When it comes to movie adaptations of comic books, there are a number of variables that determine how they'll play to those who aren't diehard aficionados of any particular character or serial. The first, obviously, is whether the source material is near universally well known or familiar only to a particular fan base.
Some have gargantuan budgets, while others have decidedly less money with which to work, all of which usually affects how the film will look. There are those with big stars in the lead roles, and the rest that feature unknown performers who may just get their breakout dream with their performance.
The best or at least those with the biggest studio hopes riding on them get the plum release slots, be that the summer season or during the end of the year holidays (the rest get the calendar leftovers). Finally, when the studios know or at least think they have a good film on their hands, they allow movie reviewers to see it days or sometimes weeks in advance. When they know they have a stinker, they hold it back or sometimes don't even show it at all.
With that in mind, here's a brief categorical summary of the latest such film, "Ghost Rider." It's a fairly big budget adaptation (reportedly north of $100 million) of a lesser known Marvel Comics comic book character that stars Nicolas Cage in the lead role, is being released in the traditional studio dumping ground of the month of February, and was only shown to reviewers the night before it opened.
Despite being a voracious comic book reader in my youth, this character never grabbed my attention, so I can't attest to how faithful or not the movie version is to the original. Nor do I know if the comic made sense within the specific confines of its universe, and/or whether it was meant to be taken seriously or came off as a goofy meshing of comic book genres.
As written and directed by Mark Steven Johnson (who previously held down the same posts in the Ben Affleck driven "Daredevil"), the film is a mess. While Cage has some fun playing off and with the dichotomy of his character (motorcycle stunt driver and "Carpenters" fan by day, angry, burning skull do-gooder by night), there really isn't much else here worthy of a recommendation.
Although some of the nine-figure budget handsomely if only occasionally appears up on the screen, at other times the production looks surprisingly chintzy and low-budget. The villains -- Peter Fonda as Mephistopheles (in a bit of obvious homage to his role long ago in the motorcycle happy "Easy Rider") and Wes "American Beauty" Bentley as his renegade son are completely one-dimensional and utterly boring when they could and should have been so much more. And while Eva Mendes sports enough cleavage to keep the presumably male-dominated target demographic eye-locked on her chest, the romance subplot between her and Cage's characters goes nowhere.
Which pretty much holds true for the overall film. Despite several rules being set up (the bad guys can't go onto hallowed ground, the title character only turns into his hunka-hunka-burning love alter ego at night and/or in the presence of evil), the filmmaker doesn't always stick to them.
Moreover, the main plot -- Fonda's Devil making Cage serve as his bounty hunter to find and/or kill Bentley's bland villain who's trying to get some contract for reasons that aren't entirely clear -- doesn't make any sense and it certainly won't engage any but the most ardent fan of the comic book (if even them).
And with Sam Elliot serving both as the occasional narrator and supporting character known as the Caretaker (who ends up riding on a burning equine while accompanying Cage on his burning bike to the final showdown -- for no apparent reason beyond the filmmaker's desire to view them together in such fiery camaraderie), the film ends up turning far too goofy and silly for its own good.
Some of that stems from Cage who brings his usual quirkiness to the role in full gusto. With his turn in the recent "Superman" remake having fallen through long before shooting began, the actor briefly has some fun with this decidedly lesser known character. Unfortunately, and as they like to say, the devil's in the details and that's where this film fails.
With bland villains (which will doom any superhero action pic), lapses in logic, a growing hokiness, and an all-too apparent failure to engage the viewer (save for those diehard aficionados), the offering wouldn't seem to stand a ghost of a chance of burning up the box office (Editor's Note: With a nearly $45 million opening weekend, the film proved we should stay out of the prognosticating business). "Ghost Rider" rates as a 3.5 out of 10.
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