Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Review

Movie: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
By: Maniac E
Date: July 11, 2012

The Ghost of Mediocre

The American duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor have a distinctive style that can best be described as flashy and innovative. However, it is not always successful. The fresh look and feel that was used for Crank was in the sequel Crank: High Voltage and Gamer completely wrecked. Especially the last movie Gamer was having these forced parts for it needing to be only suitable for adolescents. This year the duo returned with a sequel to Ghost Rider. Provides exploring a new way better movie than the first part?

The flick stars Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze, a former badass stunt motorcycle rider who sold his soul to the devil, and as the Ghost Rider, a vengeance seeking demon with a flaming skull head and a motorcycle with fire wheels. He's hiding out in Eastern Europe, trying to, I guess, escape his life as the Ghost Rider. One day, a mysterious man named Moreau (Idris Elba) tracks Blaze down and asks for his help. Apparently there's a young boy named Danny (Fergus Riordan) that has special powers/the potential for special powers that needs to be protected from the Devil, and the super-secret religious sect guarding him is unable to continue protecting him. Moreau wants Blaze to act as Danny's protector, to keep him away from the Devil until a certain point in the future when the Devil can no longer use Danny for whatever the heck he wants to use Danny for. If Blaze is successful, Moreau promises him that he'll find a way to rid him of the Ghost Rider curse. Blaze is somewhat skeptical at first, but he eventually figures that Moreau's deal is a good one and makes an effort to protect Danny.

I tried to really like the movie since Nicolas Cage said he wanted to bring back Ghost Rider in full effect since he thought he didn't show it's all in the first one. I like the Ghost Rider comics the gritty feeling they gave you with the dark humor. But in the end it was poorly executed in this movie. It has some moments like the Ghost Rider would transform a crane into a flaming death machine which looked awesome. But the low-key b-movie type of things that they tried was just not working. It made the movie feel cheap at certain points.

Most disappointing is the fact that Nicolas Cage is completely phoning it in. He's not bringing the real crazy or the honest weird he's playing to the cult. He's doing what he thinks you want to see, and with one or two exceptions he's totally wrong. What makes crazy Nic Cage work is the truth and the commitment, the sense that he believes this is a valid choice. This is crazy Nic Cage doing the dance but not feeling the beat.

It says a lot that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance made me nostalgic for the bad first film. This is a movie of shattering ineptitude, starting at the script and reaching into every aspect of the cheap, rushed, shitty-looking production. There's something contemptuous about serving a movie like this to an audience.

BLURAY REVIEW

Image quality

The film is presented in 2.40:1, encoded in 1080p/AVC. Shot digitally on Red One MX, Spirit of Vengeance looks pretty damn great, even when the film switches between traditional camerawork and the wacky handheld visuals. The film's lively palette is bright and consistent, and black levels are strong, inky and lifelike. The encode is mostly spotless too, with not one hint of artifacting or heavy noise gumming up the works, though some visuals succumb to mild color banding from time to time.

Sound

Audio is mixed in 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio. Other than a few minor high-end crackles, this lossless audio track delivers an aggressive punch, punctuated by gritty, intense bass and lively, organic surrounds. Rarely, if ever, will this mix let you, or your system, down.

Extras

None

Overall

Well the audio and visual department has done great with this one. Turn up the volume when watching this movie, again no extra's on the disc I would recommand the US version of the disc that has all the flavours it should have had.

E1 Entertainment