Marvel’s Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, from directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor and starring Nicholas Cage as fiery Johnny Blaze, opened in theaters today and has been earning poor scores from critics across the country.
As of Friday evening, critics at online aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes bestowed the Ghost Rider sequel with a dismal 16 percent approval rating off 58 reviews. That breaks down to 49 rotten reviews and a mere 9 in the shallow fresh pool.
The common knocks against Spirit of Vengeance are thinly written characters, a campy performance by Cage and serious by everyone else, and overall offering dull entertainment. Liz Braun of Jam! Movies claimed the dialogue is “so bad it’s kind of terrific,” yet still felt compelled to dish out a rotten rating when viewing the film as a whole.
Some of the same Spirit of Vengeance complaints pleased the critics who came away satisfied. “Cartoonish” and “goofy” worked for these critics who were willing to embrace the B-movie tone and silliness the Crank 2 directors brought to the project.
While the majority of critics wanted something more substantial from Nicholas Cage and Spirit of Vengeance, nearly 20,000 regular folk at Rotten Tomatoes rated the film 62 percent fresh. If exit polls can stay up around that mark, Spirit of Vengeance may surprise at the box office this weekend and continue the profitable trend established by the original.
