Ghost Rider

In the latest film adaptation of a Marvel comic book, aging fan boy/movie star Nicolas Cage takes on the role of Johnny Blaze, a daredevil motorcyclist who sells his soul to the devil (Peter Fonda) in return for saving his father's life. When the deal takes a bad turn, the devil forces him to battle his main nemesis (and son) Blackheart (Wes Bentley) in order to "buy" his soul back. Unfortunately for anyone looking for something on the level of Marvel's Spider-Man or X-Men movies, forget it. It's clear this director, Mark Steven Johnson (Daredevil), has sold his soul to a bunch of special effects wizards, who certainly supply the hardware, but drowned out the human element. Cage, a major comic book fan himself, gives it a try, but his quirky line readings and strange actions (watch how he drinks his coffee!) don't add up to much, especially considering his character morphs into a burning skeleton CGI creation for all the major action set pieces. These are impressively accomplished, but with today's state-of-the-art technology we'd be shocked if they sucked. The script is neither smart/funny nor dumb/bad; it's just sort of by the numbers and desperately in need of solid ideas and a few clever lines. Female lead Eva Mendes does spice things up a little as Johnny's former squeeze who comes back into his life as a TV reporter, but she's largely wasted. Nicolas Cage taking on Ghost Rider was a promising concept that's still reasonably entertaining for an undemanding audience, but you'll just wish it could have been better than it is.