The Rider

This past Friday I joined many anxious fans at the viewing of "Ghost Rider". Which stared Nicolas Cage as 'Johnny Blaze' and 'Ghost Rider'. Also, the ever so voluptuous, Eva Mendez as 'Roxanne Simpson' who is Johnny Blaze's love interest in movie. The movie was also graced by the timeless, Peter Fonda as 'Mephistopheles', which is basically a fancy word they had used for the character, who is Satan. So as the movie begins, we all know what to expect. The 20 - 30 minutes of bombarding commercials for upcoming movies or sponsors. In this case specifically I was not bothered by it so much because they had shown very good movies which quite honestly had me salivating when all was said and done.

Alright with all the introductions aside and taken care of. It's safe to say the movie begins. It began pretty intensely with an intense orchestral piece, coupled with a road which looked to be leading to hell due to the fact that everything was on fire around it. It gave you the perspective of what the Ghost Rider might see while on a ride to hell; Burning up asphalt and only lead by a faintly lit headlight and some hellfire and brimstone. As the beginning credits zip by, I am already thinking to myself, "Wow, this is going to be a pretty kick ass movie" and I hadn't even seen any actors or heard any commentary whatsoever. Definitely a good way to start off watching a movie, especially one that stars Nicholas Cage. So it starts off with setting up the back story as to Johnny Blaze's childhood with his father. They work for a circus as motorcycle stunt artists. Their relationship with each other being a disconnected one because of his father not knowing how to tell his son that he has lung cancer. So it goes on introducing Eva Mendez's character who is Blaze's love interest as a child and as an adult. So Johnny finds out that his father has lung cancer and makes the deal with the devil to cure the cancer, not knowing that it wouldn't save him from injury. So his father dies and Johnny runs away from the show and setting up his own stunt show, which leads him to his adulthood. Now I don't want to get too much into the rest of the movie, as to not spoil it for anyone who wants to watch it. The effects of the rider and the transformation that Nicholas Cage makes as his becomes the rider for the first time is pretty well done. The Ghost Rider character melded very well into the real environment and didn't look out of place at all, well for a flaming skeleton in leather it did very well interacting with the other characters. There was something that I believe should be noted. That is the way they showed Ghost Riders emotions. Seeing as there isn't much movement that a skull can make realistically without making it look like something out of "A Nightmare Before Christmas' ", 'Jack Skellington'. They decided on making the flames change colour to blue and become more subdued for sad moments or they become much more intense and vibrant for more aggressive and anger toned moments.

I must also mention Eva Mendez's character. They had this woman wearing low cut blouses(i had to look up what a blouse was just for this entry!) throughout practically the whole movie. Her whole wardrobe consisted of basically completely tight fitted clothing and bras that lifted her assets to the heavens in due fashion. Nonetheless her acting was well initiated as well.
So all in all my thoughts on the movie are that it was very well put together. It had its comedic moments as well as the fast paced, heart pounding action that every comic-to-big screen movie deserves and needs. Plus there was plenty of fire.