Why, yes, I did see this movie.
The night after it opened, why do you ask? *blink, blink*
Dudes, I actually bought some issues of the original Ghost Rider comic back in the day. I didn’t see the first movie adaptation, though…didn’t even realize there had been one. My attention was drawn to this one by a really excellent trailer online, that was sort of like eating an entire bucket of Pop Rocks.
Here is my list of what I liked about this movie.
1. Idris Elba as Moreau.
2. The part where Ghost Rider pees fire. You get to see it twice.
3. Idris Elba. Wearing leather.
4. Violante Placido (Nadya), who gets to beat up some bad guys! Or at least make a good showing of it. She is the only woman in the entire film who isn’t an extra in a crowd scene. Hrrrmmm.
5. The long shot in which Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze is trying not to turn into Ghost Rider and he makes all kinds of wacktastic scenery-chewing faces while CGI pops out all over. The anticipatory wait for his head to burst into flame was pure cinematic gold.
6. Cameos by Anthony Stewart Head being smarmy and Christopher Lambert with writing all over his face. For non-geeks reading this, Head played Giles in Buffy: The Vampire Slayer, who happened to be my favorite character on that show. Lambert is a French actor who played a Scotsman pretending to be an American antique dealer in the original Highlander. (The Scotsman playing an Ancient Egyptian who was pretending to be a Spaniard was Sean Connery. Keep up!)
7. The rather touching yet humorous scene in which Idris Elba Moreau gives communion to Johnny Blaze with stale bread, and Nicholas Cage’s delivery of the line about the bread. Also, seriously, I liked the artsy way they were posed as the camera retreated.
8. The giant earth-mover thingie after Ghost Rider set it on fire and used it to crush the bad guys. Overkill, yeah, but so is a guy with his head on fire.
9. The way the writers of the film licked the wacky poprocksicle and just let their cracktastic flags ripple in the flaming breeze because there was no saving this concept as a serious art house flick so you had to just lick it instead. Or something like that.
10. Did I mention Idris Elba?
Here is my list of what I did not like about this movie.
1. Idris Elba Moreau gets killed off! I was ready to leave right there.
2. There is only one woman in this film. Her only motivation is to protect her child. She wears less functional clothes than the men, the whole way through.
3. In 3-D, fight scenes go all blurry and painful. And you can’t see them clearly. Which is bad, because other than Idris Elba, that is why I went to see this movie.
4. Ciarán Hinds, you are awesome, but please never attempt an American accent again.
5. The plot.
Have you seen it? What did you think?
