So, by a show of hands, how many of you caught the original Ghost Rider movie starring Nicolas Cage back in 2007? Not many of you, huh? Now that I blame you; that movie really kind of sucked. A rushed story, some bad casting choices and lackluster action scenes slowed down Ghost Rider like a choked up throttle. I mean, come on – Black Heart looked completely wrong, where the hell were Mephisto and Zarathos and, really, Eva Mendes! From the start, I had a feeling that the movie would suck and boy did they everything to prove me right. Even Nicolas Cage, who many fans had wanted for the part of Johnny Blaze since the mid/late 1990s, seemed out of place. Maybe it was because he was cast in the role about ten years too late. Either way, the movie was doomed with every single decision made for it.

Still, I remember when I first heard that the Ghost Rider movie was given the go ahead, I was really excited. I mean, Blade, X-Men, X2, Fantastic Four and Spider-Man seemed to have gone off without a hitch and were box office successes. So what could possibly go wrong with Ghost Rider? But then I started remembering Blade II, Daredevil, Hulk, The Punisher, Elektra and X-Men: The Last Stand and I started to worry. Now some of those films weren’t all that bad – but the fact that one little hiccup in the film and it is the difference between a hit and a miss: especially when you are catering to comic book fans. Man, those fans can be rabid and harsh if something does not meet or exceed their expectations. 

Sure enough, as soon as Ghost Rider started and fans started noticing the deviations in the story between the comic and the movie and I knew the flood gates were open. To be fair to fans though, their criticisms of the film weren’t that off. First of all, Cage as Johnny Blaze was more comical than tragic or frightening. Second, the fighting in the film looked extremely clumsy and not well choreographed. And that is counting the little fighting that was included in the film. And lastly, the whole movie seemed lifeless. There was no soul to the movie and everyone, and I mean everyone, looked as they were just in the film for a paycheck. 

So why, almost five years to the date, is a sequel being released for Ghost Rider? I mean, the first Ghost Rider film was released on February 16th, 2007 and the sequel, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, is being released on February 17th. Today, people? Why was there a need for a sequel? Were Marvel fans out in droves clamoring for one? If so, I never saw any of them. No. Like other shit projects being released lately, it is all about the money. The first Ghost Rider film earned a world-wide total of nearly $230 million. So if a sequel makes even half of that, on a budget of about $75 million, it would still rake in double the cost to make it. But what seems even more insulting to me is that many of the obvious mistakes and missteps from the first film are being repeated in the sequel. All so that the studio and people behind the film can make a quick buck. 

Call me a sucker for punishment, but I am still going to watch the new film. Why? Because I feel you cannot justifiably criticize something without having watched it in the first place. That is the only fair thing to do. But I am entering this new film with no expectations. Hopefully, if I walk in there with a blank state of mind it might actually be better than I expected. Who knows, maybe the movie won’t be as bad as the first Ghost Rider film and actually be an improvement. Honestly though, I would not be surprised if another huge silver screen turd was shown. I just don’t understand why I am ready to potentially torture myself on the same material five years to the date of the first time I did so. Oh well, guess I am a masochist afterall.