Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

When I go onto Rotten Tomatoes and see that Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is currently batting 14% with critics and 41% with audiences, I have to wonder what exactly people were expecting. A lot of folks had high hopes for this movie after the addition of high-energy schlockmeisters Neveldine/Taylor and the first couple trailers, but we’re not exactly talking about anything that would promise high art. The Neveldine/Taylor oeuvre includes both Crank films and Gamer, so anyone who was expecting a Dark Knight-caliber tale out of Spirit of Vengeance was fooling themselves. The final result is anything but a great movie, but it works as reasonably efficient cinematic junk food. The experience is hampered by a handful of terrible scenes, thin writing and some questionable decisions—and the whole “superhero” thing is the film’s least interesting aspect—but it’s never boring. For much of the film, that was good enough for me.

Nicolas Cage reprises his role as Johnny Blaze, a motorcyclist who sold his soul to the devil (an amusing Ciarán Hinds) and in exchange must become The Rider, who has a flaming skull and goes around incinerating bad guys and the like. The plot of this film follows Danny (Fergus Riordan), a 13-year-old boy who may or may not be the antichrist. When the devil attempts to take Danny from his mother (Violante Placido), the Rider gets involved along with the religious-but-drunk Moreau (Idris Elba). What follows is a lot of chasing and chaotic action, most of it not explained all that well.

In fact, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is pretty darn pathetic in the story department from start to finish. Most of the exposition when it comes to Cage’s character is laid out in a few animated interludes, and the relationships between the characters and how they all got to where they are now is unclear at best. All this movie cares about is delivering solid thrills in the moment, and when it does that well it’s easy to forget about its dozens of shortcomings. Much of the fun comes from the signature playfulness of Neveldine and Taylor that has been established in all their previous movies, and it is put on full display here. Frequently the movie will pause for a brief comedic beat that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I’m appreciative of the fact that these are two guys who are entirely uninterested in making a generic superhero movie. If you give them the next installment in the Ghost Rider franchise, they’re going to do it their way. Even if it doesn’t always hit, that’s something to appreciate. I’d rather they screw something up gloriously than have a project handed over to the sickeningly slick Brett Ratner.

Make no mistake: their relentless energy backfires more than a few times here. Once the villain Blackout (Johnny Whitworth) enters the fray, his scenes use a strange camera effect (I’m not a cinematographer, so don’t ask for specifics) that doesn’t really enhance the experience as much as it removes a lot of the momentum. Unfortunately, the same can be said of the scenes with the Rider as well. Neveldine and Taylor know how to film a chase sequence and make it unique, but they have a lot of trouble when it comes to using Cage’s alter ego effectively. In an early scene, he simply stands still for several minutes and casts menacing glances at a circle of bad guys. At this point, we haven’t seen him do anything, and we’re supposed to be terrified by the mere sight of him. It quickly grows tedious. The Rider doesn’t even show up that many times in the movie, and when he does it never has all that much effect. That’s a considerable problem, considering this is a Ghost Rider film, not Nicolas Cage Goes Crazy and Once in a While His Skull Catches Fire. It’s a rare comic book film where the filmmakers feel like they have zero interest in the source material, and they instead to set out to make their own 95-minute brand of crazy.

When the film completely devotes itself to the Neveldine/Taylor zaniness, that’s when I had the most fun. One should never mistake these two for storytellers, and perhaps it was an error to put them in charge of a comic book franchise with a devoted fanbase. The best moments in Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance have little to do with the titular character or the mythology, and instead they focus on how to get to the next bit of relatively inspired lunacy. I understand why this movie would turn some people off, but the degree to which it’s turning people off kind of surprises me. This isn’t exactly Neveldine and Taylor at their best, but I still came out with my brain sufficiently fried. With the bloated pretension of the Oscars looming this weekend, a bit of empty fun was more than welcome.

Grade: B-