Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011) – Awfully Good Movies

April 12th 2022, 11:00am

Although Morbius was certainly an…entry in the SonyMarvelSpiderVerse, its critical pans have been faced by Sony before when they brought back Nicolas Cage as Johnny Blaze in the flameout sequel Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance!

If you thought Andrew Garfield’s Spider Man was a brazen attempt by Sony to keep their owned Marvel properties away from the House of Mouse, 2012 was also the year that gave us a second film starring the MASSIVE TALENT that is Nic Cage as the famed and flaming Marvel anti-hero, despite his last turn as the hellish bounty hunter being laughed off the screen. But not only does this sequel find Nicolas actually providing his own voice/mocap/hair in the role of the Ghost Rider this time, but the director of Ben Affleck’s Daredevil has been replaced here by Neveldine/Taylor, the men who gave us the utter insanity of Jason Statham’s Crank movies.

Sadly, Sony gave Mr. Cage’s sequel far less resources than their latest Spider-Man reboot: a budget under $100mil, shooting in the barren deserts of Turkey and Romania, and a cameo from Christopher Lambert who’s as checked out as Sean Connery was in Highlander 2. But what’s this, a pre-Knuckles Idris Elba has entered the picture as a French monk who enlists the Ghost Rider to save a little boy from being abducted by Johnny’s satanic boss, now played by the great Ciaran Hinds after Peter Fonda refused the role from reading the script’s first 5 pages…not even kidding.

Look, the final flick may take itself too seriously and suffer from a forced PG-13 rating (thank you, Mr. Sony!), but Nicolas Cage and Idris Elba combine with Neveldine/Taylor’s unique style to help redeem its weaknesses the best that they can. Plus, Spirit of Vengeance certainly takes more risks than anything Disney will ever do with this character–prove me wrong, Kevin Feige! Give Nic Cage a streaming series! Disney+ gave Tim Allen another SANTA CLAUSE, for Pete’s sake, now unleash the Cage into the MCU already.