Another month, another Marvel comic book adaptation. While said Ghost Rider isn’t as popular as Fantastic Four, it still has enough fans to warrant a movie (but with it’s $52 million opening weekend in February could account to both Nicolas Cage’s and Eva Mendes’ appeal).

But, like every almost every non-sequel super hero movie these days, we get the “origin” movie; how they go their powers, and the first time using them. I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m getting a little sick of these type of movies (yes, I’m completely excited for Iron Man, which will be just that). The only two movies I can think of where it’s not this type is Constantine and Blade (Men in Black had the “fish out of water” tale that I’ll still count as origin).

So, young Johnny Blaze (Who are the ad wizards that came up with this one?) makes a deal with The Devil to save his dying father from lung cancer. His father then died the next day during a motorcycle jump (of course) and Johnny runs away. Years later, when Johnny does crazy motorcycle stunts, The Devil needs him to hunt down his son, and turns him into Ghost Rider, a skeleton who’s on fire with super powers.

Nicolas Cage has really only played two roles: Dr. Goodspeed from The Rock, and Charlie Kaufman from Adaptation.; everything else has been a character for those two models (and in Con Air adding a “Southern” accent). In this movie, it’s no different. Eva just stands there and looks beautiful (even asking one point to her waiter while she’s being stood up, “Do I look beautiful?”) and there’s nothing wrong with that, but she still hasn’t found that role that defines her (all I can think of is Hitch.)

The CG flames are amazing, but seem like such a waste in a movie as this. The story is neither light nor dark (not fun like FF or dark like Batman), it’s just there. Another ho-hum adaptation that was rightfully pushed from last year’s summer lineup and shoved in Feburary where it performed much better than would have in the summer. I’m not holding my breath for a sequel, but for the amount of money it made, I wouldn’t be surprised. It can only go up from here as a franchise.

I’m not saying this movie is bad by any means, it just seemed like it doesn’t know what it wanted to be. If you’re a comic book fan, check it out (there’s a two-disc extended cut also available), but for everyone else, it might not be that entertaining. The next new comic book adaptation I’m waiting for is 30 Days of Night, with Josh Hartnett (which I’ll talk about later). Oh, and here’s the trailer:

Ghost Rider is out on DVD today.