Ghost Rider - Oh, Nick... where did it all go wrong?

Once upon a time, the name `Nicholas Cage' could be associated with setting the cinema box office alight. Then, after one weirdly-awful choice of film after the next, he's been reduced to this - 'Ghost Rider.' You can probably see what he was thinking... recently the `Marvel' stamp has been very lucrative, what with 'Iron Man, Thor, Captain America' and, of course, 'The Avengers.' Nicolas Cage probably thought this film would be spoken of in the same breath as them.

He was wrong. Poor old Nick - just his luck to pick the one `Marvel turkey.' 'Ghost Rider' is an example of a comic book character that should probably stick to the pages of a comic book. Nothing really works here, even though everyone does their best to make it happen.  But, more importantly, this is one of those Marvel properties that ISN'T part of the 'Iron Man' and co 'shared universe.' It's a property Marvel had to sell off during its less lucrative times.

Cage plays a motorcycle stunt rider who sells his soul to the devil (does it matter why?), only to be double crossed (surprise!) and forced to 'reel-in' the souls of the damned for all eternity (while having his head on fire - it's never explained why this is a necessity, but - apparently - it is).  One criticism of the 'MCU' is that it doesn't have that many memorable villains (besides Loki, of course).  Well, even the worst of their offerings isn't as bad as the couple of different baddies on display here.  They're the definition of cliche with no character growth or motivation, other than simply being 'evil.' The acting is average, with the actors doing their best with the lacklustre script. But the script doesn't give any of the characters much depth and Nicolas Cage just looks a bit embarrassed to be wearing a blatant hairpiece throughout.  He has all the other character-types there to aid/hinder him, i.e. the best friend, the mentor and the love interest.  Again, they're all pretty forgettable, although I did have a small fondness for the 'mentor' who was also once a 'Ghost Rider,' mainly because he had a really cool metallic/on-fire horse, but, just when he was really coming into it, they didn't bother using him to his full potential.

However, who cares about the acting if there's plenty of fun action to keep us entertained? Well... there isn't much here. When Nick changes into the `Rider' the flaming skull just looks bad and the set pieces of action don't really shout out to you that they're really that special.  I bought the game of this film on the PlayStation 2 and the special effects look about that level of quality.

'Ghost Rider' is one of those films that, if you have nothing else to do and happen to catch it on telly, then you might think it's okay. But that's all it'll ever be - okay. Although, saying that... if you compare it to its sequel - it's actually a masterpiece of film-making!

5/10 a hard trek, a bit like unicycling to Mordor and back