I am going to type a longer review down below, but for those looking for a quick answer here it is:
It is better than Daredevil and the Hulk(not hard to do), but not quite as good as Fantastic Four (which wasn't particularly great). I would recommend waiting for DVD, but don't expect to buy it.
Now, my long and full review and thoughts. Remember, this is coming from a fan of the 1970's-80's and 1990's comics, mostly the 1990's.
POSSIBLE SPOILERS
Previously one of the reasons I listed for Nicolas Cage to not be right for the role was that he was too old. I take that back. They play on the full Johnny Blaze backstory (with changes) and so Cage would be only slightly too old for Johnny Blaze, considering the rest of the story. After the backstory everything seems to combine the Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch storylines as Ghost Rider possesses both sets of powers, but has a bike more like Danny Ketch's version. The look of the Danny Ketch version is what made me assume Cage would be too old. So, I can excuse the lack of blond hair on Johnny Blaze. The movie also incorporates the original old western-themed Ghost Rider comics, aside from the fact that Carter Slade was never a flaming, demon-possessed skeleton, but we can ignore that. Actually, I can't as you will see later.
And anyone trying to bring up the most recent Ghost Rider comics to compare the movie to can stuff it. They were created in order to tie the movie in properly.
First, because Nicolas Cage has an appropriate age did that help him at all? No. Nicolas Cage has an occasionally odd quirkiness about him that comes out when he is allowed to make the character his own, which he was here. Quirky humor has no role in Ghost rider. The scene where he is trying to make a skull face in the mirror was horrible, even if the audience laughed. They also laughed at scenes that weren't supposed to be funny. If I just got possessed by a demon, turned into a flmaing skeleton, and killed a few people I wouldn't be making faces in the mirror or jokes about feeling like my skull was on fire. Other places, like witness interviews, had some comic humor too that would be in place in Spiderman, but definitely not Ghost Rider.
Next, the storyline seems like it got a Michael Bay treatment. Too much of the love story. Hello, demon-possessed, spirit of vengeance hunting down the son of satan, he takes time out for love? I'm sorry but, "No time for love Dr. Jones." But a kidnapped girl always gives a hero motivation to chase down the villain, because stopping the end of the world isn't enough. Besides, a comic book hero movie where he is only the form of the hero less than 25% of the time is kind of weak. And I won't even go into plot holes, especially the one really big one.
Now the comic injustice that was done: The character of Carter Slade as an old-west Ghost rider. This is the Carter Slade Ghost Rider character from 1963:
He was a Lone Ranger type character that dressed in all white. He was definitely not the cowboy version of this:
This just screams a script written by someone who never read the comics before this movie or even did a Google search when he heard about an old-west cowboy Ghost Rider. Then the inclusion was pointless and did almost nothing for the story. The only bonus to this is that Sam Elliott was excellent for the role, and his acting was great. And I will save anyone wanting to bring up Hamilton Slade becoming the new Phantom Rider after being possessed by his ancestors some trouble. He was still not a flaming skeleton and this small mention leaves out that Lincoln Slade went insane and did a few things that broke the comic book code before dying.
This is the end of my comic fanboy issues. Now, moving on.
Now the biggest problem with the whole movie was that it was rated PG-13. Why? I don't know many kids under 13 that know who Ghost Rider even is, and those that do only know because the comics were brought back in order to help promote the movie. In my theater there was no on under 16 in there. This could have taken an R rating and been so much better. Ghost Rider was on par with Blade (even fought him once) and Spawn. When demonic forces are fought violence and bloodshed should be expected. I never saw a single drop of blood. Spawn was PG-13 and was horrible. The R-rated DVD version was better, but barely. Blade was R from the beginning and excellent to boot. I strongly believe that if Ghost Rider were R-rated The script could have had more room to work with and the movie would have been much better. It is a dark story and something that just explaining to a kid would be hard, so why make it so that parents may think taking their kids sounds good?
Now, the Ghost Rider scenes were good as a whole. I only had one issue, when he grabbed a guy with his chain and said, "Get over here!" Flaming skull grabbing someone with a chain sounds like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat. Someone mixed up their source material. Aside from that it was good effects and he was fun to watch. As stated above the fight scenes were kind of short, but Ghost Rider never spent much time in epic battles because anyone whose soul was "stained with the blood of the innocent" didn't last long and hellfire does a job even on spiritual beings. Of course, one would expect a battle with Legion to last slightly longer.
Cons:
- At least one major plot hole.
- Major deviation from storyline
- Creative team appears to have never heard of Ghost Rider before now
- Not the dark story expected of this kind of anti-hero.
- Needed more violence (R-rating)
Pros:
- Entertaining - not dull
- Levity makes otherwise dull scenes enjoyable
- Sam Elliott
- Good effects - fire looks like fire
- In Ghost Rider form things felt true to the comics
- Penance Stare, Hellfire, and Chain all used properly (obeyed the rules of the mythos)
- Tame enough for young teens to enjoy (not an R-rating)
Now, reading up on the video game I hear it uses the same engine as God of War and plays like God of War. This has me very interested as to how much fun it might be. I will probably rent it.
EDIT:
CamaroBoy, the jelly beans, cartoons and Carpenters was because he made a deal with the devil and was rejecting all vices to try and avoid inviting him back in. I agree with most of your assessment, except the Superman bit. I actually really liked Superman Returns and the original Superman (whichever you meant). Oh, and his lack of education (man or demon?) was because he grew up as a Carnie and was new at the whole being Ghost Rider thing. I mean, Peter Parker face planted into a wall when he first tried web slinging.
which falls under "nostalgia".
