Review of Ghost Rider - Extended Cut (Review)
Monday, 24th December 2007, 22:41

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Introduction
Comic book movies have such a tumultuous history that -- aside from the established franchises that have proved to work well -- I don't think anyone really cares about them anymore. At least not in the same way they did when you couldn't move for palpable anticipation over the next one. The minor success of the excellent 'Blade' kickstarted a trend back in the late 90s and opened a door heralded as the new 'golden age' of comic book movies, with Bryan Singer's 'X-Men' first out the door, and the box office success of Sam Raimi's 'Spider-Man' leading to a full-on revival at the hands of the studios. But of course, when they start to run out of fresh IP, that's when they start raiding the lesser-known strips for source material, cutting budgets and employing the less talented elements. Which leads to dross. A helluva lot of dross. While there's still the next instalment in the Nolan's re-envisioning of the Batman franchise and some sort of reboot-cum-sequel of the Incredible Hulk to look forward to in the new year, the reception of the majority of comic book movies over the past few years can account for the general apathy towards anything new with the likes of Avi Arad and Stan Lee's names attached.

'Ghost Rider' slipped into the C-to-M portfolio earlier this year, but unlike much of its fast-tracked brethren, this one's been dancing around in the flames of development hell for a long time. Johnny Depp was originally attached, but it wasn't until self-confessed GR fan Nic Cage came aboard that the flame-retardant wheels of the bone-headed one's chopper started greasing up. Genre alumnus Mark Steven Johnson ('Elektra' scripter, 'Daredevil' writer/director) brings the Faustian story of Johnny Blaze to the screen.

Teenaged Blaze is a carny stunt rider who sells his soul to the devil Mephistopheles (Peter Fonda) in return for curing his father's cancer. But rather than hang around waiting to collect on his investment, the trickster waits until Johnny is all growed up (played by Cage) and enforces his contract by having him act as a bounty hunter of sorts. Becoming the Ghost Rider, a fiery leather-clad skull-thing, his first (and only - ho hum) job is to send Blackheart back to Hell. Blackheart being Mephistopheles' son who's acquired ideas above his station and wants to create a new hell on earth, something he plans to do with the help of three fallen angels and an ancient contract binding a thousand cursed souls to its keeper. Johnny also has to contend with the re-introduction of his teenage love interest (Eva Mendes) into his life, and a glittering career as a rock-star version of the late Evel Knievel.

Video
'Ghost Rider' gets a really rather splendid 2.35:1 high definition transfer. While some scenes look more impressive than others (namely anything involving a lot of CGI, computer effects or high contrast backdrops - bright day, dark night etc) the whole thing is very sharp and has a superb clarity. There's quite a bit of noise now and again, and this does tend to dull the impact of the hi-res visuals, but when 'Ghost Rider' is on, it's on like Donkey Kong, with nothing in the way of flaws or imperfections; Sam Elliot's weather-beaten puss couldn't look any clearer if you leaned in to tug on his massive manly moustache. The CGI in general is fairly impressive, and there's a lot of it. But you can't shake the impression that Johnny Blaze in his Ghost Rider form looks like a piece of clip-art or a cheap animated gif. He does however, look like a high definition and unmistakenly vivid piece of clip-art.

* Viewed on a 32" 1366 x 768 panel at 720p

* The screenshots featured here are for illustrative purposes only. They were not taken from the Blu-ray source, and as such, the images are not representative of the quality of the disc.



Audio
Wow. And again, Wow. You probably couldn't ask for a better surround track than the disc's Dolby Digital 5.1 - which is just as well as the only others on the disc are the uncompressed PCM 5.1 (which I won't be reviewing due to current hardware limitations) and an English descriptive audio track. The compressed surround track is phenomenal, very clear and bass rich, and not only finds good use for proper implementation of the soundstage, but manages to make use of it in its entirety to make each speaker feel like part of an ensemble - as it should. Spot effects travel in the right direction with solid depth, dialogue and central effects funnel through the middle and the rears are constantly put to good use for atmosphere. Brilliant.

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