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Post by thomasallencummins on Jun 13, 2007 5:37:36 GMT -5
Picked up the Ghost Rider extended edition dvd yesterday. I hadn't seen the film at the theater so, outside of the previews, trailers and reviews, it was a wholly new movie to me. My first impression was simply "that wasn't so bad". I had remembered reading some of the critical complaints and I did understand why some people thought there were issues with the film and in a way agree but in another way I don't. Ghost Rider is admittedly a second tier comic book movie hero. His story isn't as "BIG" as X-Men, Spiderman, Batman or Superman so there is obviously less of an epic feel to the story and the film. What Johnny Blaze is fighting is personal. It mainly effects him. Of course there is potential for things to get out of hand and impact the larger world but because Ghost Rider is so immediately successful there is no sense of catastrophe averted. Mark Steven Johnson's direction of the film is refreshingly appealing after having been responsible for such crowd pleasers as Daredevil and Elektra. Nicholas Cage does manage to portray Johnny Blaze very well considering that I would have preferred a less well know face in the role. Now that I've seen it I am disappointed that I didn't make a better effort to see the film at the theater. All in all I liked Ghost Rider. Not my favorite superhero adaptation but certainly not the worst I've seen by far. Here's a list of my top 20 superhero films in order of my preference and based on my limited memory. I may have forgotten one or two films. It's early. :-) 1. Spiderman II 2. X-Men II 3. Spiderman 4. Batman Begins 5. X-Men 6. The Incredibles 7. Unbreakable 8. Spiderman III 9. Superman 10. Mystery Men 11. X-Men III 12. Superman Returns 13. Fantastic Four 14. Ghost Rider 15. Batman 16. LXG 17. Hellboy 18. Batman Forever 19. HULK 20. Punisher 21. The Shadow 22. Rocketeer 23. Darkman 25. Superman II 26. Blade 27. The Crow 28. Spawn 29. Blade II 30. Blade III 31. Daredevil 32. Swamp Thing 33. The Phantom 36. Batman & Robin 42. Swamp Thing II 46. Darkman II 48. Elektra 51. Batman Returns 173. Superman III 191. Howard The Duck 221. Punisher (Dolph Lungren) 245. Captain America 332. Supergirl 569. Catwoman
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Cad Zombie
Moderator
Psuedo-Lefty
Carl, Run!
Posts: 287
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Post by Cad Zombie on Jun 13, 2007 18:23:18 GMT -5
Lucky dog, I'm gonna have to wait till it comes on Movies on demand on cable. :::sigh:::
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ram
Magpie
randomly avoiding mainframes
Posts: 571
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Post by ram on Jul 13, 2007 0:22:25 GMT -5
Pretty comprehensive list, atomic. I've seen only 18 of them. Ghost Rider wasn't one of 'em. I bought a few issues of GR back during my comic book binge in the 90's, but never really got into it. All I remember is that GR had some really cool covers. Guess I liked the idea of Ghost Rider more than the thing itself. No comment on Spiderman 2 as I'm one of the ten remaining people on the planet who hasn't seen it, but I totally agree on X-Men 2. It's so good it almost makes you forget about the original. Still haven't gotten my hands on X-Men 3, but if it's even half as good as X2, it should be...half as good. But still good.
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Post by sgtnull on Oct 10, 2007 0:40:25 GMT -5
i agree that Ghost Rider was better in conception than in practice. which leads to my theory. Good Guys are only as interesting as their Bad Guys. i could never get into Wonder Woman comics because her foes are so very lame. at least Superman had bizzare foes when i was growing up. Composite Superman, Master Jailer, Terra Man, Atomic Skull made up for the Prankster and Luthor. but no one held a candle to Spider Man, Batman and the Flash. most new comics end up dying off because of bad supervillains. the Fantastic Four had some good ones as well. so if you want to write comics, work on the bad guys.
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Post by thomasallencummins on Oct 10, 2007 11:29:04 GMT -5
i agree that Ghost Rider was better in conception than in practice. which leads to my theory. Good Guys are only as interesting as their Bad Guys. i could never get into Wonder Woman comics because her foes are so very lame. at least Superman had bizzare foes when i was growing up. Composite Superman, Master Jailer, Terra Man, Atomic Skull made up for the Prankster and Luthor. but no one held a candle to Spider Man, Batman and the Flash. most new comics end up dying off because of bad supervillains. the Fantastic Four had some good ones as well. so if you want to write comics, work on the bad guys. I agree. As interesting as heroes might be the villain is key. Ghost Rider's most direct foe (essentially the son of satan) was portrayed so badly that I felt the movie suffered by that one element alone. I also agree that if anyone has aspirations of starting a new book they should consider starting off by coming up with a really creative and fascinating villain. My all time favorite comic book villain remains Dr. Doom (not the movie Dr. he sucks). Of course there are others Annhilius, Frightful Four the Yancy Street Gang, etc. ;D
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Post by sgtnull on Oct 11, 2007 9:25:48 GMT -5
the Frightful Four no matter the members other than Trapster & the Wizard. although I would be tempted to make Thundra a permanent member. I really hated the last appearence by the group. I always thought that Pete and the Wizard would be friendlier with each other.
I really like the Mad Thinker as well, who else other than Doom can match Richard's brain power?
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