Having watched the Ghost Rider movie starring Nicolas Cage last night, caught a repeat telecast of the 79th Academy Awards this morning and less than an hour ago, finished watching the latest episode of Heroes… I’m swimming in thoughts about what defines a Hero to me. But more of that later.

Ghost Rider, the latest Marvel Comics character to appear on the silver screen could not have asked for a more unique debut. Sure, like several other comic book characters, his story, his mythos, was re-written to better suit a 100 minute flick. Sure, like Blade, he was played by an actor who insisted on making the movie more about him than the comic book character. Ultimately, though, what was different was just how retro the whole movie felt.

Despite a rather angsty storyline (for a comic book movie) - A stuntman sells his soul to the devil to save his father from cancer and becomes a bounty hunter whom the devil calls upon when a demon tries to rule the Earth (What?! I said it was angsty, not believable!), the treatment for Ghost Rider comes as being unable to take itself seriously. It’s like watching Adam West and Burt Ward running around in colourful spandex all over again. But at least THEY had the acting chops to pull off the crappy dialogue.

Don’t get me wrong, though. As a fellow comic book fan, I have great respect for Nicolas Cage and am extremely envious that he is a relatively big name in a Hollywood during a time when comic book movies are all the rage (almost every comic book movie in the past five years has been #1 at the US box office) and is thus able to get the part of one of his favourite superheroes (he even has a tattoo of Ghost Rider!).

I personally think Cage is capable of being a believable action hero, if sometimes breaking the mould, somewhat. His turn in National Treasure as an intelligent, dorky ex-Marine was slightly more appropriate than playing a dangerous criminal who loves his daughter in Con-Air. In Ghost Rider, however, Cage’s version of Johnny Blaze just comes across as being too hokey… too LAME… to really get behind.

Thank goodness his opponents were just as LAME, otherwise you might actually see me rooting for the bad guy. The only person who really seemed to relish his role and to really enjoy it is Wes Bentley who plays the antagonist Blackheart. With wonderful flair and morbidity, Blackheart becomes a villian that any hero would look good going up against.

Though I love Ghost Rider to death (pun not intended), this movie could barely hold my attention, and it was only the fanboy moments of seeing the Ghost Rider side by side with his predecessor from the Wild West that made it worth remembering.

Afterthought: Come to think of it… the only person really to blame is director-writer Mark Steven Johnson, who gave us a crappy rendition of Daredevil that wasn’t helped by casting fanboy Ben Affleck. I’m beginning to sense a trend here…