{sidebar id=23} Director Mark Steven Johnson was not very popular character for
comic fans after his weak adaptations of previous comics Elektra and
Daredevil. It seems that he does not want to “disappoint” anyone with this
reputation completing with this Ghost Rider a trilogy of films to forget.
Not even a couple of Hollywood super stars as
Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze/Ghost Rider and Peter Fonda as the devil
himself are able to disguise the lack of quality all over the film.
The storyline is very weak, the film is as predictable as it can get, so
it turns to be horribly boring. The decoration look cheap and the special
effects look totally artificial. Dialogues make you laugh, but not exactly due
to their inventive and nobody believes even that Cage has that hyper-muscled
body for real. Peter Fonda looks plausible but the gang of demons that wander
with Blackheart would not scare a 5 year old child. I think that Wes Bentley
was looking even scarier when filming a plastic bag in American Beauty
than here…
Added to all this Eva Mendes’s and Brett Cullen’s lines
can make you feel like going to prepare some popcorns in the middle of the
action.
The question is: Was this adaptation needed? In recent years we have
assisted to the chained release of many movies whose inspiration is taken
directly from such a rich source as comics is. There have been products for all
kind of tastes, and not all the adaptations are bad (look at the excellent Spiderman
3 released not a long time ago). But maybe it is about time in Hollywood industry to think twice before wasting budget
in another bad film that will pass to story with no glory. Next time that
Steven Johnson’s name will be announced for a new adaptation, I am afraid that
more than one comic fans body will shake in pain. It is known that Cage
collaborated actively in the writing process of the film. From here, we can
just advice Nicholas to keep just in acting roles.