Movie : Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, or: How to perpetuate shallow metaphors and never back them up
Link : Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, or: How to perpetuate shallow metaphors and never back them up
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, or: How to perpetuate shallow metaphors and never back them up
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
Directed by Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor
***SPOILERS***
Had you asked me what film I regretted paying the admission price for the most a week ago, and I would have told you Ghost Rider. What a lifeless piece of junk that gave no weight to an already transparent Marvel creation. But hey, if it’s a comic book, they’ll make a fuckin’ movie out of it. So the first Ghost Rider came and went, and people met it with the same enthusiasm Ben Affleck was met with for Daredevil. “OK Nicolas Cage, you got your paycheck and we helped you out a little, but please, slink away for a while.” But then came the trailer for Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and holy shiiiiit! These guys realized Mark Steven Johnson’s Ghost Rider was absolute shit, and they were gonna fix it: by making it as stupid as humanly possible. With old Nicky sucking out a dude’s soul, throwing him to the highway road and muttering, “Road kill…,” it seemed the new revamped Ghost Rider was taking The Evil Dead 2 route and just saying, “fuck it, man. Let’s have some fun.” But instead of “so bad it’s good,” we got “so so so SO BADDD,” and it’s all because A) the filmmakers have no idea how to go for broke and B) they don’t know how to engage the audience.
Buddy directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (Neveldor, as I’ve dubbed them) know a thing or two about “over the top,” writing and directing Crank: High Voltage, which was an improvement over its predecessor because it took its own absurd storyline and produced a script and filmmaking style to match (however exhausting it was). But let’s get one thing straight: if you’re going to make over-the-top films, make that your thing—nothing less, nothing more. Cinematic “guru” Steve Shaviro has led a troupe of morons to latch onto Neveldor’s strange infatuation with movement, color, lines and action over…you know, fucking NARRATIVE—the skeleton for film since forever. Trying to bridge the gap between form and content, are they now? Perpetuating films like Southland Tales and Neveldor’s Gamer, he’s lead enough weirdoes to believe that, “hey man, judging films solely based on narrative and not recognizing the macho-strapped metaphors regarding technology and interaction within society is a waste of time!”
Blogga please. Gamer’s intentions couldn’t be more clear: we watch a man literally controlled by a gamer, relating the manner in which consumer culture dictates our actions—but that’s not the problem. Disregarding narrative analysis as meaningless discussion is why people like Neveldor have a career in film. You can argue Ghost Rider’s grasp on the ridiculousness of ephemeral culture is an excuse for its ludicrous self-awareness, but guess what accompanies such “genius”? Childishly written action sequences and a piss-poor storyline that could have been written by a junior-high novice fan fiction blogger dealing with his own emo-rific struggles after finishing the latest Ghost Rider comic. The ineptitude they display for writing a cogent script goes hand in hand with that “self-awareness” that really isn’t self aware at all: Neveldor thinks it has written a substance-filled crowd pleaser, but Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is just a loud and colorful hodgepodge of nothing that has been, quite frankly, my least enjoyable outing at a movie theater…ever.
First of all, for a sequel of Ghost Rider to receive any sort of consideration, the hyper-kinetic angle had to be a must. I mean, the first film didn’t excite anybody. Not even fanboys. Who wants to watch Nic Cage listlessly fight his inner demons so he can collect another monstrous paycheck? No, this shit had to be ridiculous. Alas, the campy nature advertised in the trailer is sparse within the film. Instead, we’re immediately presented with a poorly executed action sequence that begs the question: why do we start movies like this? Filmmakers believe launching the audience into a colorful, bombastic action scene will immediately draw the viewer in—it does the opposite. Along with the action, we need a reason to care. Free of any sort of human connection, we’re left with a random bombardment into a situation we’ve received a surface view of. We’re led to sympathize with Moreau (Idris Elba) and the monks, but why? Because the film tells us to? Then when the bad guys attack, we’re made to hate them for their candid evil sneers and snarky remarks, but never really care/understand why the fuck they’re after this kid. Thus, the only engagement we’re left with is merely watching a bunch of dudes run around shooting guns at each other, with no sense of where they’re running, who they’re running from or why I should even give a rat’s ass.
You see: if Neveldor is such a collective genius, then why make the biggest fucking mistake in the action handbook? And this isn’t the last time we’ll see this at play—there’s still 80 more lazy minutes to this film. Neveldor can perpetuate its own diegetic storyline all it wants, where it believes telling a story through its own voice is more immersive than presenting a traditionally coherent narrative—a tactic used in each of the duo’s films (to Shaviro’s liking, apparently). And hey, that’s cool: it’s how Terrence Malick made a living. But here’s the gap: Shaviro and the “intellectuals” are merely satisfied with understanding a film, while the commercial reviewing market places too much emphasis on trivial details and thinly subjective angles. But even if Neveldor is intellectually capable of producing a Ghost Rider film that owns an ounce of symbolism regarding some sort of sociopolitical matter, by disregarding the audience, they’re not the smartest guys in the room—they’re the guys who stand alone in the corner of the party because they used too many big words they didn’t know the meaning of and annoyed everyone.
The use of campy humor is scattershot, only slinking in every once in a while to randomly divert attention from the scene at hand. That’s too bad, because after relating its own ineptitude for action sequences and character development, campy humor was Neveldor’s sole remaining shot to make this film watchable. Perhaps at the end of the first action sequence when Moreau flies off a cliff in slow motion and shoots out the tire of a car? Only to come back unscathed without explanation? Maybe this was Neveldor’s way of relating Hollywood expectations regarding depository sub-characters? The silly lines were literally all used up in the trailer, and they ALL belonged to Johnny fuckin’ Blaze (Nicolas fuckin’ Cage). You know, when you go for broke, you need to bring all the characters along for the ride. Seriously, why else are we gonna watch Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance? For its original storyline or its use of, ooooh, CGI FIIIIRE!!! Instead of fast paced like Crank, it’s as long-winded, pointless and repetitive as your average shitty summer action flick.
Johnny Blaze’s alter ego actually presents Neveldor’s one chance at presenting a thought-provoking film. Guess if they screw it up? Well, you see, although the Ghost Rider is a pretty transparent, unoriginal character on paper, the manner in which Neveldor presents their hero is quite different from the original film. Ghost Rider staggers around, staring down his prey and allowing silence to fill the area. His use of fear and intimidation over fiery vengeance plays into some fantastic moments of suspense and chillingly long takes. Also, it actually could be legitimate satire regarding the “hero” of action films that normally exists without personality. These heroes are solely used as a vent for the filmmakers’ alter egos, which Neveldor does without shame, making it uniquely self-aware. But lo and behold, the suspense is counterbalanced with explosions and fiery bulldozers, giving a fiery personality to a creature with no sympathies or weaknesses to relate to. He’s a lifeless, soulless creature who should have never been perpetuated as a savior or companion, but here we are: asked to root for the thing that was just revealed as nothing more than Neveldor’s puppet. If that isn’t insulting enough to turn you off, then I guess you’re in the same boat as Steve Shaviro. Johnny Blaze himself can't even receive any sort of humanization, which would be nice link and contrast for the Ghost Rider. His backstory is presented during a couple drawn sequences, which actually feel more lazy and useless than the rest of the unbelievably forgettable film.
Transitions cut back and forth between useless scenes that don’t build any of the disposable sub-characters, and they’re spaced out enough to make it painfully obvious that these scenes solely exist so you don’t fucking forget they’re there. One random quickie scene features Ray (Johnny Whitworth) rotting food with his bare hands: a sandwich, an apple, and then a twinkie he’s unable to destroy. Heh, heh…get it? Actually you didn’t. You see, this is Neveldor’s way of relating the out-of-control consumer market that places more emphasis on fattening, indestructible foods over healthier options, which in turn is a larger metaphor for all the shitty films that pale in comparison to Gamer, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and…wait for it…Jonah Hex. Yes, Neveldor made Jonah Hex. Or, maybe, Neveldor was just trying to make sure its script rounded out at an even 90 minutes before submitting it to Columbia Pictures.
And although we merely regard this scene as incompetence on Neveldor’s part, it speaks volumes about why Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance really is that bad. There is no succinct set of rules that defines what makes a film entertaining or relatable to an audience, but there is a set of rules to alienate an audience—Neveldor checks off every one of them. Ray’s random rotting food scene, along with many brief glimpses into these characters lives that are bolstered as social commentary, are disconnected messages that fly over the viewer’s head and don’t actually build the characters at hand. By planting disconnected sociopolitical commentaries and disregarding the only connection to the audience they had left (you know, the human beings) after butchering the action sequences, Neveldor managed to make a film that fails in every way possible. Watching a campy film can be one of the more enjoyable outings for a moviegoer, but watching one fail at such an easy task is one of the more grueling experiences one is likely to encounter—inside or outside a movie theater.
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