Doesn't Stand a Ghostly
Young Danny (Fergus Riordan) is special, so special that the Devil, Roarke (Ciarán Hinds) wants him and sends his men lead by Ray Carrigan (Johnny Whitworth) to an Eastern Europe monastery where he is hiding. When Carrigan and his men try to kidnap him an unusual monk called Moreau (Idris Elba) tries to prevent it from happening. Moreau fails but in turn tracks down Johnny Blaze (Nicolas Cage - Season of the Witch) and cuts a deal with him, If Blaze uses his powers to rescue the boy he will life the curse that makes him turn in to the Ghost Rider.
As I sat there watching "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" I tried to remember "Ghost Rider" and frankly struggled to remember any of it other than Cage with some bad looking hair. I kind of remember being disappointed by it when I first watched it but then the more I watched it the more entertaining it became. I doubt that will be the case of this sequel as it left me completely under whelmed despite having a decent cast with the likes of Idris Elba and Anthony Head involved alongside the returning Nicolas Cage.
The trouble with "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" is the utterly dullness of the storyline as we have the devil after a kid and Ghost Rider trying to first rescue him and then protect him. It almost feels inconsequent ional as all it does is work as a slim vehicle for all the action and special effects with no real development when it comes to the character of Johnny Blaze and his fiery alter ego Ghost Rider.
Now that lacks of creative and interesting narrative is a problem yet not entirely surprising as once again "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" is all about the special effects and the action. Considering that "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" was made on a modest budget compared to many big screen action movies it is not entirely terrible but not spectacular. In fact get beyond Blaze's flaming skull head and the rest of the action and CGI work frequently fails to real grab your attention.
As for the acting well "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" has a decent cast but a cast the suffers from bad characters and having to play it over the top. As such you have Idris Elba with his contact lenses looking as unreal as his French accent sounds whilst Nicolas Cage strolls through the movie rarely getting out of 1st gear.
What this all boils down to is that "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" is a disappointing follow up to what was a disappointing first movie. The only reason to watch "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" is to tick it off as another movie you can say you watched and have no need to watch again.
