As Kraven the Hunter sneaks into movie theaters and indirectly puts an end to the saga of Sony’s attempted Spider-Man Without Spider-Man Universe, it’s a fine time to reflect on just how few successful superhero and superhero-adjacent movies Sony has managed to put out without direct appearances from Spider-Man. With Spidey, Sony can lay claim to multiple worthwhile trilogies: the original Sam Raimi version, the MCU version about to be extended into a fourth installment, and the Spider-Verse cartoons whose third part is currently in production. (Yes, there were two bad Amazing Spider-Man movies, but still: eight out of ten so far is a solid success rate!) Without him, Sony has a bunch of monster-movie antiheroes and villains who fail to make much impression beyond Tom Hardy’s admirable commitment to Venom. It’s too bad, because in theory, the idea of a monster-centric wing of the superhero industrial complex is actually pretty cool – an opportunity for comics-based movies to return to their pulpier, weirder roots. In practice, however, it’s only really worked for Sony once: When they made Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, the cheaper follow-up to the original Nicolas Cage Ghost Rider that was released to floundering box office in 2012.
Why watch Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance tonight?
Most people would probably say that you shouldn’t! If anything, Ghost Rider and its sequel seem to pre-vision Sony’s difficulties with movies like Morbius and Kraven, muddling between horror-comics brio and focus-grouped half-measures. But the second entry, arriving a belated five years after the first one hit, is an underappreciated B-picture that, after years of ever-tangling Marvel and DC continuity, crossovers, and reboots, manages to feel more refreshing now than when it flopped a dozen years ago.
Much of that fiery refreshment has to do with the sheer energy brought to the project by two-person madman Neveldine/Taylor, who made the Crank movies before splitting up not long after Spirit of Vengeance. Those Crank pictures probably amped up some expectations for their superhero sequel among hardcore fans, and admittedly, this PG-13 movie isn’t anywhere near as transgressively bonkers as their Jason Statham duology. But maybe it’s OK that this funnybook adaptation doesn’t feature Stath having sex with Amy Smart on a racetrack? The real advantage Neveldine/Taylor bring to the table is their willingness to send their little digital cameras careening alongside their high-speed characters with hyperactive glee that amounts to a more viscerally cinematic version of comics-page exaggeration, all low-angles, distorted close-ups, and cameramen on rollerblades. Their chintzy Eastern Europe-shot superhero sequel is vastly more colorful and eye-filling than the majority of big-budget Marvel productions from the past five years, living in a kind of super-crisp hyperreality reflecting the early days of digital filmmaking.
Then, of course, there’s the Cage factor. Spirit of Vengeance would prove to be Cage’s more-or-less final wide-theatrical-release, live-action starring role for the next ten years (with his appearance in the cheeseball Left Behind movie the exception proving the rule). Coming off a series of supernatural, wizards-and-demons-themed pictures like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Season of the Witch, and Drive Angry, Cage is in fine form in his second outing as Johnny Cage: utterly sincere and committed to the tortured-antihero business, warm with his child co-star, but also wacked-out enough to sell the parts of him that are supposed to struggle, and then give in to, demonic possession – as in the scene where he trills “he’s scraping at the door!” as a warning that his inner skull-head is about to emerge. When the monster does come out, he’s cooler-looking and Cage-ier than the previous incarnation, with stutter-y gestures that are either the actor’s invention, or some visual effects doing their best to approximate his aura.
With Idris Elba and Ciarán Hinds on hand as well, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance has enough additional scene-stealers on hand to make for a more satisfying experience than its origin-story predecessor. It also runs a concise 88 minutes before the credits roll, a casual rebuke of superhero bloat that makes it absolutely perfect for a quick and easy throw-on movie. Plenty of viewers enjoy the escapism, outlandish action, and weird mythology of superhero pictures without necessarily wanting to commit to an official cinematic universe. Spirit of Vengeance is a sequel where you don’t even need to watch the first movie to understand what’s going on. It’s a comic-book movie with a movie-first attitude.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
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