I first want to say that when I saw the trailer for the Ghost Rider, I had no idea it was a comic book series. I'm not into comic books by any means, but I do love Marvel and DC movies. For the most part, they're well produced and packed with action. The greatest comic based movies are the ones in which the main character first discovers or receives his or her powers (Ghost Rider, Iron Man, etc). I love the often comedic, awkward transition from regular, every day person to super human.
I'm a huge fan of heavy metal music, and you'll usually find me adorned with skulls in one way or another, and I have a motorcycle, so naturally, I was pumped to see a movie about a flaming skeleton who rode a sick, flaming motorcycle, and hunted demons. The first Ghost Rider movie grossly exceeded my expectations. I loved every minute of it, and I've nearly worn out my blu-ray copy of it. I didn't get a chance to see Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance in theaters, but when it came out on blu-ray, I bought a copy believing that it would be just as enjoyable, for me, as the first one was. Only a few minutes in, I knew it was going to be horrible, and after suffering through the entire movie I felt compelled to read some reviews to see what other people thought.
Apparently Ghost Rider was a comic book series from the 70's (I was born in 1985), and Spirit of Vengeance closely followed the story line presented in those comics, so the people who are really into those comic books hated Ghost Rider and loved Spirit of Vengeance. As I mentioned before, I wasn't aware it was a comic book series, so whether or not the movie followed that series was of no matter to me.
Right off the bat, Spirit of Vengeance brings it's viewers up to speed on the Ghost Rider story in a wannabe-Tarantino style, but instead of using cut scenes from the first movie, they reenacted scenes from Ghost Rider using different actors, in different situations. As I watched I found myself saying, "Wait, that's not how it happend..." The movie goes through a few major plot points of Ghost Rider, then tells another story of how he changed how he felt about being the Ghost Rider, then tells the story about how he "fled to Europe," all in the opening two minutes. As the movie begins, we find a completely changed Ghost Rider character, with a different bike, a different outfit (what happened to the "nice jacket?"), in a different country, and with a different outlook on life. And when Nicholas Cage changes into the Ghost Rider, the skull is different, the flames are different, the bike doesn't change much (except for some flames coming out of it in a few places), and he's basically wearing charred, black leather pants and a charred, black leather jacket. Already, the awesomeness of the character has been reduced to nothing special. And now, anything he rides changes into a "Ghost vehicle" that he can wield however he pleases.
These are all minor points, nit picking I suppose, but overall the movie was just horrible. The acting was terrible, the plot was ridiculous, the characters were never properly introduced, I could go on and on. It may sound like no big deal when I say the Ghost Rider's appearance was different, but imagine if you watched Iron Man, as it is, then watched Iron Man 2 to find that Robert Downy Jr. wore a green suit and never mentioned any sort of reason for the change. After reading the reviews of this movie, I can say one thing for sure. If you loved the comic book series, and hated Ghost Rider for being so apart from the comics, you'll probably like this movie. If you loved Ghost Rider, however, I can almost guarantee you'll hate Spirit of Vengeance. It's not Ghost Rider 2 by any means. It's someone else's idea of how the Ghost Rider comic book series should've been portrayed in a movie.
