For better or worse, someone’s made a sequel to Ghost Rider, and the trailer is now online.
2007’s Ghost Rider was by no means a good movie. But it made a lot of money, and a sequel’s been in the works for a while. Now, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance‘s first trailer has been released on the Web, and it looks … well, judge for yourself.
Since the trailer itself doesn’t do a great job of explaining the movie’s story, here’s the official plot summary:
In the successor to the worldwide hit Ghost Rider, Johnny – still struggling with his curse as the devil’s bounty hunter – is hiding out in a remote part of Eastern Europe when he is recruited by a secret sect of the church to save a young boy (Fergus Riordan) from the devil (Ciaran Hinds). At first, Johnny is reluctant to embrace the power of the Ghost Rider, but it is the only way to protect the boy – and possibly rid himself of his curse forever.
OK, based on the trailer, this seems like it’ll be better than the first Ghost Rider, since it looks super gritty and action-packed. Additionally, Marvel has been on a massive winning streak lately when it comes to movie adaptations. Add the fact that David Goyer wrote the script (you may remember him from a little movie called The Dark Knight), and there’s a lot of promise attached to the film.
However, directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor (seen here in the painful intro to the trailer) have directed the films Crank, Crank 2, and Gamer. That’s not exactly a sterling record. On top of that, Nicholas Cage isn’t the commercial or critical powerhouse that he used to be. Additionally, Ghost Rider has never had the same appeal as some of Marvel’s bigger characters like Spider-Man, Captain America, or the X-Men; the fact that the movie has a reported $75 million budget (notably less than the $110 million budget of its predecessor) shows a lack of confidence in making a big-budget spectacle like other recent Marvel films. Oh, and let’s not forget that the movie is going to feature a bit with the character literally peeing fire for what looks like a cringe-inducing visual gag.
So far, based on the trailer, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance looks like it could go either way: Awesome camp or yet one more note of embarrassment for everyone associated with Nicholas Cage.
