Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 02-18-2012, 10:38 PM:

CINEMA: Regal Village Square 18, Las Vegas, NV
AUDITORIUM: 8
PRESENTATION: Sony Digital 4K/RealD 3D
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Pre-show shenanigans
RATING: Two stars (out of four)

So that goofy Sprint commercial where all the little digital thingies following the guy around have to wait in the lobby plays, but towards the end, the audio for the Regal Roller Coaster starts. The video goes to the "Silence your cell phones now" trail, then goes to nothing but a white line across the bottom, while the audio for the trailer package moves right along.

After having audio only for a full trailer, somebody goes to complain. After two more trailers, the same guy and a woman get up to complain. The guy comes back and announces to the crowd "They said it would take two seconds to fix." Crowd erupts in laughter.

Then the audio stops and there's an audible gasp from the crowd. Then the Regal Roller Coaster audio starts again, but the video hasn't changed. Then the screen masking widens to scope. "Oh! It's in wide screen!" shouts a patron. Then it goes back to flat, and the crowd again erupts in laughter.

The we finally get a green band preview on screen and a trailer starts that fills the screen and the masking area. Then the screen masking goes back to wide.

Somebody in the audience wisely notes aloud "That was a little longer than two seconds."

(For the record, the presentation after the problems were solved was excellent.)

THE PLOT: Some monk-type religious dudes take the attitude of 'what could possibly go wrong' while protecting a boy. Wackiness ensues.

First off, don't waste your time on the 3D. There's absolutely no reason to see this in 3D.

Then again, there isn't much reason to see this in 2D either. None of Johnny Blaze's charm from the first movie carries over. The production values are pretty much crap. There's an irony in the fact that Christopher Lambert is in this. This COULD have been lifted from a Highlander script draft. Oh...and the 'vengeance'? Beats me.

The villain Ray Carrigan was the highlight, but only after his transformation.

Posted by Monte L Fullmer (Member # 2797) on 02-19-2012, 01:45 PM:

Someone didn't build the playlist correctly - missed a few cues. (and digital was designed to be easier than film, but guess not..)

Something to look forward to.

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 02-19-2012, 02:45 PM:

GHOST RIDER-Spirit of Vengeance is another post converted 3-D feature. The idiots that started doing this soon after the success of AVATAR are pretty much responsible for the decline of public acceptance of movies in 3-D. Disney has proven that movies shot in 2-D can be can be converted to 3-D very nicely when the did it with THE LION KING and BEAUTY & THE BEAST recently and it looks like James Cameron has also done a remarkable job with TITANIC from the 3-D trailer I had seen of it. BesiDe the three movies I had mentioned, there were several I had seen that were converted to 3-D that was not too bad but most were pretty bad.

-Claude

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-21-2012, 10:45 PM:

I was actually surprised to see a sequel on Ghost Rider. The original did pretty well but wasn't exactly a barnburner.

You'd think the suits would learn by now about the badly converted 3D flicks. I suppose they knew this was going to bomb-out so they figured, let's grab as much cash as we can on opening weekend.