Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor were handed a Marvel antihero, a returning Nicolas Cage and a bigger budget than the 2007 original. They came back with a mess.
Trailer, via Sony Pictures Entertainment.
Cage Painted His Face Black and White
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is a 2011 superhero film based on the Marvel Comics antihero. It is a sequel to the 2007 film Ghost Rider. Cage reprises his role as Johnny Blaze, the stuntman cursed to hunt demons, joined by Ciarán Hinds, Violante Placido, Johnny Whitworth, Christopher Lambert and Idris Elba.
The plot sends Blaze out of hiding. A secret religious sect wants him to protect Danny, a young boy the devil’s minions are hunting. Moreau, an alcoholic monk played by Elba, offers to restore Johnny’s soul and lift the curse if he helps.
Moreau Offers to Restore Johnny’s Soul
Roarke, played by Hinds, plans to move his aging mind into Danny’s body. Nadya, Danny’s mother, reveals the boy is Roarke’s son. Carrigan, her ex-boyfriend, gets revived with the power to decay anything he touches.
The film runs 96 minutes. Taylor said this version was darker than the first and drew on the miniseries Ghost Rider: Road to Damnation by Garth Ennis and Clayton Crain.
“He rides again.”
Lambert Shaved His Head for Methodius
Cage’s preparation drew more attention than most of what made it to screen. He painted his face black and white, wore black contact lenses and sewed bits of Ancient Egyptian artifacts to his leather jacket. Lambert trained with a sword for three months and shaved his head.
None of it holds. The script, by Scott M. Gimple, Seth Hoffman and David S. Goyer, moves from firefight to capture to rescue without building anything. The CGI drew criticism, and this paper would put it below the first film’s. Elba and Hinds are working far below their level.
The Ritual Never Lands
The film opened for one night on December 11, 2011, then went wide on February 17, 2012, in 2D and 3D. It grossed between $132.6 million and $149.4 million against a $57 million budget. Reception was worse than the original’s. Cage said he was “done” with the Ghost Rider films, and a planned sequel was canceled.
Marvel Studios Took the Rights Back
The money is the only number that argues for the movie. It shouldn’t. A sequel that costs more, casts better and still can’t stage a single coherent fight is not a franchise being built. It is one being spent. The rights went back to Marvel Studios in 2013, and that was the right call.
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