Mark Steven Johnson – Tripping Through Gateways

Nick Cage huh? Well, that seems like a marginally less odd choice than playing Superman. Tim Burton tried to make that happen. Do you also remember a time when Cage was a highly praised actor from quirky Cohen Brothers films? If not, you probably were born after Michael Bay’s seminal the Rock. That is the film that altered the trajectory of Nick’s career that careened out of control resulting in…

Ghost Rider. Ghost Rider is both a supremely odd and obvious choice and for a film. As any thirteen year old boy can tell you…drawing a biker with a flaming skull for a head is really cool. On the other hand…live action could render such an image rather…goofy. The end result though is that, for Nick Cage’s career? This was a major step up from the Wicker Man remake.

Written and directed by the man who brought us Daredevil four years earlier, the film opens with young Johnny Blaze (who looks nothing like Nick Cage), a circus stunt performer. He discovers his father has cancer. To save his father, he makes a deal with Wyatt from Easy Rider (Peter Fonda) who is actually the devil. His father is miraculously cured of cancer-only to die the next day in a fiery motorcycle crash. That wily devil. At this point, the nature of Blaze’s end of the deal is not quite known. He meets with his one true love Roxanne Simpson (the younger version played by Raquel Alessi, who actually looks like she could grow up to be Eva Mendez) and tells her he must leave.

Blaze becomes a famous traveling stunt cyclist, Evil Keneivel style. Which as apt, because I am pretty sure, motorcycle stunt daredevils have not been in fashion since the 1970s…when, you know…Ghost Rider was created. Anyways, he rides in a big tour bus with his crew which includes Marvel Movie Veteran Donal Logue (Blade). I like Donal…this is a good sign.

Johnny is tormented by an alter ego nobody else is aware of, so they think he is just kind of going crazy. But when he feels the presence of Evil, he bursts into flames and gets a bad-ass motorcycle. His superpowers include tentacle like chains, a fiery skull head and the Penance Stare. Basically, he looks deep in your soul and if your soul is bad? You are tormented with the emotions of your victims or something. And your eyes turn to stone. Or something.

Meanwhile, Blackheart-the Son of Satan, y’all- comes to our plane of reality with a few elemental themed demons (as in earth, water and air). They start killing bikers, cuz that is what demons do. But Blackheart has a plan, he wants to upset the throne of hell and rule the world. The devil is not keen on this, so he calls on the Ghost Rider-who it turns out is actually the Devil’s Bounty Hunter… DUM DUM DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUM!!!!!

Roxanne shows up in a tight dress to wow Johnny as she is now a reporter. They share the typical “I have not seen you for years!” stare. Johnny, tortured as he is, causes all the warm and fuzzy feelings to return to Roxanne.

Johnny gets into a fight with Blackheart’s demon thugs, and then causes all sorts of havok downtown, riding his motorcycle up the side of buildings and such. This is, admittedly a pretty awesome sequence. Roxanne, intrepid reporter realizes the Ghost Rider is Johnny Blaze. Meanwhile, Blaze seeks out sacred soil-a cemetery. There he meets another Marvel Movie Veteran-Sam Elliot (last seen in Ang Lee’s the Hulk). He is the mysterious caretaker who seems to know a whole lot about Johnny’s curse. This is beautiful stunt casting.

He reveals the specifics of Blackheart’s plan and provides an important artifact that both the devil and Blackheart need or want. They ride off together, and we discover Sam was also a Ghost Rider. Johnny finds out that Blackheart has kidnapped Roxanne (dammit…this is why you don’t fall in love, people!). He finds an old city in Mexico that apparently holds the worst souls-because this was the most evil town in the world or some other. After dispatching of the henchmen, Johnny finds that Blackheart is absorbing the souls into himself(?). Johnny needs to stop him by sunrise. Johnny realizes that he has the ability to beat Blackheart now, since Blackheart finally has a soul. He performs the Penance Stare and destroys Blackheart. The Devil shows up and Johnny declares he will use his curse to fight the devil, he will own his curse. The devil gets mad and Johnny rides away.

As previously noted, this was directed by the same guy who directed Daredevil, Ghost Rider’s biggest setback is…well…it does not feel nearly as crazy as it should. You have a guy in black leather, chains and has a flaming skull for a noggin. That just screams for insane and crazy action. Own the goofy stuff, don’t be so serious. And there are moments that seem to reach for the brass ring, like the Ghost Rider speeding up the side of a tall building.

And it wastes some good talent in dull by the book roles. Logue’s Mack is a typical “concerned friend” whose real duty is to be tragically killed by the villain. Mendez’s Roxanne lacks much personality (and I suspect -along with Mendez herself-she was chosen as much for her comic book babe proportions as anything else). The script presents a character who is like a blander Lois Lane. In spite of a great casting choice, Elliot is given a thankless task. He is nothing more than the needed exposition mystery man.

Really, Peter Fonda seems to be the only one having any fun. And what a great choice to play the devil. And that is where the film really falls short. It is simply is not much fun. It stars Nick Cage, and has every opportunity to let him cut loose…and they don’t.

I think it is worth noting that this came out around Valentines weekend…like Daredevil, it was promoted as a date movie. Like Daredevil, it was not really that romantic. When it comes down to it, Ghost Rider is guilty of one of the worst sins of a comic book movie. It holds back and keeps it’s heroes and villains tamed.

Oh… Daredevil…

On the heels the success of the X-Men, Marvel pushed forward to get other properties going. Spider-Man was in the works and so was the Hulk. This was before Marvel Studios existed and the company was working with other studios. There was no cinematic universe, because different studios had the rights. Then the Marvel brass worked out a Daredevil deal. Daredevil was getting a resurgence due to the Marvel Knights line (being one of Kevin Smith’s first gigs for the big two). Daredevil had a classic background among Marvel books and certainly, would be less costly than Spider-Man or the X-Men.

Add to that the interest from some high profile actors and everything seemed good on paper. And so the film got greenlit. Unlike the X-Men, Spider-Man and Hulk, they opted to go with a director who was relatively unknown. Daredevil was Mark Steven Johnson’s second film, having recently directed Simon Birch.

Casting news was where the strength was. You had Ben Affleck as the Daredevil/Matt Murdock, Colin Farrel as Bullseye, Jennifer Garner as Electra, John Favreau as Foggy Nelson, Joe Pantoliano as reporter Ben Urich and the most controversial choice…Michael Clark Duncan as the Kingpin. The fans were unhappy, because the Kingpin was a large and rotund white man. The problem is, there did not seem to be a way to translate that without it looking pretty comical. Duncan actually is a large man, and had both the muscle and height to be an imposing threat, as the Kingpin should be. Granted, this was years before Vincent D’Nofrio made the role his.

Oddest casting complaint: They totally whitewashed Electra!!! (for those unsure why this is so strange…Electra is Greek but more than one person seemed to think she was Asian)

The film introduces us to Matt Murdock. He idolizes his boxer father (a nicely cast David Keith) until the day he discovers that his father is also working for the local mob as an enforcer. Matt gets into an accident as he runs away and gets a chemical splashed in his eyes. Matt is blinded, but soon discovers his other senses have taken on enhanced sensitivity. It creates an echo effect that allows Matt to “see”. What is really neat in the film is that they do let us see from Matt’s perspective. The way the film shows his powers is pretty wild, a world that is turned into sensory braille.

Grown up Matt is a lawyer, specializing in helping the poor in Hell’s Kitchen by day and dressed up at night as the Vigilante Daredevil. The police deny he exists, but he does leave telltale signs. Ben Urich is trying to prove the Daredevil is real.

Daredevil himself is working to track down the Kingpin. He scours seedy locations for lowlifes working his way towards the Kingpin, as the law has been unable to take the crime boss on.

The Kingpin hires expert assassin Bullseye to take out Nikolas Natchios (Erick Avari). He and his daughter Electra are in town for a gala event. Daredevil interferes and had a battle with Bullseye. Bullseye succeeds in killing Nikolas using one of Daredevil’s fighting sticks.

Electra goes on a revenge kick and falls in love with Matt/Daredevil. Meanwhile, Bullseye is now trying to take out the Daredevil and Electra is trying to kill Bullseye, because it turns out she is a ninja because…of course she is.

In a fight with Bullseye, tragedy strikes and Matt finds himself on his own. He is getting more and more desperate, and eventually takes down Bullseye. He manages to get to the Kingpin, in a big fight, the Kingpin is taken down. Happy ending, people!

The film got a very lukewarm reception when it opened on Valentines Day. This is not a totally unexpected. It is not a terrible movie, but it is far from perfect. The story seems to attempt to force a lot of stuff from the comics. It is clear that the primary source of inspiration comes from Frank Miller years. No big surprise, as those were part of the innovative years of Daredevil (before his more recent run by folks like Ed Brubaker).

But there seems to be some problems with a single movie that takes a massive character arc and compresses it. The film tries to take the character from a positive place and drag him through hell, all while also bringing Electra into it and having him take down the Kingpin. It seems a bit counter intuitive, considering they were attempting to get a franchise started. The darker edge seems like it might have been better saved for a sequel, as it all feels very rushed and not fleshed out here.

There seems to be confusion in the script as how to present Daredevil as well. Noble hero or grim vigilante. You have a sequence where he could save a rapist he failed to put away or let him get killed. Yeah, he may be a rapist and therefore scum…but it really is not the best portrayal to show Daredevil so callous about death. Then there is the moment where Daredevil dives in through a window and takes to pummeling one of Kingpin’s enforcers. Daredevil realizes that he is being watched…by the enforcer’s terrified kid. This would have been a great bit in a stronger film. In a sequel, you could have really sold a tale about Matt Murdock wallowing in darkness and being pulled back to reality. And that is what they are trying to do here…but it never has enough time to make it work.

It is nice the way they try and weave Murdock’s Catholicism into the story (with some great shots of Daredevil standing atop a cathedral to boot). It is fairly nicely handled with some interaction between Matt/Daredevil and his Priest.

Affleck does pretty well, though he and Garner (ironically for the time) don’t have a lot of chemistry. I am not sure I feel Ben fully carries the movie as a solo hero, he has little support from other heroes like the X-Men. Colin Farrel is pretty entertaining and he clearly just decided to really ham it up.

The odd thing with Bullseye is he has no costume. On the one hand, I get the concerns about his outfit from the comics. On the other, they gave Daredevil a pretty close approximation to his comic book costume. Bullseye simply has a bullseye carved into his forehead.

Jennifer Garner is kind of lifeless. I never really buy Electra’s hearbreak and thirst for vengeance-even though they give us a training montage set to a Evanescence song. The direction of the film feels pretty pedestrian, resulting in a film lacking real identity. And nothing really saves it. There is not a real unique sense of style to the film.

The film does a nice job in addressing Matt’s powers though-including how distracting they can be. In the film, he sleeps in a sensory deprivation chamber. And as I said, the times when we see things through Daredevil’s sonar are nicely handled.

But ultimately, while I appreciate the effort, in the end it is a film that is simply “okay”. The director’s cut is actually a slightly improved version, though the flaws remain.

Tag: Mark Steven Johnson

It Burns! (Ghost Rider, 2007)

Blind Faith (Daredevil, 2003)