On flaming skulls and Nicolas Cage's hairline.

On flaming skulls and Nicolas Cage's hairline.

Do you want to know the biggest question stuck in my head after the free screening of Ghost Rider we attended last night? What the hell was that woman behind me eating throughout the entire movie? It sounded like she was digging through a garbage bag, foraging for snacks, throughout the entire movie. And when she wasn't stuffing her face she was talking. The movie was free, but that doesn't mean everyone gets to check their manners at the door.

My second biggest question was actually echoed by Photogal about twenty minutes into the movie when she asked, "Didn't Nicolas Cage used to be balding pretty badly? Where did all that hair come from?"

The fact that these were the two biggest questions of the evening should immediately tell you something about the movie, huh? Let's just say we were both glad we saw it for free.

Photogal loves motorcycles and horses (duh) and Ghost Rider was one of the comics I enjoyed as a real tiny tot (even if I don't remember the plot lines at all anymore sine I think the only reason I ever read it was because of the pictures of massive choppers and a flaming skeleton in a leather suit) so it was inevitable that we would see the flick eventually. We were just lucky that one of the riding clubs she knows had a bunch of passes to a preview screening so that meant we didn't have to wait for it to come out on DVD.

The movie does look cool, even if come of the computer generated animation comes off as a little hokey. There is a fair amount of camp throughout the proceedings, and I thought that was appropriate. The only problem was that quite a bit of the audience obviously expected a dark, scary film, and there responses bore their dissatisfaction with the movie as it progressed.

I think Photogal put it best when she said, "My favorite parts where when he was riding the motorcycle up and down the building and doing all sorts of crazy stuff. And the horse bit. But if you're going to ask "why" those things are occurring then you're not going to enjoy it."

I thought the movie felt incomplete. It's formulaic. It's a tad hokey. But it's also reasonably entertaining and I think a lot of the credit to that is due to three main factors: Nic Cage's acting, some pretty subtle and some pretty over the top CG effects, and the ever expanding roll* of Eva Mendes' breasts coupled with the auxiliary role* of her ever shrinking shirts.

So, in the paean of comic book based movies I'd rate this a moderate success, maybe a step below Hellboy but a couple rungs above Daredevil.

*Both spellings are intentional, thank you.

UPDATE: donewaiting's awesome new film critic J. Caleb Mozzocco (we've officiallly gone multimedia over there!) did an excellent review of the film right here.