M.C. Myers Profile picture
Jun 30, 2021 10 tweets 5 min read Read on X
#FilmTwitter
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is a 2001 CBM made 10 years late. Expectations in 2011 were COMPLETELY different. Does this mean the film is “underrated?”

It’s respectably loony. Cage expresses it facially to a level of enjoyment that prevents it from being boring. Image
But it sidesteps its ability to be, even on its own terms, a "good movie."

Its problems are in conventions. The henchman villain is dramatically inert. The girl has no energy at all, not dramatic, not romantic, nothing. She really should have had crazy charisma. Image
They set it up that anything Ghost Rider "rides" transforms in his image …

so the natural punchline would have been a ridiculous sex scene, Cage screaming on fire as she transforms into a hardcore demon queen. Something WAY over-excessively, memorably, nonsensically perverse. Image
Instead, this is a PG-13 action movie that doesn’t quite embrace itself; it’s more like it’s trying to “get away” w/ things in a kids' movie. The constant crash zooms are hilarious and ACTUALLY keep the movie watchable. A scene where Cage interrogates a bad guy is amazing. Image
But the audience is miles away from caring about the plot, which needed to be subverted instead of used as a crutch. I wanted the lame villain to be unceremoniously scorched dead at the halfway point so new conflict could come up. This movie should be anything but boilerplate. Image
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t enjoy the action. It doesn’t recall comic books so much as the feeling of playing w/ a PLAYSET, like a boxed set Ghost Rider construction yard. The cinematography is strangely real, almost music video-esque, while the VFX are proud of fakery. Image
Here’s how I'd describe the problem. Cage mo-capped the Rider. So this means that if you think about it, the CAMERA got to see a transcendent Cage performance that they covered up w/ okay CGI. This film would be a masterpiece if they released a no-effects version, I’m serious!
This is almost like a lost film in a way.

However, one thing in contrast to other CBMs is that the film gets through exposition w/o continually relying on re-explaining the plot. This makes it more fun than Blade, Spawn, X-Men Origins, movies obsessed w/ unnecessary handholding. Image
And I know Blade has its fans. But when a film is SO loaded w/ repetitive, low-energy exposition scenes, the quality of the plot stands out more.

Ghost Rider being hilariously over-styled makes it a joy to watch in comparison.

Watch how each film handles an interrogation scene:
Note this is not the same as the plot being compelling (it isn't).

Ghost Rider knows what it SHOULD be - when I was laughing, I believe that Neveldine/Taylor (the guys behind Crank) intended for me to laugh. And that’s a really good feeling! Even if it’s not really a good movie. Image

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More from @filmobjective

Jan 19, 2023
At some point, posters started forcing the head of every credited actor into the design. But what I loved about posters growing up, especially for comic book movies, was their ability to encapsulate the entire feeling of the experience in one image. It was a bottled-up vibe ...
And it may not seem important (it's just the poster), but it points to what's gone out of the experience since then. Like the posters, the films are too often concerned w/ clean, star-powered symmetry at the expense of the stylistic voice at the heart of the material.
Plus from a graphic design standpoint, the "stacked heads" format works better in a traditional medium. Other than the sheer talent of Struzan, who popularized the style, composited photos just can't match each other as well as paintings.

His unused teaser poster vs the final:
Read 4 tweets
Jun 9, 2022
#FilmTwitter
Oof. The writing in Obi-Wan Kenobi has passed the point of leniency.

In Part IV (spoilers), they kill a rebel to kidnap Leia and probe her mind for the base, while letting Obi-Wan escape to lure him into saving her... and let him go.

Let's talk about that a second:
Even discounting that a force mind probe makes A New Hope moot, this show isn't keeping track of anything. People teleport all over, they talk in crowded rooms and the writers "decide" that no one can hear them. They overlook obvious alternatives (probing the mind of the pilot).
The end of Part III is an example. How did Obi-Wan escape if Vader didn't want him to? Why would he want him to escape if he DIDN'T want him to get away on the base?

Absolutely nothing about that exchange makes sense. The writers are obsessed w/ writing their own escape hatches.
Read 4 tweets
Jun 7, 2022
This is a well-spoken thread justifying The Last Jedi in Star Wars canon and explaining the intent of its narrative. Check it out!

While I appreciate this assessment of its intent, in this thread, I want to discuss some execution issues I think should be PART of the discussion.
Arcs like Poe outgrowing the hot-head hero persona are good ideas, but if it was thematic that his plan was bad, Holdo's should have been great. "Releasing escape pods" is not complex enough to justify putting the audience through the runaround. That gap obscures the theme.
The same applies to Rose and Finn. A great plan executed well that still failed might have been relevant. But a comedy of errors doesn't have as clear a point since better heroes MIGHT have succeeded, which is beside the point. The themes are reverse-engineered, not demonstrated.
Read 8 tweets
Jun 6, 2022
#FilmTwitter
Regardless of anything else, Obi-Wan Kenobi has an astonishing lack of attention to the logic of its action.

People teleport constantly for convenience, bad guys "lose" good guys even though they're RIGHT THERE, Leia outruns adults constantly. It's so distracting. Image
As an example of the exact opposite, Part 3 of Clone Wars (2003) is an immaculately attentive presentation of space and POV. The action never loses the audience for a SECOND.

Obi-Wan's creators seriously need to take notes. You couldn't pass a film class w/ what they're doing. ImageImageImageImage
You know "out of sight, out of mind?" This is "out of frame, out of mind." Like that roof chase in Part 2. HOW did Reva lose them? The director just snapped their fingers and teleported everyone to the next scene w/ no connecting visual logic.

It's aggressively incoherent. Image
Read 5 tweets
Jul 2, 2021
#FilmTwitter
Polanski’s Bitter Moon (1992).

I rarely say this. But this is a demeaning film. Its POV is sexist in a way that makes everyone worthless. It's SO cynical. It has the rare dishonor of being a film I hate thematically far more than the actors and visuals deserve.
The reason is not just its execution, which prioritizes cheesy narration to sell every small emotional detail, falsely excusing the visuals from being as creative as they could be. That just makes it boring.

What makes it truly vile is its completely unempathetic worldview.
Movies that lack empathy for men are not uncommon but rarely are they this ambitious. Every male drive and desire is shown as evil in Bitter Moon, utterly condemnable. Even the capacity to love is portrayed as WEAKNESS. A man's desire to kill himself is portrayed as inevitable.
Read 10 tweets
Jul 2, 2021
#FilmTwitter
Glass (2019)
W/ its nice presentation, it's just so painful that the crucially flawed element is the script's dramatic priorities.

All I would do is rewrite the film to include a full character thread for David, including his relationship w/ his powers and his son.
Instead of him just vanishing from the entire 2nd act and waking up after a literal nap for the ending, I would include him!

I love the idea of the Clover Organization being beaten by a normal guy, not because of his strength, but his normalness.
And I know M. Night craved subversion. But David does NOT seem like he's been doing this for 20 years. He and his son are shown to be PITIFULLY disorganized and unambitious if you think about it.

Their last scene together is in the hardware store! It's so painfully underwritten.
Read 5 tweets

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