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zouzounakiA Ghost Rider review? Get out! I bet y'all are chocked and amazed. Really. Heh. Yeah, I'm just that predictable. Just a few small things to cover before I begin my actual thoughts and feelings on the movie itself:
+ The trailers for both Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer were attached to the movie, which is brilliant and I expected no less. This would have usually put me in such a great mood that my feet would have been floating off the ground by the time the movie even started except for the fact that, just as those two started to play, each seperately, there were two different sets of people standing right in the way of the screen looking for seats quite leisurely, unaware that I was about to kill them, especially Spider-Man 3 where a family suffled infront of us to get the seats beside us at a pace that would have put Romero's zombies to shame. My sister would later commend me on not having a breakdown right then and there, though she was partly responsible for averting crisis as she shot the woman the dirtiest look she could when, after she had sat and settled down, she turned on her phone to check her messages and e-mail. She promply closed it when she saw Ann's sneer. They were therefor spared a nasty fate that probably would have included a stale nacho, a box of Goobers and a soda straw. Special Hell has a place reserved for these people.
+ Ghost Rider is one of the very few Marvel comics I know near nothing about, save any crossovers I might have read featuring the titular hero and a few of the Daniel Ketch-storyline comics I read when I was uber-into the Marvel universe in the 90s, but I'm always happy to learn!
+ I love the movie Daredevil more than is right seemly to admit to; the director's cut DVD is in my player so often, it might as well get change of address lables. It's not a comic I ever particularly cared for but Mark Steven Johnson made me lurve it and, in return, I find I consider him to be made of awesome. This frightens, shocks and/or appalls most self-respecting comic book fans I know, as well as a few who aren't. I was excited when I realized it was he doing Ghost Rider 'cos I know the guy, for all of his warts, truly loves his comics. And he gave me one bitchin' ass Elektra, which shall never be forgotten.
+ I've only ever been truly disappointed by one Marvel comic movie adaptation: Elektra. X-Men 3 I pretty much knew I was being handed a pile of crap beforehand, but Elektra saddened me deeply because of so much wasted potential. Jen Garner looked fantastic, and was in prime shape; the fighting scenes, when they got going, were exciting and beautiful; and, hell, Terrence Stamp as stick! But, alas! I hate the soft-pedaling of female superheroes in movies, and it's something that Mark Steven Johnson managed to avoid in Daredevil but that director Rob Bowman seems to wallow in in Elektra.
+ My Cage-lust is a product of this film. I dunno, there's just something about guys who play Marvel superheroes...
So, to recap, the Magic 8 Ball was saying 'all things point to yes' when asked if I was going to like this movie. Did I? Read on, gentler reader...
As you might have guessed by now, my expectations were running rather high, but most of all I just wanted to have a good time. Almost astoudingly, I wasn't disappointed in the least. The first thing that struck me about it was its magnificent (and typically untypical Cage oddball) sense of humor. It was funny, which is something I hadn't really expected. I've seen a lot of negative reviews around the web that claimed that the audience burst into spontaneous laughter at its horrid cheesiness; wishful thinking on behalf of those particular authors but also a failure to recognize actual comedy. I think the audience I saw it with wasn't sure at first and might have thought they were laughing at it and not with it, but they quickly fell into its bizarro rhythm and started having a really good time.
The movie has heart; Cage believed in it, Mark Steven Johnson believed in it, and it shows through so strongly, and can be infectious. A spirited voice-over provided by Sam Elliot (who gets extra brownie points for this being his second major superhero franchise role) at the beginning about the legend of the Ghost Rider puts us feet first into the action. The imagery is potent and beautiful, as it was in Daredevil, though distinctly different which surprised me 'cos, I gotta say, I really didn't expect Johnson to have that strong a style.
With that taken care of, we go now to young Johnny Blaze and his father, Barton, working the carny circuit. Both are fantastically played (my sister and I had an instantaneous LOST moment as we recognized Daddy Blaze as Other Goodwin from The Other 48 Days and A Tale of Two Cities) and that initial scene between Johnny and Mephistopheles brought goosebumps up. Peter Fonda is FAB; it's a role, I think, that most actors want to play--the slick, persuasive Devil--but that most usually go wrong in because they're playing to a type. Fonda isn't. He's playing this as an individual role, not the stereotype. Those early scenes between him and Johnny are tragic and evocative, and set a pitch-perfect mood. But you don't need me telling you that Peter Fonda's a great actor, nor Sam Elliot, who handles his admittedly stylish expositionary dialogue with class and eloquance and a nice chemistry with Nic Cage.
My sister had quite an excellent comment as Mephistopheles is walking through the fairground and the lightbulbs are popping out as he passes: "Peter Fonda does that sometimes." Heh.
Now comes the part y'all know I've been waiting to get to: grown-up Johnny Blaze and Nic. Weird, wild, sexy, funny, fun; so many adjectives come to mind, and that's just for Nic, ha! I fell in love with Johnny instantly, from the moment he started "sipping" jelly beans from a martini glass, wanting to watch a special about howler monkeys instead of an extreme sports show. This was a must, to pull me into the character right away; I have no basis of knowledge of him from the comics, unlike say Frank Castle, Matt Murdock, Wolverine, etc. So the movie had to portray him in a way that got me interested immediately. It suceeded. About the rumored CGI enhancement of the bare chest, I will say no more; I want to believe! There's no question he got himself into some incredible shape--you can see it from his arms and the size of his waist--but all of his lovely hair is gone (sucker for chest hair, I apologize; my mom always did say I was destined to marry a "mook", as she put it, heh). Nic equals awesome, that's that. I'm restraining myself.
Roxanne was harder to get a grasp on. Again, without knowledge of the comic book, I had to start from scratch and, even though she had some really cute, sweet and very real moments, the character was in a difficult position to begin with. I've always said that female characters without superpowers in superhero films have a difficult job to do, because they're usually stuck in the damsel in distress role, playing the skeptic to the hero's claims. Given those limitations, I thought Eva Mendes did a good job; she siezed the moments she could--her magic 8-ball, the 'do you think I'm pretty?' line, and putting her hand up next to her face as she's trying to ignore Johnny's stunt riding on the highway to get her attention all come to mind. The romance is extremely sweet; I think almost every woman in the audience had an awww moment with the skull/face touching.
I've seen a lot of people surprisingly disappointed in the f/x; I thought they were fantastic, not just the execution of them but the concepts behind them. The ride of the two riders across the desert is an iconic image, and, I mean, c'mon, the guy rides his chopper up a freakin' skyscraper! But what I really loved was the climactic battle between Johnny and Legion. Fantastic! Wes Bentley, a longtime favorite of mine, has his strongest scene here, and the clash between superhero and supervillian is suitably epic!
Bottom line: the movie delivered. There's more to say, I'm sure of it, and probably will do so in journal entries to come.
Peace, Ghani
+ The trailers for both Spider-Man 3 and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer were attached to the movie, which is brilliant and I expected no less. This would have usually put me in such a great mood that my feet would have been floating off the ground by the time the movie even started except for the fact that, just as those two started to play, each seperately, there were two different sets of people standing right in the way of the screen looking for seats quite leisurely, unaware that I was about to kill them, especially Spider-Man 3 where a family suffled infront of us to get the seats beside us at a pace that would have put Romero's zombies to shame. My sister would later commend me on not having a breakdown right then and there, though she was partly responsible for averting crisis as she shot the woman the dirtiest look she could when, after she had sat and settled down, she turned on her phone to check her messages and e-mail. She promply closed it when she saw Ann's sneer. They were therefor spared a nasty fate that probably would have included a stale nacho, a box of Goobers and a soda straw. Special Hell has a place reserved for these people.
+ Ghost Rider is one of the very few Marvel comics I know near nothing about, save any crossovers I might have read featuring the titular hero and a few of the Daniel Ketch-storyline comics I read when I was uber-into the Marvel universe in the 90s, but I'm always happy to learn!
+ I love the movie Daredevil more than is right seemly to admit to; the director's cut DVD is in my player so often, it might as well get change of address lables. It's not a comic I ever particularly cared for but Mark Steven Johnson made me lurve it and, in return, I find I consider him to be made of awesome. This frightens, shocks and/or appalls most self-respecting comic book fans I know, as well as a few who aren't. I was excited when I realized it was he doing Ghost Rider 'cos I know the guy, for all of his warts, truly loves his comics. And he gave me one bitchin' ass Elektra, which shall never be forgotten.
+ I've only ever been truly disappointed by one Marvel comic movie adaptation: Elektra. X-Men 3 I pretty much knew I was being handed a pile of crap beforehand, but Elektra saddened me deeply because of so much wasted potential. Jen Garner looked fantastic, and was in prime shape; the fighting scenes, when they got going, were exciting and beautiful; and, hell, Terrence Stamp as stick! But, alas! I hate the soft-pedaling of female superheroes in movies, and it's something that Mark Steven Johnson managed to avoid in Daredevil but that director Rob Bowman seems to wallow in in Elektra.
+ My Cage-lust is a product of this film. I dunno, there's just something about guys who play Marvel superheroes...
So, to recap, the Magic 8 Ball was saying 'all things point to yes' when asked if I was going to like this movie. Did I? Read on, gentler reader...
As you might have guessed by now, my expectations were running rather high, but most of all I just wanted to have a good time. Almost astoudingly, I wasn't disappointed in the least. The first thing that struck me about it was its magnificent (and typically untypical Cage oddball) sense of humor. It was funny, which is something I hadn't really expected. I've seen a lot of negative reviews around the web that claimed that the audience burst into spontaneous laughter at its horrid cheesiness; wishful thinking on behalf of those particular authors but also a failure to recognize actual comedy. I think the audience I saw it with wasn't sure at first and might have thought they were laughing at it and not with it, but they quickly fell into its bizarro rhythm and started having a really good time.
The movie has heart; Cage believed in it, Mark Steven Johnson believed in it, and it shows through so strongly, and can be infectious. A spirited voice-over provided by Sam Elliot (who gets extra brownie points for this being his second major superhero franchise role) at the beginning about the legend of the Ghost Rider puts us feet first into the action. The imagery is potent and beautiful, as it was in Daredevil, though distinctly different which surprised me 'cos, I gotta say, I really didn't expect Johnson to have that strong a style.
With that taken care of, we go now to young Johnny Blaze and his father, Barton, working the carny circuit. Both are fantastically played (my sister and I had an instantaneous LOST moment as we recognized Daddy Blaze as Other Goodwin from The Other 48 Days and A Tale of Two Cities) and that initial scene between Johnny and Mephistopheles brought goosebumps up. Peter Fonda is FAB; it's a role, I think, that most actors want to play--the slick, persuasive Devil--but that most usually go wrong in because they're playing to a type. Fonda isn't. He's playing this as an individual role, not the stereotype. Those early scenes between him and Johnny are tragic and evocative, and set a pitch-perfect mood. But you don't need me telling you that Peter Fonda's a great actor, nor Sam Elliot, who handles his admittedly stylish expositionary dialogue with class and eloquance and a nice chemistry with Nic Cage.
My sister had quite an excellent comment as Mephistopheles is walking through the fairground and the lightbulbs are popping out as he passes: "Peter Fonda does that sometimes." Heh.
Now comes the part y'all know I've been waiting to get to: grown-up Johnny Blaze and Nic. Weird, wild, sexy, funny, fun; so many adjectives come to mind, and that's just for Nic, ha! I fell in love with Johnny instantly, from the moment he started "sipping" jelly beans from a martini glass, wanting to watch a special about howler monkeys instead of an extreme sports show. This was a must, to pull me into the character right away; I have no basis of knowledge of him from the comics, unlike say Frank Castle, Matt Murdock, Wolverine, etc. So the movie had to portray him in a way that got me interested immediately. It suceeded. About the rumored CGI enhancement of the bare chest, I will say no more; I want to believe! There's no question he got himself into some incredible shape--you can see it from his arms and the size of his waist--but all of his lovely hair is gone (sucker for chest hair, I apologize; my mom always did say I was destined to marry a "mook", as she put it, heh). Nic equals awesome, that's that. I'm restraining myself.
Roxanne was harder to get a grasp on. Again, without knowledge of the comic book, I had to start from scratch and, even though she had some really cute, sweet and very real moments, the character was in a difficult position to begin with. I've always said that female characters without superpowers in superhero films have a difficult job to do, because they're usually stuck in the damsel in distress role, playing the skeptic to the hero's claims. Given those limitations, I thought Eva Mendes did a good job; she siezed the moments she could--her magic 8-ball, the 'do you think I'm pretty?' line, and putting her hand up next to her face as she's trying to ignore Johnny's stunt riding on the highway to get her attention all come to mind. The romance is extremely sweet; I think almost every woman in the audience had an awww moment with the skull/face touching.
I've seen a lot of people surprisingly disappointed in the f/x; I thought they were fantastic, not just the execution of them but the concepts behind them. The ride of the two riders across the desert is an iconic image, and, I mean, c'mon, the guy rides his chopper up a freakin' skyscraper! But what I really loved was the climactic battle between Johnny and Legion. Fantastic! Wes Bentley, a longtime favorite of mine, has his strongest scene here, and the clash between superhero and supervillian is suitably epic!
Bottom line: the movie delivered. There's more to say, I'm sure of it, and probably will do so in journal entries to come.
Peace, Ghani
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no subject
on 2007-02-23 12:31 am (UTC)*giggles*
But seriously. I hate.Hate.HATE. public cell-phone talkers. I hate cell phones in general, on principle. Even though I own one.
no subject
on 2007-02-23 12:47 am (UTC)Seriously! My sister's first comment out of the theater was, 'Her whole family was there! Who was she expecting to get emssages from?!'
They always have those 'please turn off your cell phones at this time' announcements right before the previews, and I always know it's not going to work. Granted, I don't hear as much rining as I used to, but seeing a big ol' screen light up in a darkened theater--I noticed about three in the first 20 minutes of the movie. Le sigh.
no subject
on 2007-02-23 12:38 am (UTC)no subject
on 2007-02-23 01:02 am (UTC)The 'Ghost Riders in the Sky' scene is just so many kinds of amazing. The movie looked great in the trailers, it surpassed anything I could have hoped for it--and I had pretty high expectations! I really think it's one of Marvel's crowning achievements and if it doesn't get a sequel, it's criminal!
♥