Ghost Rider 2 Spirit Of Vengance Review: It'll eat your soul!

I said in my review of the first Ghost Rider that Nick Cage movies have to be graded on a curve.  You know it's a bad movie.  But the real question: Is it enjoyable?  For me, there is just not a way I could enjoy this movie.  In fact, much like Battle: Los Angeles, it was physically painful for me to watch. 

I would say about 90% of the movie were action scenes and all of them were close up and shaky.  Do a little experiment with yourself.  Put your hand up to your eye like you are holding a camera and then walk.  Notice your hand and what it does.  It shakes a little.  Ok then.  Try running.  It is going to bounce and shake.  That's 90% of this movie.  It looks so amateurish it might as well be a found footage movie. 

With so much action and a 95 minute run time, what do you think the story is like?  If you said non-existent and cliche then you would be half right.  It is also superficial.  The center of the whole story is this little kid named Danny. (Fergus Riordan) And when I left the theater I couldn't name a single defining trait.  He is literally just there.  The story is that he is supposed to be the new vessel for the Devil so he can walk around on Earth.  And if they were directing this kid to be an empty trash can, then well, he nailed it. 

The same can be said for Danny's mom, Nadya, played by Violante Placido.  There isn't a single character trait she shows other than she is a mother.  All we know about her is that she made a deal with the Devil to save her life and in exchange she would give birth to the anti-christ.  She is a mother and that's it.  Enjoy.

There were two scenes that I did like.  One scene Johnny Blaze is interrogating this thug and Nick Cage just goes stark raving mad.  Talking about the Ghost Rider scraping at the door and wanting to eat his soul.  It's Nick Cage being Nick Cage times 30.  It's hilarious.  The other scene is when we are introduced to Decay.  He steals a car and while driving he's looking for something to eat.  He takes a sandwich and it gets old and moldy.  He tries to eat an apple, same thing happens.  But then he picks up a twinkie and sure enough, time can't kill the twinkie.  I bet he'd be 700 lbs if he could only eat things loaded down with perservatives.

So, on my Nick Cage graded curve I'm sorry to say but this movie is closer to the irredeemable side.  It has some fun scenes in it but with all the shaking, terrible acting, and complete lack of storytelling I just can't recommend this movie.  It gave me headaches to watch it and even more headaches thinking about the story.  Save your money and watch the new Spiderman movie.  That at least looks good.