Ghost Rider 2 : L'Esprit de vengeance

First of all I have to say that I wasn't particularly much of a fan of the first "Ghost Rider" movie, and much less fan of Nicolas Cage. But still, I decided to sit down and watch "Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance" of out sheer boredom.

Let it be said that "Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance" is actually much better than the first movie. There is a much darker touch and feel to part 2. The movie is more brutal and visual, and you get to see a more violent side to the rider.

Storywise, well then I think the movie was halting, because it was a sort of a weird hybrid mix of "Ghost Rider" and "Rosemary's Baby". It wasn't bad, don't get me wrong, however, it was just something of a cliché. Nothing surprisingly new or inventive here.

The effects and CGI though, were top notch. I liked what I saw and I was thoroughly entertained. I especially like the pyrotechnics and the smoke effects.

"Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance" had a good enough group of actors together. However, in my opinion, the movie was carried by Idris Elba (playing Moreau) and Johnny Whitworth (playing Ray Carrigan). What happened to the Ray character was really awesome. I am not familiar with the "Ghost Rider" comic books, so I have no idea whether or not that character is from the pages, but he was still cool and had really interesting powers.

For a Marvel movie, then "Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance" was actually a surprise for me. Especially because I am not too keen on men in spandex tights running around with super powers. "Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance" was darker, grittier and for a more mature audience.

One thing that I just had to shake my head in disbelief at was the in-you-face-lame raised finger morals with the "an illegal download" and the "crime doesn't pay" comments in the movie. Wow, could it get any more of a cliché? The "illegal download" comment was funny though, but it was not really at place in the intro.

Judging from the mood of the theater I was in, the consensus of this film was "...."

Yep, the pacing and storytelling of the film was so bad that it's actually hard to appreciate the plot, and even the action scenes. The otherwise simple plot becomes a task and even a bore to follow due to the bad editing and pace of the story. Things that are supposed to hit home through a joke, or a "Wow!" action scene, fail to do so either because you've gotten lost in all the distractions the film throws at you, or you just merely lost interest due to the lackluster story telling.

It's quite a shame in my opinion that there were many scenes that were supposed to evoke emotion, that just did not. It's hard to comprehend how these scenes fail, when in the back of your head, you actually know that in another occasion, that scene should've been really bad-ass, or really funny. Better editing and better character development would've made the movie easier to follow, and would've given meaning to all the great visuals and occasional funniness the film has.

Now how does it compare to the first? Dare I say Apples and Oranges? The first was coherent and easy to understand but way too cheesy and campy (lacked action too), while this one was heavy and slow with a lot of zany visuals and camera work. Both seem to want to achieve completely different results from an audience that it's actually difficult to say which one's better.

If you're looking for great eye-candy, and whack visuals, then Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance delivers. As a complete entertainment experience though, it falls flat.

You will have fun watching this movie, as a crazy fella than a normal movie critic trying to find what's wrong with this movie. The camera shot was amazing, Nicolas Cage's acting was at its best. The movie really shows that he cannot control the Rider inside him, and when its unleashed! Its mayhem! No body can stop him, even the devil himself. The recap of the story its very well said. This is not a direct squeal to the first one. But half squeal, the movie shows the rider is dark and not friendly. The way he fights is totally crazy. He fights more like a devil than human like in the first movie. The Red One Camera looks great. A treat for the eyes, then the cheeky-type of humor in it was good to laugh at also.

Even though the characters does not have much development, the feeling was not there.. It was missing something, but when Blaze turns into the rider everything changes. Especially the sound given by the bike or something before he arrives was totally epic. This Ghost Rider is something I did not expect, a story to be told differently to show that there is good in the rider. You will see what will happen in the movie if you watch. Even the devil will say to Blaze, this is the worst contract that I made. The devil, rider all are shown like real life like. That the move in the form of human rather than just disappearing away. Blaze wants to be a free man, the drunken monk wants to save the world from devil. The mom wants to save her son. So All you need is action from the first scene.

Personally I loved this film, I even went to change into a rider my self after watching this movie. But just that I can't do it. If you looking for craziness, abit of humor and great camera work this is the movie you should watch. Critics are gonna hate this movie. But people like me love it! So I am giving it 10/10

Okay, I'm a Nic Cage fanboy. Let's get that out of the way. I'll watch anything the guy does no matter how terrible the reviews are, and sometimes I'll be pleasantly surprised, as was the case with "Seeking Justice", "Drive Angry", and "Kiss of Death". The guy has some hidden gems in his career. Is Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance one of them? Hell no.

The first Ghost Rider was campy and stupid, but it was a watchable popcorn action movie and it had Eva Mendes (hence, watchable). Spirit of Vengeance is just stupid. Everything about it is stupid. No part of this movie is fleshed out and none of it is interesting. It throws you right into the action with no exposition. It's just a bunch of things happening on screen oozing with CGI to make up for the complete lack of substance. You can tell this is the same guy that directed Crank: the difference is that movie didn't need any substance because the premise was so fun. This movie just pisses on Ghost Rider's origin (literally) and expects you to enjoy watching sh*t blow up for the sake of sh*t blowing up. The writing in this movie is especially horrendous; did they hire a 10 year old to do the screenplay? It sure as hell seems like it.

So you may be asking yourself, "why give it a 4/10 if it's so awful?" Well, I'm a sucker for laughably bad movies and this definitely qualifies. I mean, the dialogue alone tries to take itself seriously but ends up providing really good unintentional laughs. But I'll be fair, not all of this movie sucks.

Nicolas Cage is always enjoyable to watch. You can tell he's invested in the role, and his dedication really holds this movie together. Idris Elba is also in this movie for some reason and he's great in anything, even if his character is completely throwaway. The other acting is serviceable I guess. You can't really blame any actors here because it's obvious the filmmakers wanted it to be a massive CGI-fest with stupid dialogue to lead action sequence A to action sequence B. To their credit, the CGI in this movie is pretty cool. Ghost Rider looks badass, the visuals in the big set pieces are nice to look at, and if you have no interest in the story you can definitely shut your brain off and enjoy the insanity happening on screen.

So in a nutshell, you don't need to see this movie. You really don't. Not even the great Nicolas Cage is enough to hold this piece of trash together. But if you're really stoned or just want to see cool sh*t on screen for an hour and a half and there's literally nothing else to watch, go ahead and knock yourself out with Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance. You may find a new B-movie comedy classic.

Well, the previews certainly looked great. But the actually movie, well, wasn't very interesting, just a bunch of noise and flames and explosions. I guess if you don't like the story you just cannot like ANY movie really. I thought Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance would be enjoyable because I enjoyed Transformers in 3D also, with all of its special effects, but I appreciated more about the cartoon transformers. Plus OK it was a better movie. Anyway,about 45 minutes into this I was getting really bored and actually thought we had entered the three hour mark!!. I then thought to myself "is this ever going to end?" Basically, at that point it got boring. So get popcorn after about an hour. Nick Cage acted pretty well in it, though, but the other actors weren't much to watch, except for the black guy who appears in the first scene (dont know his name). In the end, no amount of great acting could have saved this crap. Again I wish I could get that 2 hours back from my life. I should have gone to see George Lucas' Star Wars Episode I The Phantom Menace. At least I knew what I would have gotten to see a good story in that one. Also $14.50 for this 3D movie was way way way too much. I wont even see it at the $2 movie. Heck, I wont even rent it on video for $1.29 when it comes out on blue ray. I'm going to burn my memory of last night.

Don't see.