MovieChat Forums > Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2012) Discussion > Don’t Understand This Movie...

Don’t Understand This Movie...

posted 4 years ago by Jeepster (1028)
5 replies | jump to latest

By that I mean the inconsistencies between this & the first “Ghost Rider”. In this film, the Rider is portrayed as someone/something that you better not even run across, even by accident, guilty, innocent, innocent bystander, whatever because he’d just as soon kill you than look at you.

HUH? You got me with that one, excuse me but in the first movie he spoke & other than being a avenger from hell it was pretty chill otherwise, like when the cop from the police station hit him from behind, he laughed it off, took the chain & rode off, plus he didn’t bother with anyone who wasn’t trying to hurt or stop him. He even let that black kid go from jail. “YOU! Innocent!”

The Rider in the sequel? You can forget about it, because he’s shown as a thing that’s going to slaughter anything he comes across or finds. If he comes & you’re there, then it’s going to be a very bad for you. You know a total 360 of how he was in the first film. Even Blaze tells the girl “With him it’s all the same”. Uhh, no it wasn’t, not at least in the first movie. This Rider ain’t letting any kid off the hook innocent or not.

Why do you think they made the change to his character in this & made him like that? I’m trying to understand, but I don’t like where they went with him in this movie. The first film wasn’t Shakespeare but at least he had something of a personality. Let’s hope the dumb Ghost Rider movies are done for if this is how they’re going to be.

[–] Kowalski (58861) 4 years ago

WTF🤔

[–] Jeepster (1028) 4 years ago

WTF?🤔

[–] Wuchak (8145) 4 years ago

When Ghost Rider debuted in Marvel Comics in 1972 it was more of a general idea than a fully fleshed-out premise. This was clear as story elements changed from writer to writer. Ideas were added as the years progressed, like the "penance stare" and Blaze's growing awareness of the former angel of justice Zarathos, who's now an insane spirit (of vengeance). The book was canceled in 1983 after a ten-year run. In 1990 a new version of Ghost Rider was introduced with a different character and it ran eight years.

The first film was an amalgam of the ideas presented in these two series, mostly the first, and it struck me as the comic-book come to life. This sequel interestingly fleshes out the nature of the spirit that possesses Johnny Blaze. So the differences you speak of can be attributed to Blaze being more fully possessed & controlled by Zarathos when he morphs into the Ghost Rider.

The movie also speculates on Zarathos still having a glimmer of its former self -- the spirit of justice -- with Johnny seeming to tap into that positive power by the end. Of course this parallels the struggle of the human soul (ego) between flesh (id) and spirit (superego), which makes it relevant to any viewer.

[–] Jeepster (1028) 4 years ago

Thank you Wuchak, great answer. You helped me understand some of what was going on with both the comic & the movie. You actually helped, unlike Einstein (Kowalski) above you who didn’t contribute at all to the conversation but yet saw fit to answer.

[–] Wuchak (8145) 4 years ago

You're welcome. :)