Ghost Rider: Spirit of Being in the Wrong Movie

Ghost Rider has never been one of my favorite Marvel characters; although, I do like him. He's just not one of my favorites. However, I did love the series that started up in 1990, and you have to admit that he just looks cool.

That was easily one of the best comic series on the market at that time and still stands out as one of the best runs ever. Well, at least for the first 25 issues or so. It turned out to be the series that almost caused Marvel Comics to cease to exist, but that's a story for another time.
Wait, wait! Here's another one:

Maybe it was really just about the amazing art of Mark Texeira. Okay, no, it wasn't, because I'm a story guy, but his art certainly didn't hurt anything and really set the mood of the comic.

It's not surprising that Marvel licensed the character out to be made into a movie. I thought the first movie was pretty good, despite what people say about it. They did a pretty decent job of melding the classic 70s Ghost Rider with the modern 90s Ghost Rider. It wasn't a great movie, but it was pretty decent.

I just saw the new one, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance, and, I have to say, I have no idea what that was. It acted like a sequel, but it twisted up enough of facts from the first movie to be unrelated to it. It sounds like they want it to be a reboot, too, so that's just messed up. Really, what the movie did was give Nic Cage a chance to act crazy. Which he's really good at, but it just didn't fit in this movie, because it's not the character he established in the first movie. The movie tries really hard, and it almost succeeds (it does have some pretty cool visuals (but the cackling/crackling whenever GR is around is dumb)), but, in the end, it just falls flat on its face. Like, at one point in the movie, GR is blown up with a grenade and Blaze ends up in the hospital because of it, but a little while later, he takes multiple blasts from missiles without slowing down.

It's disappointing, because I always want Marvel movies to succeed (because I'm still just a Marvel kid at heart). But Marvel isn't doing well with this whole Marvel Knights line of movies and is now 0 for 2 (the other being Punisher: War Zone (another sequel/reboot)).

The worst thing about the movie is that the movie was not about Ghost Rider. This is a problem. It seems that when they decided to do the second movie, they wanted to go with a story that fit "very much in the zeitgeist, like Da Vinci Code." So what they wrote was another story about the devil trying to have a half human kid that will be the anti-Christ. Because, you know, that's in the Bible. That the anti-Christ is the son of Satan. Except that it's not. But maybe people think it's a good balance since Christ is the Son of God? At any rate, they wrote this story about how the devil is trying to become the anti-Christ, the same cliche' story you've already seen in dozens of movies, and through Ghost Rider into it to stop him. But the story is never really about Johnny Blaze or about Ghost Rider, so it never feels right.

Have you ever had that experience?

My first real experience of this was with Tim Burton's Batman. I just want to say, right now, that I can't stand that movie. Not only did Mr. Burton know nothing about his subject (as Burton says, "I would never read a comic book."), he didn't even want to make a movie about Batman. He wanted to make a movie about the Joker, so the movie just never felt right to me. Sure, it had Batman in it, but it wasn't really Batman's story, and it just didn't work for me.

This is also why I don't read licensed books. I loved the Dragonlance Chronicles when that came out back in the 80s. I loved Dragonlance Legends, too, but that was still Hickman and Weis. Later, they started letting other people write books set in that world and stories with the characters from the books, and I just couldn't get into them. They never felt right. Like... like I want to tell this story, but I want to use those characters even though they don't really fit what I'm doing. So, even though I tried to read some of the other Dragonlance stuff that came out, I never liked any of it and just quit trying.

The same thing happened with Star Wars. I read a few of the first Star Wars novels that came out when I was a kid: Han Solo at Star's End and the rest of that trilogy, Splinter of the Mind's Eye, and I liked them well enough, but books taking place in the expanded Star Wars universe didn't really hit it big until the 90s when Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire. What a great book. Zahn nailed it. Often, I would feel just like I was watching the movies while I read his books. However, when I went on to other Star Wars books, which exploded after Zahn's Thrawn trilogy, I was sorely disappointed. Most frequently, the characters just didn't fit the stories. The writers were doing things with the characters that just weren't in character for them in order to meet the needs of their story.

Which brings us to the point. Yeah, yeah, I know... that was a lot to go through to arrive at some point other than what it looked like I started with, but, really, it's all the same thing. See, I went to see this Ghost Rider movie and kept wondering why Ghost Rider was in the movie. He just didn't belong. The movie was about this kid, Danny, not about Ghost Rider. In that, they spoiled both things: they spoiled Ghost Rider, and they spoiled the movie about the kid. Why? Because they didn't know what to do with the character they had.

I'm not sure, but I think this may be the biggest issue that writers have. This issue of making a character do something that the character wouldn't do in order to further the story. More often than anything else, it's the thing that will ruin a book/movie/TV show/whatever for me. When I stop and think, "Why? Why did that character just do that? That's not what that character would do," the writer has failed. Like Alfred bringing Vicki Vale down into the Batcave or Batman taking off his mask in front of the Penguin. Or Ghost Rider being in eastern Europe with the flimsy reasoning "God has brought you here."

Writing is always about character vs plot, I suppose. I tend to be more plot driven myself, so I understand the temptation to bend your character to your will in order to meet a need in the plot, but you just can't do that. To give this a color metaphor, if you've painted your character red and blue, you can't have him do something green. If you need him to do something green, go back and repaint him red, blue, and green. It's probably better that way anyway. The more colors you use, the more depth the character has.


And now for some notes (LOOK! I actually remembered to put them IN the post!):

Note #1:
Last week, I won a copy of Rusty Webb's  "A Dead God's Wrath" playing in Briane Pagel's amazing Star Wars Blogathon. I already own a copy of this great little book, and you should own a copy, too. In fact, if you go over and sign up for the blogathon (just follow the link), mention that I sent you, I'll donate my copy to the first person that does. You'll also get 50 points just for signing up! It's a no lose scenario.

Note #2:
Speaking of Pagel's blogathon, a copy of my very own book, The House on the Corner, is this week's prize. The great thing? All you have to do is comment to be eligible to win. You don't have to be first, you don't have to be correct. Everyone that comments is entered into the weekly drawing. And you'll get 50 points if you mention my name! What a deal. And Briane believes that everyone should read my book, so go sign up for a chance to win your very own e-copy!

Note #3:
There's really no note #3... I want there to be one, but I'm all out. Have a great weekend!

Another Silly Addendum

Bah!
Because I can never actually remember to include my notes in the posts they are supposed to go in here is another addendum post.
I swear, kids are just bad for the mind. Yes, I get to blame my kids for that, because I had a great memory before I had kids.

Note #1:
The great 100 Days of Star Wars Trivia Blogathon being hosted by Briane Pagel over at The Best of Everything is still going on. In fact, it's still going on for more than 80 more days, so you still have plenty of time to play. Remember to tell him I sent you and you get a whomping 50 points right off the bat! Not only are there some cool prizes at the end, but there are weekly drawings for other cool prizes along the way, and all you have to be doing is participating to get those! Seriously, just drop a comment on one of the trivia posts, and you could win a cool prize. Like, last week, I won a copy of Rust Webb's  A Dead God's Wrath. Which, of course, I already own, so, maybe, I'll think of a way to pass it along to one of you.

Note #2:
Speaking of the Star Wars blogathon, this week's prize is a copy of my very own The House on the Corner. If you've been wanting to read it but, for whatever reason, haven't gotten around to it, yet, this is your perfect opportunity for a chance to win your very own e-copy! So, yeah, go sign up for the blogathon, mention I sent you, and get in on a chance to win my book! How could it better than that? Well, I guess Briane would say  that it would be better if Brother's Keeper was finished, since he's kind of mad at me that it's not, now that he read The House on the Corner. He loved it and think everyone should read it. Maybe that's why he's offering it as a prize?

Note #3:
Speaking of Briane and The House on the Corner, he had some words to say about it. I've added those into the review section on the House tab up top there, so you can click the tab and go see what he said. Some of it made me blush. I didn't put this one over there, but he said it's "more compelling than Asgard."

Well, I guess that's all of the added items I have today. One day, maybe, I'll start remembering to actually add these into the posts.
Nah, probably not.

Frisby vs Brisby Addendum

First of all, this is not the real post for today. The real post is here. If you haven't read that one, go read it. This one is all the little notes and things I forgot to include in that one because I was trying to finish it before getting my kids off to school. Of course, the real issue is that I kept telling myself all day yesterday that I just needed to get these added into the post so I wouldn't forget them, but I kept not doing that. And, so, yeah, I forgot them.

Anyway...
Notes!
Note #1 -- Briane Pagel is doing this big Star Wars blogathon over at The Best of Everything. It's 100 days of Star Wars trivia. There's some big prize or something. Or maybe not. I don't really know, because winning the prize isn't what's important to me. Just winning is what's important to me, and, evidently, I'm the guy to beat. Except that it's not really that difficult to beat me. All you have to do is be the first one to give the correct answer, and I'm not always that swift on getting to comment. Oh, yeah, and there are weekly drawings just for participating. The prize for this week is a copy of A Dead God's Wrath by Rusty Webb. If you haven't already read it, you should get in on the drawing!

Note #2 -- Speaking of Rusty, he left a really great review of my new story, "The Evil That Men Do" over on Amazon (and on Goodreads). It was completely unsolicited, and I can't say how much I appreciate that he took the time to do it. You all should follow the link over to Amazon and read the review and, then, by the story. It's just $0.99, and it's well worth it at that price, if I do say so myself. If you've been reading any of my Tib stories (and like them), you certainly don't want to miss this one.

Note #3 -- Actually, I've already forgotten this one. I know I had three things, but, whatever this one was, it doesn't exist in my head anymore. Maybe it fell out? Oh, well...

A Dead God's Wrath: A Review

Review... what a dreaded word. Seriously. We all want them, but we're all scared to get them. And to give them. But, really, there's nothing more important to an author's success than reviews. Well, other than writing the book to begin with. It's like waiting to see what your grade is on a term paper. It's a topic I'm going to have to start talking more about. What a review is. Why it's important. However, this isn't a post on the topic of reviews, although, perhaps, I should have done that post, first. Be that as it may, this post is a review. And, speaking of getting grades on a term paper, I think that's the format I'm going to use when I do reviews.

So my buddy, Rusty Webb, the guy that did the spectacular cover for my book, is also a writer. Just in case you haven't picked that up, yet. He has his very first (written) offering for the public available for the Kindle. He also did the cover for this one:

You can find over on Amazon for the low, low price of just $0.99. The real question, of course, is should you buy it?

So... let's get into that, then.

I give A Dead God's Wrath a good, solid B. And just to clarify that, a B means it's better than average. I'm not a big fan of average, and I wouldn't tell you to spend your money, even a buck, on something that's just average.Wrath, though, at a dollar, is a good buy. Even if it is short. That just means you can sit down and enjoy it all in one sitting. If you happen to like westerns, I'd say it's a must buy item.

My first impression of Wrath is that it's kind of Jonah Hex (not the movie) meets Neil Gaiman. It just had that Gaiman kind of feel to it. The everything seems normal except that something's just kind of "off." It can be hard to tell, at first, with Gaiman, exactly what that is, and I had that same sense with Rusty's work.

Rusty paints a clear picture of the environment without getting too detailed about it. There's just enough there to put the image in your mind, and, really, that's all that's needed. The dialogue is good. The pacing is great. The hero, Thomas, is realistic. He's a man up against odds that he can't beat, and Rusty never resorts to pulling some unbelievable super human feat  out of his hero's nether regions to please the audience. The hero's heroism is that he faces up against a situation that he knows he has no way of overcoming, but he does it anyway. The act of a true hero. "I know I'm going to die, but I have to do this." Thomas is the guy we aspire to be, but most of us aren't.

The western story is spiced up with just a little bit of mythology. Or, maybe, it's science fiction. It's a little hard to tell within the confines of the story, but that's okay. We don't know because Thomas doesn't know, and that's how it should be.

However, the story does break down a little bit for me at the end. The first thing is that I expect that the title will make sense (in any story) by the time I get to the end. When I finished Wrath, though, I had no clearer understanding of what the title means than I did when I started it. It's a great title, though; I just don't know how it relates. It's clear that there is more to the world than what's in this one story, so, maybe, if I knew more, it would make sense. As it is, though, it leaves me feeling like I missed something, and, maybe, I did, although I don't think so.

Likewise, the reader never gets to find out what was really going on in the story. In and of itself, that's fine with me. I don't need to know everything to enjoy a good story, especially if I know there's a larger story going on, and this is just a piece of it. Basically, if the character I'm viewing the story through doesn't get to find out, I'm okay with not getting to find out. However, there is an attempt at an explanation right at the end that just falls a little short of making anything clear. From the character's perspective, I like what happens here, because it has to do with his denial of the events he's witnessed. From the reader's perspective, though, I wasn't satisfied. I felt like all of that should either have been left out entirely, or it should have been given to us in a way that the reader could get it without Thomas understanding. Rusty dances around somewhere in the middle of those two things which left me feeling sort of like I can imagine I would feel if I was watching Star Wars: A New Hope for the very first time and someone turned it off just after they escape from the Death Star. You know they got away, but you would also know that the story wasn't really resolved.

It's still well worth the read, though, and it does leave me wanting Rusty to go back to it and give us more from that world. It's clear there's more. That's really the best way to tell if a story has done it's job. Does it leave you wanting more? Or to hear it again? And I definitely want to know more about what's going on in Rusty's sci-fi western world.