When the devil resurfaces with aims to take over the world in human form, Johnny Blaze reluctantly comes out of hiding to transform into the flame-spewing supernatural hero Ghost Rider -- and rescu...
Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance attempts to avenge its predecessor on a flat tyre. Continuity. It may just be the most valuable asset to a franchise. In fact, it's the only quality that a sequel should uphold. Whether the films be a couple of years apart or even a decade, they *should* resemble some sort of common ground. Aside from the titular anti-hero making his demonic presence for a grand total of five minutes, Spirit of Vengeance is essentially a vehicle for Cage to activate full "Cage Rage". Despite how gloriously atrocious those scenes were, it wasn't enough to change my overall opinion. And that is, Spirit of Vengeance is the worst superhero film I've seen. Blaze is tasked with saving a young boy from the Devil, who wants to shift all of his demonic powers onto him.
This sequel has a reputation. Released during phase one of Marvel's cinematic conception of their shared universe (although not associated with it whatsoever), this is a prime example of a studio not knowing what to do with their intellectual property and pumping out a sequel for the sake of nothing more than to earn some quick bucks. There's no creativity involved. There's no effort. Only an uninspired reason for a studio to keep a property. And y'know what? It's dreadful. Both the film and its existential purpose.
It commences with a stylised comic book aesthetic which offers unnecessary backstory in case any viewers hadn't watched the awful predecessor, recreating scenes that didn't actually happen in the first place (i.e. signing the soul deal). Strike one! Then we're introduced to a plethora of characters whom I can't remember the name of (that were *that* memorable), to which they all emanated no sense of characterisation and only splurged excessive exposition for the sake of moving the generic storyline along with no real innovation. We meet up with Johnny Blaze again and it seems his alter-ego can now ride the fires of hell in daylight, despite explicitly stating that he must remain in the shadows. Strike two!
Once all the handheld shaky cam, frequent rewind clips and desecrated set pieces are out of the way (absurd creative choices to say the least...), Blaze apparently decided he no longer desired the Rider within him. Yet again, despite stating to the Devil in the first film that "it's a curse I will use to destroy you", and so half of the film felt more like 'Nicolas Cage: Spirits of "How'd it get burnt!?"'. Strike three! The blatant aesthetic change from cheesy comic book adaptation to grungy alternative sequel resulted in several traits no longer existing. It was like a child growing up listening to The Spice Girls, now choosing to hear the screams of Marilyn Manson. The witty one liners were absent, no mention of the supporting characters including the romance with Mendes and the visual effects were somehow worse, the entire film resembling fan-made Adobe illustrator rubbish. Strike four and five!
The acting was woeful, with Cage and Elba hamming up their performances to maximum velocity. Hinds, the new Devil replacement, was grossly misused that it made me feel gross just watching him sway his body round like he is in the middle of a yoga session. Blacked out action sequences? Decaying glass but hardly anything else that was touched? Abrupt conclusion? No. I'm done.
This isn't a sequel. It's a reboot disguised as a successor. And I cannot get onboard. The overly gritty style accompanying Goyer's dreadful story was enough to make my head spontaneously combust. Continuity is everything, and this had nothing. Spirit of Vengeance? Don't you worry, I'll be taking my vengeance by burning this film.
