I believe that I am in the minority for enjoying the original Ghost Rider, and I was looking forward to this sequel despite its current low IMDb rating of 4.3. As it turns out, I should have listened to the masses: Spirit of Vengeance is virtually unwatchable, even for a Nic Cage fan like myself.
The first clue to the low quality of this film is its locale: as a rule, I find sequels that inexplicably take place in Eastern Europe to be inferior to the original, the seemingly exotic setting often chosen for no other reason than pure economics, productions costing less to film in places like Turkey and Romania. The other big clue that I would probably hate this film was the directorial team of Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine, who were responsible for the ADHD Jason Statham action flick Crank, a film that annoyed me from start to finish.
To make matters even worse, the plot is derivative, reminding me an awful lot of the far superior sci-fi classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day (a boy and his tough mother are protected by a once-bad, leather jacket wearing, partly human protector who rides a motorbike), the script is terrible (even Cage's wild eyed mad acting technique cannot detract from the awful dialogue), and there are some truly lousy performances from the supporting cast (worst offenders: Fergus Riordan as irritating kid Danny and Christopher Lambert as facially tattooed monk Methodius)— all of which had me struggling to stay awake.
I will definitely not be getting my hopes up if a third Ghost Rider movie should ever get the green-light.
The first clue to the low quality of this film is its locale: as a rule, I find sequels that inexplicably take place in Eastern Europe to be inferior to the original, the seemingly exotic setting often chosen for no other reason than pure economics, productions costing less to film in places like Turkey and Romania. The other big clue that I would probably hate this film was the directorial team of Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine, who were responsible for the ADHD Jason Statham action flick Crank, a film that annoyed me from start to finish.
To make matters even worse, the plot is derivative, reminding me an awful lot of the far superior sci-fi classic Terminator 2: Judgment Day (a boy and his tough mother are protected by a once-bad, leather jacket wearing, partly human protector who rides a motorbike), the script is terrible (even Cage's wild eyed mad acting technique cannot detract from the awful dialogue), and there are some truly lousy performances from the supporting cast (worst offenders: Fergus Riordan as irritating kid Danny and Christopher Lambert as facially tattooed monk Methodius)— all of which had me struggling to stay awake.
I will definitely not be getting my hopes up if a third Ghost Rider movie should ever get the green-light.