Turn Off Your Brain (Ghost Rider 2 review)

A Ghost Rider 2 Review

Grab some Twinkies and laugh you’re arse off.

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*Tunes of the Day: Metallica Enter the Sandman*

Guess what I did the other week? I saw Ghost Rider 2. Why? Because I had free tickets.

I know that the first Ghost Rider the movie is pretty much despised by the nerd community... but as per usual, I actually... kinda...liked it.

WAIT, WAIT COME BACK!

I could go into the many reasons why I liked it, but it really comes down to how the first Ghost Rider was created in an era where comic movies hadn’t quite found their niche yet, so I'm a little more easy going with them. Plus, it’s Sony. We’ve all figured out by now that they mainly make the movies to make money, and sequels, to keep the money-making licences.

So here comes Ghost Rider 2, the movie that features the Rider pissing a stream of flames in it’s trailer. And once again, has Nicholas cage, who is even more “unique” then he was during the first movie.

So, when I happened upon 2 free tickets, I figured, what the hey? It’ll be stupid, will have nothing to do with the source material, Nicholas Cage would be flippin insane and everyone in the nerd community was going to hate in anyway.

And guess what? <_< >_> *leans forward and whispers*

It was awesome.

HEY! GET THAT CURSOR OFF THE BACK BUTTON!

Did it still have nothing to do with the comics? Yes. Was Nic Cage insane? Yes. Was it raunchy? Yes. What is stupid? Heck yes!

But it was also more fun then a monster truck rally! Including the part where he starts peeing flames. (Wow. I just said that. What is wrong with me?)

Ghost Rider 2 is one of those movies where you have to turn off your brain if you have any hope to enjoy. That means that you just need to just ... let it go. Just relax and admit what the movie really is. Is it there for the explosions? The camera work? Just focus on that, and you will be fine. Uh, usually. Forget the nerdom, forget the ignorance of the source material, forget all you’ve ever learned about writing and film school, forget what kind of movies you actually like. Treat it like an alternate universe, a What if, or a one shot. Comic movies rarely affect the actual comics, and if anything, it’ll increase the amount of people looking up Ghost Rider on Google.

Just sit back and enjoy the explosions and pure, unbridled Nic Cage insanity from the creators of Crank. We know it’s gonna suck, might as well enjoy it.

So, stating that, are the critics are being too hard on it? Pshahaha! Of course not! As an overall movie, Ghost rider 2 is not good. It might one day be considered “so bad it’s good”. But probably not until a better remake show up or the fires of hate have died down. (No, I will not excuse the pun)

(And for reference, this is different from Transformers 3, which was so bad, no amount of “turning off the brain” could have stopped it from being so mind-numbingly boring. And Avatar, which despite not have the most original characters or script, is actually really good and deserves most of the phrase it’s gettin’.)

Ghost Rider is dumb, but hilariously so. I knew it. And everyone in the theatre knew it too. We laughed at parts that were meant to be serious and scratched our heads at the scenes meant to be freaky. There was one scene in particular where something... really weird happens to Cage and when it was over, the entire theatre went dead silent, before one person loudly said, “What?”

The movie style changes almost every 5 minutes. Nic Cage has gone from being tortured to being psychotic in a silly way, the plot is obvious, the ghost rider himself is suddenly a flaming woody woodpecker, there’s one whole scene that is only there to make fun of the edibility of Twinkies and they take the phrase “takes over anything he rides” to extreme levels.

In fact, I’d say the only thing going against this movie’s monster-truck-rally tone, is when it tries to slip in some kinda of social-political commentary, which... was just eye-roll worthy. That, and it needed more heavy metal.

... What? Everything is better with Heavy Metal!

Should we demand a true Ghost Rider movie? Well, duh. I WANT a true Ghost Rider movie.

But until then, turn off you’re brain, gather some friends, some popcorn, and watch Ghost Rider 2 burn, with a beer in your hands, a twinkie in the other and your favourite heavy metal playing in the background. Who cares if its stupid? I just saw a mobster get killed by a giant, demonic construction vehicle on fire.

Seeya

 Tegan Dumpleton SlugLady28

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credits:

Yes, I do know about the incident with Gary Friedrich. You can check out my thoughts here

As for the boycotts, my official stance is that the movie and the incident with Gary Friedrich are two separate events. Should the creator of Ghost Rider get some rights to the movie? Yes. Should Marvel have gone after him like that? Fudge NO! But the people working on the films production, nor the many other creators working at Marvel, were not the cause of this mess. Marvel Comics (or at least the nameless suits at Marvel) were. If you want to boycott Marvel or the Ghost Rider movie because of it, that’s fine, but I should warn you that comic boycotts aren't that as effective as banding together like-minded individuals and getting the word out to those not in the know.

OH! And see the new thing at the top? Tunes of the Day? I pick a song that acts as a mood setter for the article or something to listen to while reading. I adore music, and I usually listen to it while drawing and writing for inspiration, so I'd thought I'd incorporate it here.

And, please please please don’t think that I am trying to insult heavy metal or Metallica by mentioning it in the same article as Ghost Rider 2. All I'm saying is that if I’m watching a film about a demonic flaming skeleton, riding a flaming motorbike, and killing people with flaming chains, explosions and even more flames, it needs to be accompanied with awesome heavy metal no matter what.