There’s a new Ghost Rider trailer making it’s way around the web this morning. Ok, just in case you don’t know what Ghost Rider is, here’s a quick rundown:
A stunt motorcyclist (Cage) sells his soul to the devil to save his dying father’s life. As a result, he becomes the flame-skulled, fiery-motorcycle-riding combatant of evil known as Ghost Rider.
There have been a LOT of people (including me) that have been trashing on this flick, and the first little trailer that came out a while ago didn’t help much. The pictures online haven’t helped much… hell… NOTHING has helped much. It honestly looks like this flick is heading for disaster.
But hold on just a second… let me at least give a little credit where credit is due. This new Ghost Rider trailer really isn’t all that bad… at least story wise. You can NEVER go wrong with Sam Elliot in your movie, Nicolas Cage doesn’t look nearly as out of place as he did in the last trailer, and the villains actually look pretty interesting. But it’s not all smiles and giggles either…
The CGI on Ghost Rider himself still look just HORRIBLE. Granted, it must be nearly impossible to make a flaming skull head look decent… but if you accepted the challenge to do it, then you’ve got to deliver… and so far from what I’ve seen, the VFX on Ghost Rider are NOT delivering. Maybe it’ll get better… but those looked like finished shots to me, so don’t hold your breath.
To see this improved Ghost Rider trailer you can go here.
The flaming skull CGI doesn’t look that flash, but what else could they possibly do to improve it, but that last scene of Ghost Rider riding down the building, and the whip slowley moving across the screen looks awesome. Reminded me of Spidey … I was Anti-Ghost Rider before because I figured they’d pushed release date around so much because the flick must’ve been shit. But after seeing this trailer … I’m pretty excited to see this now …. I don’t like the casting of Eva Mendes though … although she is mighty fine … Ow!
Okay, I want to follow up from earlier.
It occured to me that no one, not even John, mentioned Peter Fonda’s expanded appearance in the new trailer (and please, don’t brush it off as just ‘the villians look interesting’, that doesn’t cut the cake: the question posed in the trailer is as if Methostopholes is more of a neutral party, although it does appear that the Rider will rebel against him) …but Peter Fonda blew me away in this trailer!
And then I started thinking…he stole “Escape From LA” away from Kurt Russell, he commanded “Ulee’s Gold”, was terrific in “Limey”…why am I surprised?
BTW, remember all that negative talk about Famke “possibly” being in “Iron Man”? If it happens take a look here: two actors in ‘Ghost Rider’ appeared in two other moies based on Marvel characters. Should we hold Sam Elliot (Hulk) and Donal Logue (Blade) to the same inane measuring stick? Heck, no.
Yet, no one brings it up. Hmmm…
I thought the CGI was fine. I’ve never been much of a Ghost Rider fan, but the trailer has me interested. I love comics, and for some reason the only comic book movie I like is Blade. This reminds me of Blade.
Plus if these guys don’t get the guys from American Chopper to do a theme bike for them, they’re crazy. If Will Smith thought an “I, Robot” chopper would be good advertising, then this would be even better.
First of all, every company is running around trying to make
the next cgi flick. (Not to mention Superheros)
Not every company out there is Weta or ILM, but they are leaning
one movie at a time.
My thought on G.R. Not bad, not “Oscar” mat’l, but not bad.
Freud once said “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.”
That being said.”Sometimes a movie is just a movie.”
You figure they would have put more of the budget into the effects. This looks pathetic.
Cage has been on a downhill streak this year (arguably except for WTC which I haven’t seen and can’t comment on). I’m not sure what the release date is on this sucker but I hope it’s this year so he can start the new year fresh.
Ehhh… I just can’t get excited about this. The whole choppers craze has worn thin on me and I can’t imagine sitting through a whole movie centered on it.
Seems to me the movie looks a tad “light” and would be better suited to a more dark and grizzly look.
I strongly disagree, John. I think the Rider CGI is fine. Is it any better than the last trailer? Uh…well..okay…they are…well…well, they aren’t as bad as you say! So there!
– Backwards masked,
Relaes
I am interested in the story they tell with this movie. I can understand that the CGI won’t be setting any records or even meeting past ones, but this is kinda the opposite of Transformers. Transformers will have AMAZING CGI but the story seems fairly lame so far, by many peoples standards. HOWEVER, the story in Ghost Rider sounds good and the CGI is lame.
So by that comparison, it sounds like you prefer CGI over story… Is this true John?
Looking out for friends,
-Calviin
this movie is TOTALLY and completly ruined by one thing only
EVA MENDES
#@$% i hate her
The problem is that the skull looks like plastic and not bone.
Mark Steven Johnson not a bad director? Whatever. Even if you like Daredevil you can hardly say it was a directorial accomplishment. In the movie Daredevil has several different costumes! Look in the first murky over-edited over-saturated fight scene, and his costume is black for the entire sequence.
As a writer he’s not worth much either. “That’s not heaven. THAT’S THE C-TRAIN” That’s almost as bad as some of the one-liners in lord of the rings.
Gee whiz…the CG looks HORRIBLE? It’s a guy with a skull on fire. Now how would that look in real life? Oh right, it’s from a comic book. Actually, in real life, I am guessing the flames would go out pretty quick when he’s riding that bitchin’ cycle. Personally, I think the concept of Ghost Rider is a dumb idea but this movie looks like a lot of fun!
I personally have never seen a real flaming skull, but to me the Rider looked fantastic.
To say it was HORRIBLE is a little harsh.
The F/X on Ultraviolet… now they were horrible.
I think it’s going to be pretty hard to fool the brain into believing that this is real, so it will always have that “it’s fake” feel to it. CGI fire is one of the hardest things to get right and I think this is one of the best realizations of CGI fire that I have ever seen.
But hey, to each their own.
To me, the worst effect in the trailer was the shot of Wes Bentley flying towards the screen with the demon teeth and face. Oh, that and Nic Cage in a cowboy hat. No effects company on earth could make that look good. Ha!
I have never been a Ghost Rider comics fan, but for some reason I am very excited about the movie. I think it’s gonna be great.
John, I completely agree. The story seems really great but the CGI SUCKS. It looks like a freakin’ videogame for crying out loud. The sad part to is that Mark Steven Johnson (who is not a bad director) is directing and I’m pretty sure just like Daredevil, they are going to knock some minutes off this movie.
The movie looks fine. Seems that the Ghost Rider character has some depth in the movie. I’m most likely gonna check it out in theaters.
Oh, it wasn’t so bad…the trailer seems OK..doesn’t get me off my seat but, it seems worth the half price matinee.
As for the CG, it was OK too, not as bad in my opinion as everyone says. I mean Spidey 1 was really bad CG, but the story, acting and directing compensated and made it one of the best comic book movies ever! Now I’m not saying that will happen to Ghost Rider, but if the CG isn’t up to snuff, but everything else delivers, I could live with that.
I like this motorcycle with its wheels on fire. I feel this would be something that would impress ‘the chicks’, but I do have some concerns:
Do the flames increase tyre wear?
Do they also affect fuel consumption?
Will my trousers catch fire?
It’s important in these days of eBay, Amazon and whatnot to be an informed consumer. Please let me know.