Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengence

There was no way anyone thought that Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance was going to be anything more than a bad movie. The only debate was if it was going to be so bad that it was good or that it was going to be just terrible. It had all the tools to be the former, I'm just not quite sure if the movie got there. As long as you don't get bogged down by things like acting, cohesiveness or consistency then there is a chance you may find the trashy fun in Ghost Rider 2 that I'm sure it was supposed to have.

Nicolas Cage returns as The Ghost Rider the superhero that always had the potential to be cool, just not if it was reigned in by a PG-13 rating. He sold his soul to Satan and now is consumed by this demon who hunts down evil men for the devil. The back story seems more or less irrelevant but the directing duo of Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor does do something fun with it by animating the story to give the movie more of the comic book feel. Once they cut back to present day they can go right into the action. That may be the only thing they get right in the whole movie.

Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor are the same duo who brought you Crank 2. I never saw that movie though because I believe Crank had a pretty solidified ending where there was no coming back from. Well apparently I was wrong so it is clear that these two have no problem dealing in the ridiculous including having the Rider piss fire. If any of you saw the trailer this may have been the moment where you laughed to yourselves and thought this may be a fun movie to see. While that scene may have been intended for more, it is such a throwaway moment that there is no doubt in my mind they put it in there just for the sake of the trailer.

Cage seems to only be putting in half effort in this one. You may be saying to yourself how does an Academy Award winning actor who has agreed to do whatever movie he can to pay off his massive tax bills put in even less effort? Well if there is one thing that ole Nic has become known for it is when he flies off the handle, and that seems to be the only time he puts in any effort into the movie. Add that to the fact that when Blaze became the rider he didn't need to show up at all thanks to CGI. Cage phones this movie in from the get go and that is saying a lot considering the movies he has been doing

They did everything they possibly could to ruin this movie, they made it PG-13, they shot it all in Eastern Europe to keep the budget low, they got rid of any semblance of recognizable actors they had from the original and of course they added an annoying child to the plot line. There are some of you that I'm sure will still find a way to enjoy the movie. But I think my head would have hurt less if I had left the 3D glasses off the whole movie. D-