bounty hunter of hell, Ghost Rider in order to take down Blackheart (Wes Bentley), a son and enemy of Mephistopheles. Nicolas Cage did a great job playing Ghost Rider and of course it's always nice to see Eva Mendes on screen of course. The only thing that I didn't like about this movie is how they decided to put in a villain who turned out to be an easy defeat instead of picking one that would be more of a challenge but then again it's an origin movie so everything has to start off easy i guess. But hopefully there will a more challenging villain if they do a Ghost Rider 2. Overall i'd recommend this movie and I hope they do a Ghost Rider 2.