[3.75/10] Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

Ghost Rider:
Spirit of Vengeance (2012)

Brief review: After the unfortunate "Jonah Hex", directing duo Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylorand bring us another lackluster effort, which also happens to be a sequel of Marvel's "Ghost Rider" from 2007. While the original movie was kind of cheesy fun and somewhat watchable, this sequel is not even cheesy. It's just bad. In fact, it's so bad, it could be easily considered to be one the worst Marvel Comics-based movies ever made. The script is an uninspired mess, and everything about the story feels familiar and borrowed from other movies, the comic book-like back stories not only suck, but also make the plot even more confusing than it already is, and Neveldine and Taylorand's direction is amateurish, lazy, incompetent and dull as the movie itself. There nothing special about the special effects either. Not sure how hard is it to make a cool-looking burning skull, but the team behind the visual effects seems to have been struggling with that, and the end result is both lame and disappointing. On a positive note, some of the action sequences are entertaining and well-executed, plus, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" offers some nice and interesting scenery from Romania and Turkey. Although Idris Elba and Ciarán Hinds both deliver solid performances, Violante Placido and Johnny Whitworth's weak acting lets the film down, and Nicolas Cage gives another nutty, overconfident performance as Ghost Rider.

Overall summary: A couple of cool action sequences aside, "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" is a poor sequel to a mediocre original, that is not only boring and unexciting to watch, but also suffers badly from a cliched script, cheesy special effects and lackluster direction.