After “Ghost Rider” earned negative reviews and became a box office success, Sony immediately commenced development of a sequel titled, “Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance” with Nicolas Cage reprising his role as the titular character. Film directing duo, Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor took over Mark Steven Johnson’s role as director. The pair are known for their “Crank,” its sequel “High Voltage” & “Gamer.”
The sequel officially premiered in the Butt-Numb-A-Thon Festival in 2011 (same year The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim came out) and later a wide release in 2012. It was critically panned and managed to make enough revenue at the box office. As a result of negative reviews, plans for a third movie were scrapped. Sony gave the film rights to Marvel Studios allowing Robbie Reyes as a prominent character in “Agents of S.H.I.E.LD.” As of 2025, Marvel Studios has no plans to produce a solo Ghost Rider movie. Maybe someday. I’d like Austin Butler to portray Johnny Blaze.
Anyway, Nicolas Cage will reprise his role as Spider-Man Noir in a spin-off TV show set in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe as well as “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.” One more thing, I’m watching and reviewing Horror movies during Halloween Month. Ghost Rider kinda counts as Horror.
It doesn’t matter if SPOILERS are listed. Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance isn’t a sequel done right.
Fire & Ice Aspects
Fire: Nicolas Cage did a good job for his performance as the titular character. You can tell he was having a blast with his hammy delivery. His line became a meme, “SCRAPING AT THE DOOR!?”
Ciarán Hinds takes over Peter Fonda’s role as Mephisto. He did a pretty good job.
Idris Elba & Christopher Lambert both did a solid job for their respective performances.
Unlike the first movie, Ghost Rider himself appears in the 15:21 mark. An improvement Johnny’s alter ego gets more scenes.
Visual Effects gave Ghost Rider’s appearance an upgrade.
Carrigan has the power of decay. Which predates Shigaraki from “My Hero Academia.”
One scene shows Carrigan struggling to eat. He grabs some food. Suddenly, decays. Reminds me of that one episode from “Codename: Kids Next Door.” A German boy becomes a chocolate candy. Whenever he touches something, it becomes chocolate. I’m giving Neveldine & Taylor an Extra Point. I used to watch KND growing up. Back when Cartoon Network was good. Man, I miss my childhood.
Only one good scene. Ghost Rider turns a crane into a giant chainsaw. Proceeds to wipe out henchmen. It’s like a badass “Doom” level.
Ice: Mark Neveldine & Brian Taylor didn’t do so well co-directing. This is the last time they worked on making a movie together.
David S. Goyer & Scott M. Gimple co-wrote a nonsensical story. It’s sad the former who wrote the first “Blade” movie and “Batman Begins” wrote a stinker like “Blade: Trinity.”
Cinematography’s extremely janky. You can’t tell what’s going on. As if Hammy the Squirrel from “Over the Hedge” consumed too many Red Bull cans and proceeds to shoot the movie.
Editing’s poorly organized. Too much frantic speed as if the someone fast forward the movie.
A random scene with Moreau stuck in a tree like a cat while the French Anthem plays in the background.
Sony screwed up Danny Ketch. In the comics, he’s the same age as Johnny and eventually became a worthy successor. In the movie, Danny’s a little boy who’s related to Mephisto. This never happened in the comics. He got his powers from touching a medallion for crying out loud.
Johnny mentioned The Devil can take the form of anybody. Cut to a picture of Jerry Springer. The late talk show host is a saint. Should’ve picked famous douchebags listed below.
- Woody Allen
- Roman Polanski
- Sean Penn
- Alec Baldwin
- Chris Brown
- David O’Russell
- Rosie O’Donnell
- Whoopi Goldberg
- Andy Dick
- Kardashians/Jenners
- Paris Hilton
- Nicole Ritchie
Mephisto’s plan to transfer his mind into Danny. Wait a minute, a demonic bad boy intends to transfer his mind into a boy? That’s Vigo’s scheme from “Ghostbusters II.”
Mephisto didn’t stop Danny from transferring his power to Johnny in order to become Ghost Rider again. Besides Danny, Sony did Mephisto dirty. Turning one of the greatest Marvel villains into an incompetent bad guy like Marv & Harry from “Home Alone.”
An awkward moment with Ghost Rider staring at some henchmen. As if a gamer forgot to pause the game to make a sub sandwich. Leaving the playable character standing still.
Johnny drinks a pitch of water. It’s not funny.
I didn’t care about Johnny’s chemistry with Danny. They lack a strong bond.
Another unfunny moment. A cutaway of Ghost Rider peeing out a flamethrower. Oh jeez. Neveldine & Taylor are copying an actual funny scene from “Michael Bay’s Transformer.” That one scene with Bumblebee peeing on John Turturro’s character, Agent Seymour Simmons.
Ghost Rider’s knocked out by a rocket launcher. Wakes up in a hospital. In the last movie, he got hit by an eighteen wheeler without a single scratch.
Mephisto drives a normal car during a climatic chase scene. So if Ghost Rider can turn a normal motorcycle into spikes and flames, why can’t Mephisto turn a car into a Devilmobile? Cranked the awesomeness up to eleven.
Sony was too cheap to give us an epic battle between Ghost Rider & Mephisto. The latter should’ve revealed his true form becoming a super devil. It would’ve been nice to see a “Devil May Cry” boss fight.
Roxanne Simpson & Carter Slade were never mentioned. They played huge roles from the last movie.
Somehow, Johnny can transform as Ghost Rider during the day. In the comics and first movie, he only transforms at night.
Ghost Rider’s final battle with Mephisto felt anticlimactic.
After defeating Carrigan, Ghost Rider delivers a lame post-kill one liner, “Roadkill.” Barney Ross from “The Expandables II” said a better post-kill one liner, “Rest in Pieces!”
The Final Verdict: D-
Ghost Rider: The Spirit of Vengeance is not an improvement. It makes the first movie the closet thing to having a faithful adaptation. Skip this in favor of playing the visor game, “Marvel’s Midnight Suns.” Robbie Reyes is a playable character.
Nickthemoviecritic.com 