Ghost Rider

Yesterday afternoon, to kill some time with the conference finished, I decided to head out to see a movie. I can't remember the last movie I've gone to see that didn't have cute animated critters... it's gotta be before we moved in September. It was a toss up to either see Amazing Grace or Ghost Rider. The geek in me won out :-) Besides, Amazing Grace is a better movie to go with with my wife and I'm SURE she wouldn't want to see this one (it's bad enough I dragged her to see Spawn years ago when we first started dating!)

As far as comic book movies go, this one was not bad at all. Not as good as X-Men or Spiderman, but a lot better then Fantastic Four, the Hulk or Electra.

Back in 1990s when I was reading pretty much every comic being published, I got into the Ghost Rider books. I loved the look of the character. The bike and the chains where just such a cool update to when the character first came out in the 70s. I've always been fascinated with God vs. Devil stories, in fact that was one of the key parts of my journey of faith, so a comic about a bounty hunter for the devil who turns on him works for me on all levels!

The biggest problem with the movie has got to simply be Nicolas Cage. I've never been a big fan of his... he just always seem to play the same guy... Nic Cage as a possessed spirit of vengeance, Nic Cage as a car thief, Nic Cage as a treasure hunter. I'm SOOOO glad he never got the role of Superman that was rumoured! The best role he has done in my opinion is Raising Arizona.

The visuals effects were pretty good. In some parts the Ghost Rider looked a little bad... but that was easy to ignore.

I also had a number of chuckles over some of the uses of Scripture in the movie. I was the only person laughing during those scenes so I guess that means I was the only pastor in the crowd... I love it when Bible verses are used way out of context in movies. Gives me some great things to talk about with my buddies.

All in all, I enjoyed the movie even though, if I tried just a little, I could pull out a bunch of really big holes in the story. But I won't do that. I'll chalk this movie up as just a good fun time where you can leave your brain in the lobby and sit back and just watch demons fighting amongst themselves. Ahh... a house that's divided stands no chance :-)

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