New GHOST RIDER 2: Spirit of Vengeance Trailer Requires Suspensions of Disbelief
I’d rather save my money for The Dark Knight Rises...
Some films require a suspension of disbelief. For example, Spider-Man requires you to buy in to the fact being bitten by a spider gives you the ability to make a very nice lycra suit without any textiles training. Ghostbusters 1 & 2 require you to ignore the fact that prolonged exposure to a nuclear accelerator would not end with any discernible health issues, (that said, we havent seen Ghosbusters 3 yet. Which hopefully, for believabilitys sake, involves Bill Murray, Dan Aykyroyd and Harold Ramis lying in hospital beds saying that was a bad idea for our health. Children: dont play with nuclear accelerators.) Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengeance requires several suspensions of disbelief. 1) That anyone would sanction a sequel after the AWFUL first one, which I watched for 10 minutes and decided that life could be better than this, so therefore sat in a beige room watching a pot of grass grow for 12 days, much more enjoyable than those 10 minutes were. 2) That Nicolas Cage actually has an agent, and not a big brained, mind controlling overlord set forth to destroy movies everywhere by negotiating Cage a starring role in it. 3) That there would ever be conflict in a world where there was a superhero whos face could turn into a flaming skull that could spit fire and whip people into submission like Indiana Jones on mescaline. No wonder superhero films are always so full of action if criminals think that the introduction of a fire breathing ghost rider is a positive step towards them meeting their evil ways. Once you do this, and you spend 5 minutes mentally preparing yourself for the fact you will be watching a Nicolas Cage, in this film doubling as a piece of wood, fresh off the back of his last film, doubling as a piece of wood, then you will witness what looks like another throwaway popcorn flick ready to bedazzle, (hmm, maybe bedazzle is too much, gently stun is most likely) audiences hungry for another explosion heavy, excitement light summer film. Here's the trailer for the sequel coming our way in February... Give it its due, the effects are passable and the action sequences look like they could tingle a hair or two (directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor know how to make passable action sequences, if not a lot else. But its a Hollywood summer, passable action is all we need). As far as story goes this trailer does what all others do when they know that explicitly saying it would cause audiences to laugh themselves out of the cinema, using dark titles and a dry voice over to get a rather ambitious morality tale/ child possessed by the devil plot over and done with before the explosions kick in. It seems that all scripts greenlit by Hollywood these days need to be written by convicted arsonists who have just watched 7 hours of war atrocities, as they have little on their mind short of blowing crap up. Despite that, the small touches of the narrative create a little intrigue, even if the use of a boy being possessed by the devil is only there to attract the bitter ex-husbands who can no longer see their children and the lonely spinster audiences. It might make this film worth a watch, it all depends on how strong your resistance to pieces of wood are, because chances are there is going to be one on the screen for a lot of the running time; and frankly; Id rather save my money for The Dark Knight Rises. Verdict: Wait for the DVD release, or for its terrestrial screening on channel 4 in 8 years. At least that's what the early reviews of the film have told us to do. The film is due to hit theatres on February 17th, 2012