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Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance More at IMDbPro »

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280 reviews in total

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158 out of 220 people found the following review useful:
A tale of fantasy and wild stupid debauchery, 20 February 2012

Author: jonhamms from Canada

To be honest, i was really looking forward to see this movie, the trailer itself was eye-candy and highly exaggerated.The story is as bad as the actors' performance. Nicholas Cage is going a very , very bad road, his lasts movies , ''season of the witch'' and ''drive angry'' were as thin and dreadful as this one. The action in this movie was unjustified and plain crazy bad, the way ''Blaze'' was written, the laughable dialogues and dumb facial expression of Cage didn't helped at all. The 3D effect on this movie is overrated, everything is too much and fake. Idris Elba was probably the only reason why i went to watch this but even then his role was thin and futile, On the whole, it's messy , funny and plain bad, i pray to god there is not a third one

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153 out of 221 people found the following review useful:
Loved the first Ghost Rider, this one was TERRIBLE, 20 February 2012

Author: solutionpw from United States

I was real excited about a sequel to Ghost Rider. I liked the first one. I was very disappointed. Everything is horrible about this movie. The plot, the writing, the acting, and especially the special effects. In the first move, the flaming skull was sharp, the bike was great, the riders expressions were great. In this movie, the flaming bike looked broken down, the skull wasn't sharp, and the jacket charred. The chain never lit up on fire either. And the penance stare was different. He didn't say look into my eyes or anything. Not to mention again that the writing and the plot were garbage. Don't waste your money on this one. 3d can't help this stink pot. Wait for cable.

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130 out of 193 people found the following review useful:
What a waste!, 19 February 2012

Author: dayspring-297-896587 from United States

Having grown up with many of the comic book super heroes, I have been delighted to see so many of them becoming movies now, and look forward to each one. The whole Marvel series has been enjoyable for the most part. Ghost Rider (both of them) have been total disappointments.

The first Ghost Rider was poor, so I figured this one could only go up. Wow, was I wrong! The acting and plot in this one was SO poor, I was ready to walk out within 10 minutes. I decided to be fair...maybe things would improve. Well, I'll never get that hour and a half of my life back again.

I've seen some pretty cheesy B movies before. They can even be fun But I expect the quality of these to be so much more. It wasn't, and there was nothing fun about it. This one will never reach the acclaim it could have....it will fittingly go down in flames as nothing more than a poorly done B movie.

I've seen better acting out of most middle school and high school productions! Even the special affects were substandard for a movie of this type.

Don't waste your time with this one. Don't even bother with buying a DVD when they come out. Your money is worth more than seeing this movie even once.

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121 out of 181 people found the following review useful:
A Marvel film far under the average, 18 February 2012

Author: Victor Yamaguchi from Brazil

The first Ghost Rider was already a disappointment – compared to other Marvel adaptations to the cinema, it was far under the average. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, however, is even worse. It didn't even look like a big Hollywood production – the special effects and the action sequences were sometimes absurd going to the ridiculous. It looked like a low budget film – a poor visual with only one or two exciting scenes - if I can call them exciting.

Then, there is the plot issue. Those 'blockbusters' are not supposed to have a story with philosophical meanings as they are made aiming pure entertainment, but this one actually didn't even have a story. It was totally redundant, silly and cliché – actually kind of ambiguous because the characters were not well explained or explored - things seemed too much up in the air leading the audience to nowhere.

Nicolas Cage also didn't help at all as he was not convincing on what he was doing. But, we can't put all the blame on him – the character was already badly written by the screenwriters who didn't know how to make him interesting. The Ghost Rider is not the conventional superhero – he has an obscure personality. So, where is this aspect on the story? Where is the true nature of the Marvel superheroes? In this film, there isn't any.

What surprises me most is the fact that this film coasted $75 million and no one knew how to make a good use of this big budget. It was a total waste of money and time – not only for the audience, but for the actors too. A superhero movie that promises more than it really has to offer. If you didn't like the first film, you'll probably hate this one.

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90 out of 126 people found the following review useful:
Worst movie I've seen in a LONG time, 19 February 2012

Author: Deny Watanabe from Brazil

Seems anyone can be a movie producer / director / screen writer these days. One of the worst stories I've ever seen in a movie, crippled by awful directing and poor acting even from Nicolas Cage, of whom I happen to be a fan. The movie is a complete disaster from beginning to end, failing to capture the spectator because of a weak storyline, bad timing and management of tension and viewer expectations, and action sequences that besides not having the impact the film maker wishes they had, look pretentious and anti-climatic.

About the lines written for the characters, all I can say is: if *I* was invited to work in this movie as an actor (and I'm not an actor by any stretch of the imagination), I'd still be embarrassed to say them and ashamed that other people would watch me doing it.

The fight scenes are not believable at all, seems like people are waiting to be punched in the face, shot or whatever it is that's going on at any given moment. The reasons given for the outcome of any conflict in the movie seem like the ones a child would come up with while playing with his little friends.

I went to see the movie in a 3D "XD" (Extreme Digital) movie theater and even that didn't compensate enough how bad the movie is that I wouldn't be anxious to get out by 3/4ths into watching it.

Now here's something I definitely don't get, how can Stan Lee let such a horrible, horrible, horrible abomination like this thing be released under the Marvel name?

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79 out of 114 people found the following review useful:
Such a promising subject such a disappointment, 19 February 2012

Author: parrisjim from United States

The ghost rider has the potential to be one of the coolest and most successful franchises today,Ghost rider is so iconic and so much can be done with him,the problem is morons are making the films.

The film has several styles that never really gell,It tries humor but fails,Halfway though the movie it literally starts making fun of itself..and its not funny.I felt like they were saying haha we got your money.

The over used Prophecy child theme,The fish eye 1970's lens used to death and poor effect..the home computer cgi..

If you rent this one day in redbox you'll want your dollar back,If i ever see the director I'll ask for my money back and shame him for taking something that could be so cool and just dropping the ball,he should be banned from making films for 2 years for this one.

I hope one day someone with imagination and talent takes on a ghost rider film and finally does it justice.

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87 out of 138 people found the following review useful:
Stay Away from this movie, 17 February 2012

Author: wgeddings from Manning, SC

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

I liked the first Ghost Rider and collected comic books for years. I say that to let the reader know that I am also a fan of comic book movies normally and am not a stickler about a movie sticking to comic book canon. My problems with this movie have nothing to do with it being a comic book movie.

The special effects in the movie are very bad. I saw it in 2D since I do not like 3D but I do not believe that makes a difference. The new version of the burning skull is much worse than the original. Now, there is tons of smoke most of the time and it is hard to see anything. Like watching polar bears have a milk fight in a blizzard but in black instead of white. The excess smoke and a skull that sometimes blazes but often is just impossible to see in the smoke combine to remove some of the "cool" factor of Ghost Rider. In addition, the motorcycle and costume that were cool in the first one are gone. Replaced with a motorcycle that is hard to see (hello smoke) most of the time and when you can see it, it is basically an old motorcycle on fire. Not the awesome chrome and blazes chopper you would expect. The outfit is old leather that appears to be melting when you can see it through the smoke. I suppose that would be fine if you are going for more of a rotted zombie look but that is not Ghost Rider.

One of the main bad guys appears to be one of the ghost twins from the Matrix films and is about as interesting although he does have a cool power that the actor does a good job of appearing to enjoy. Sadly, he is on the screen far too seldom and is far too often in GR's smoke.

Which brings me to the acting. Normally, I like Nicholas Cage but here he is different. His face is chunkier and he has replaced acting with turning his head sideways. Apparently, someone told him that instead of snappy patter or doing cool things, he would appear so much more menacing if he started just turning his head sideways. So he does it A LOT! As GR, he barely talks except for a few very poor one liners that are akin to Arnold's "I let him go" in Commando.

In case the poor acting, distracting special effects and poor story are not enough, they also added annoying camera work. At times it has the hand-held shaky method so wonderfully annoying and at other times the director falls in love with closeups that add to confusion when you want to see what is going on.

In the first Ghost Rider, he could throw fire, he could use a Pennance (or Soul stare) Gaze. He could defy gravity with his awesome chopper. He made quips and was a hero. They did away with all of that and replaced it with....Nic Cage turning his head sideways. I know that he does gaze at a bad guy but although some might claim that is the Pennance Gaze, nothing seems to happen.

Finally, just in case all of the aforementioned was not enough, they made sure to have lots of people talking with odd accents to help make sure the mumbled dialog was harder to understand. An awful movie that I have 2 stars only because of my respect for comic book movies in general and I am glad someone tried to make a sequel. If only they would give the rights back to Marvel and let us get a decent Ghost Rider movie again.

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36 out of 54 people found the following review useful:
I liked it., 26 February 2012

Author: Greenzombidog from United Kingdom

This new ghost rider ignores the last one and and retells the origin story and also gives us a slightly new take on the Ghost rider himself. This time the Ghost rider is much crazier and a little bit spookier. They've rightly decided to drop the silly monster voice he used to have in favour of a more whispered tone. The ghost riders soul desire now is to destroy anything and everything evil. So when the persona of Johnny Blaze disappears you better start running if you've been a bad boy or girl.

The plot is perhaps a little too familiar. The Ghost rider is charged with protecting and accompanying a boy needed for an evil prophecy, an evil prophecy that also involves the demon that cursed Johnny Blaze. We've all seen this story line some where before but really it's just the setting to let Nicholas Cage go crazy with the Freaky new iteration of the Ghost rider, and that is exactly what he does.

I was not a fan of the original, i thought it was a little too boring for a movie based on a character possessed by the spirit of vengeance. This one on the other hand has lots of action, being directed by the guys who brought us the Crank movies and Gamer I expected as much. The Ghost rider really takes it to the bad guys this time round and the final battle and highway chase are both pretty spectacular. We also see a couple of new powers, which was quite refreshing.

The CG is a little bit hit and miss sometimes it looks fantastic other times the way it is implemented is a little ropey. All round though the effects are pretty impressive and the new look of old flame head with the burnt and craggy old skull and the charred clothes is a much more appealing style for a character this dark.

The strangest thing for me is that this didn't really feel like a superhero movie. It felt more like a revenge flick. Add to that the few truly bizarre moments like the scene when Johnny is alone in the Monks caves and you've got something quite removed from the standard. This is no bad thing in my opinion but it may put off some of the marvel movie fans out there.

There's a lot to be enjoyed here with some funny over the top one liners. some great action and another great crazy turn from Nicholas Cage. One thing I will suggest is watch the film in 2D as the 3D isn't that great.

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36 out of 59 people found the following review useful:
Mediocre at Best, 21 February 2012

Author: Christopher Burse (chrsbrs47@gmail.com) from St Catharines, Canada

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Let's get something straight first: I absolutely LOVE terrible movies. The way I view movies is that if they manage to get SOME kind of reaction out of me, be it good or bad, it succeeds in a its ultimate goal— to get to the viewer. This can be achieved even in the most awful of films, as I even managed to get enjoyment out of such train wrecks as Sharktopus and Tommy Wiseau's infamous classic, The Room. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, on the other hand, is the worst kind of movie to me; it's not that it's terrible, it's just..... bad. I had absolutely no reaction after coming out of the theater. The closest thing to an emotion I felt was the regret of wasting 12 dollars on it (I had missed the 2D viewing because of a miscommunication with my brother) They had tried to stay truer to the source material this time, but when your predecessor has already retcon'd your story to hell, there's no point. the jokes were just lame, and it seems that the new makers (who unsurprisingly worked on Crank) read the comics, but didn't watch the first movie. I went into this theater expecting a typical Nic Cage film, and even by those standards I was underwhelmed. He felt like he was only in, say, 2 minutes of the movie even though he was clearly in nearly every scene. Even the special effects seemed, off, with the rider's head jerking about every time he tried to move. it was clear that they tried to fix what was wrong wit the first movie, but all in all, it was just..... bad

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38 out of 63 people found the following review useful:
Could've been waaaay better, 17 February 2012

Author: tjjavier from Philippines

Judging from the mood of the theater I was in, the consensus of this film was "...."

Yep, the pacing and storytelling of the film was so bad that it's actually hard to appreciate the plot, and even the action scenes. The otherwise simple plot becomes a task and even a bore to follow due to the bad editing and pace of the story. Things that are supposed to hit home through a joke, or a "Wow!" action scene, fail to do so either because you've gotten lost in all the distractions the film throws at you, or you just merely lost interest due to the lackluster story telling.

It's quite a shame in my opinion that there were many scenes that were supposed to evoke emotion, that just did not. It's hard to comprehend how these scenes fail, when in the back of your head, you actually know that in another occasion, that scene should've been really bad-ass, or really funny. Better editing and better character development would've made the movie easier to follow, and would've given meaning to all the great visuals and occasional funniness the film has.

Now how does it compare to the first? Dare I say Apples and Oranges? The first was coherent and easy to understand but way too cheesy and campy (lacked action too), while this one was heavy and slow with a lot of zany visuals and camera work. Both seem to want to achieve completely different results from an audience that it's actually difficult to say which one's better.

If you're looking for great eye-candy, and whack visuals, then Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance delivers. As a complete entertainment experience though, it falls flat.

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