Review No.92: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance

Back when I was reviewing Underworld: Awakening last month I decided that I needed to go get some backstory and watch the first two films that preceded Awakening chronologically. I realised that this was a futile endeavour as the past storylines were explained at the start of the film so when I watched the sequel to the 2007 film Ghost Rider I didn't watch the original. This was the right decision as at the start Nic Cage's Johnny Blaze explains that he was a stuntman who decided to sell his soul to the devil which I'm assuming is the only thing you really needed to know about that film. The second film starts with Idris Elba's Moureau convincing a bunch of monks with scribbles on their faces that they needed to utilise the rider in order to protect a little boy who was staying with them. This boy turned out to be  Danny the spawn of Ciarin Hinds' devil character who had made a deal with his mother Nadya that she would carry his child coincidentally his main hitman was a former flame of Nadya's. After convincing Blaze that he had to bring the Rider character back he almost destroys Nadya because of her past crimes however he is able to get the boy back albeit briefly. When the boy is back Moureau's deal with Blaze, that he would lift the Ghost Rider curse, was fulfilled meaning that he was fully human but wouldn't you just know it that the devil had once again sent his cronies lead by the fiendish Blackout to finish off the job. So as you would expect the final twenty minutes of the film are filled with gunshots, car chases and Nic Cage's head on fire.

Though the first Ghost Rider film was generally critically derided there was hope for this sequel due to the fact that it was directed by Neveldine/Taylor who responsible for the very entertaining Crank films. There are some moments of visual flourish which hint to their past films such as the sequence in which Blaze is finally able to cast off the Ghost Rider curse. There was also quite a fun performance from Idris Elba who seemed to be trying to make the most of a thankless role in Moureau whose job it was to spout a lot of expositional dialogue. Generally though I found this film boring and that has a lot to do with Cage's lifeless central performance possibly due to the fact the directing team are used to dealing with action stars such as Statham who are able to handle their direction better. I am a Cage fan however it is usually when he has strong direction, such as from the Coens or Ridley Scott, that he has produced his best work while here he seemed that he had just shown up to collect  a paycheck. The annoying actor playing Danny was fairly annoying and the actress playing his mother didn't really add anything to the film basically I didn't care about either of their fates. It's a shame as I feel that there was originally a good film in there however Cage's performance really dragged it down and I feel if there was a way to get another actor to play the role of Blaze Neveldine/Taylor should've done so in other words I'm glad that I didn't watch the original film to see Cage sleepwalk his way through two movies.

Verdict: Elba's performance coupled with occasional visual flare means this film isn't completely worthless however with a bunch of characters it is hard to care about and some sloppy direction I can only give this 4/10