Ghost Rider: Film Critique
“Ghost Rider” it starts out telling you about the rider before Johnny Blaze(Nicolas Cage). Than it breaks to opening credits. One of the main points of interest in the movie is the repeating themes of loss. This comes from during the first couple parts where they show the carnival with a whole lot of life and bright colors. This theme continues until Johnny finds the letter about his father’s cancer spreading. When the devil or as he is known in “Ghost Rider” as Mephistopheles walked into the carnival all the lights and color seeped out leaving nothing but a dark gray cold area.
When the Devil finds Johnny he makes a deal. He promised to cure Johnny’s father’s cancer if he sold his soul. That moment was when we first encountered lose in the movie, because Johnny lost his soul to save his father. After that moment the color returns to the world until Johnny’s father dies during his jump due to Mephistopheles finishing his contract and curing Barton Blaze, Johnny’s father of cancer by killing him. After that part of the movie almost all the color in the world that is shown turns dark gray. I feel that the color in the movie keeps the same motif of it turning dark gray after someone loses something.
Another moment this happens in the movie is at the biker gangs bar in the desert where Blackheart, Mephistopheles’s son kills the bikers causing them to turn into gray cadavers. Each time someone in the film experiences lose being death, or a physical lose it is accompanied by a dark gray color panel. The camera work in this film didn’t have any real style to it. I felt it seemed like a comic book where it would flash from one person to another repeatedly and this only happened a lot in battle scenes and I would assume that was to show both parties point of views.
Otherwise the camera work was very basic with panning shots and close ups on a character’s face or an object that was going to be used later on in the movie for storytelling. Another motif that showed up many times in this film was “deals” When Johnny is talking with the devil for the first time he gets roped into this contract. Later on the devil says to him “It was like watching an investment grow over time.” this brings up the idea of everyone being in this big system of checks and balances where you make a deal and over time that debt will get payed back. So the devil “curing” Barton’s cancer he then needed Johnny to pay him back because that was the deal.
Also the film as a whole is based around this old contract called “The Contract of San Venganza” which would have given the devil the power to take create hell on earth. But the Riders although being the devil’s bounty hunters keep the Contract away from him. Over all I feel like this movie was good to tell the story of The Ghost Rider. In the comics we get a feeling for this character which you still can feel and see in the movie. But it could have been presented much better.
By: Sean.
Ghost Rider: Film Critique
Johnny Blaze, a fearless dare “devil”, faces a deal from the devil himself when he finds out his father is sick from cancer. He signs a contract to have his father cured but in exchange he gives his soul. The deal is set but the devil goes back on his word and uses Johnny Blaze as his personal bounty hunter and is set on an adventure to have a battle with the devil’s son trying to save mankind. Compared to other Comic Book Crazed movies such as the Spiderman and Ironman, I can actually say I enjoyed Ghost Rider despite the bland overplayed “fight the bad guy and save the girl theme”, and I think the reason is because of the detailed work put into this movie.This eye catching fight between the devil’s Bounty Hunter and his son grabs viewers because of the detailed effects and camera work.
In this Marvel Movie Madness, Nicholas Cage stars as Johnny Blaze, the protagonist. He is faced with the task of hunting down the Devil’s son Black Heart (the antagonist) who is played by Wes Bentley. BlackHeart’s motive is to achieve utter power and to control the world which is common in most superhero movies, but I have to say the work put in his character is amazing. Wes Bentley did an amazing job at keeping the viewer intimidated with the facial expressions and also harsh makeup/ detail effects to make him seem like a true demon. I feel that was a very well done job. But lets not give all props to the camera man since Wes Bentley also played the role into giving such suspense and fear.I felt the facial features and detail in facial changes were great. One moment you would see a pale human form and in a second a change in features would happen whether it be fangs or pitch black eyes it always kept the viewer tuned.If creeping the viewer out was the goal in this movie they nailed it. He somewhat plays a similar role in the movie American Beauty. West Bentley presents us with this intimidating character who we don’t particularly care for at first but as time goes on we see his true self and what he is about. In American Beauty we tended to like West at the end while in Ghost Rider it’s the total opposite.
Another scene that I found absolutely astonishing was the first transformation of Johnny Blaze into the Ghost Rider. Several things made the scene very eye catching. The detail in fire animation (skin burning off from heat) was superb, the setting of being in this dark alley with just a beam of light focussing on Nicholas,and the holy music in the background, but if that wasn’t enough, the acting provided from Nicholas Cage really made it surreal. The facial expression of the kind of pain that hurts so much it makes you laugh was striking. I felt as if he was legit insane and to top off the pan shot that took place during the scene made you see his body movements from all sides which added to the appeal.
Normally I find Comic based movies to be a bore since they all share the same plot. You would have your “average joe” who has some encounter and changed into this big superhero. This superhero then fights some evil villain to save humanity, but thankfully Ghost Rider kind of went off that path. Yes there was romance involved but I felt it didn’t really relate to the story. I felt this was more action driven and had the viewer on the edge of their seats to enjoy the massive explosions being shown.
By: Brent Scott
When the Devil finds Johnny he makes a deal. He promised to cure Johnny’s father’s cancer if he sold his soul. That moment was when we first encountered lose in the movie, because Johnny lost his soul to save his father. After that moment the color returns to the world until Johnny’s father dies during his jump due to Mephistopheles finishing his contract and curing Barton Blaze, Johnny’s father of cancer by killing him. After that part of the movie almost all the color in the world that is shown turns dark gray. I feel that the color in the movie keeps the same motif of it turning dark gray after someone loses something.
Another moment this happens in the movie is at the biker gangs bar in the desert where Blackheart, Mephistopheles’s son kills the bikers causing them to turn into gray cadavers. Each time someone in the film experiences lose being death, or a physical lose it is accompanied by a dark gray color panel. The camera work in this film didn’t have any real style to it. I felt it seemed like a comic book where it would flash from one person to another repeatedly and this only happened a lot in battle scenes and I would assume that was to show both parties point of views.
Otherwise the camera work was very basic with panning shots and close ups on a character’s face or an object that was going to be used later on in the movie for storytelling. Another motif that showed up many times in this film was “deals” When Johnny is talking with the devil for the first time he gets roped into this contract. Later on the devil says to him “It was like watching an investment grow over time.” this brings up the idea of everyone being in this big system of checks and balances where you make a deal and over time that debt will get payed back. So the devil “curing” Barton’s cancer he then needed Johnny to pay him back because that was the deal.
Also the film as a whole is based around this old contract called “The Contract of San Venganza” which would have given the devil the power to take create hell on earth. But the Riders although being the devil’s bounty hunters keep the Contract away from him. Over all I feel like this movie was good to tell the story of The Ghost Rider. In the comics we get a feeling for this character which you still can feel and see in the movie. But it could have been presented much better.
By: Sean.
Ghost Rider: Film Critique
Johnny Blaze, a fearless dare “devil”, faces a deal from the devil himself when he finds out his father is sick from cancer. He signs a contract to have his father cured but in exchange he gives his soul. The deal is set but the devil goes back on his word and uses Johnny Blaze as his personal bounty hunter and is set on an adventure to have a battle with the devil’s son trying to save mankind. Compared to other Comic Book Crazed movies such as the Spiderman and Ironman, I can actually say I enjoyed Ghost Rider despite the bland overplayed “fight the bad guy and save the girl theme”, and I think the reason is because of the detailed work put into this movie.This eye catching fight between the devil’s Bounty Hunter and his son grabs viewers because of the detailed effects and camera work.
In this Marvel Movie Madness, Nicholas Cage stars as Johnny Blaze, the protagonist. He is faced with the task of hunting down the Devil’s son Black Heart (the antagonist) who is played by Wes Bentley. BlackHeart’s motive is to achieve utter power and to control the world which is common in most superhero movies, but I have to say the work put in his character is amazing. Wes Bentley did an amazing job at keeping the viewer intimidated with the facial expressions and also harsh makeup/ detail effects to make him seem like a true demon. I feel that was a very well done job. But lets not give all props to the camera man since Wes Bentley also played the role into giving such suspense and fear.I felt the facial features and detail in facial changes were great. One moment you would see a pale human form and in a second a change in features would happen whether it be fangs or pitch black eyes it always kept the viewer tuned.If creeping the viewer out was the goal in this movie they nailed it. He somewhat plays a similar role in the movie American Beauty. West Bentley presents us with this intimidating character who we don’t particularly care for at first but as time goes on we see his true self and what he is about. In American Beauty we tended to like West at the end while in Ghost Rider it’s the total opposite.
Another scene that I found absolutely astonishing was the first transformation of Johnny Blaze into the Ghost Rider. Several things made the scene very eye catching. The detail in fire animation (skin burning off from heat) was superb, the setting of being in this dark alley with just a beam of light focussing on Nicholas,and the holy music in the background, but if that wasn’t enough, the acting provided from Nicholas Cage really made it surreal. The facial expression of the kind of pain that hurts so much it makes you laugh was striking. I felt as if he was legit insane and to top off the pan shot that took place during the scene made you see his body movements from all sides which added to the appeal.
Normally I find Comic based movies to be a bore since they all share the same plot. You would have your “average joe” who has some encounter and changed into this big superhero. This superhero then fights some evil villain to save humanity, but thankfully Ghost Rider kind of went off that path. Yes there was romance involved but I felt it didn’t really relate to the story. I felt this was more action driven and had the viewer on the edge of their seats to enjoy the massive explosions being shown.
By: Brent Scott