MovieChat Forums > Ghost Rider (2007) Discussion > Is Ghost Rider glorifying Satan

Is Ghost Rider glorifying Satan

posted 13 years ago by Loneright
9 replies | jump to latest

I often check out Christiananswers.com on reviews of movies. There are hardly any movies that are morally acceptable and this one is no acception. I thought I share this reviews and comments made about Ghost Rider.

Negative—Well… Should have done my homework, but felt rushed, but that’s not anybody’s fault but my own. Movie started out well, and camera shots looked great. Cage has always, in my opinion, done a superior job on his movies and choice of rolls he plays. The writers of this and so many other movies over the last several years need to understand that great moviemaking is not going to be done by taking the Lord’s name in vain. 30 minutes into the film, this happens. What I watched up till that point looked as if it could have been an enjoyable flick.

Sorry, Mr. Cage, I will not be picking up the DVD when it comes out. Please tell your friends in the moviemaking biz. Think about the young eyes and ears that are watching. The envelope is being pushed enough with motorcycle riding demons. Please consider just omitting offensive language.

I am a CHRISTIAN man who got mislead into seeing the first ghostrider movie and still can’t lose the feeling GOD gave me in my soul after watching it. So, NO, I will NOT see this one, as well. But to fellow Christians that do see it, WHY would you literally play with fire, when you know you will get burned or just get a bigger fire—and is that REALY what you want?
My Ratings: Moral rating: Extremely Offensive / Moviemaking quality: ½
—Chris, age 22 (USA)

Neutral—I was excited about seeing this film, not because I am a fan of the comic book, but because I am a Nicolas Cage fan. However, my expectations for the film were definitely not met. The movie was good overall, but I left the theater strangely disappointed. The effects were great, but the script could have used a more work. In my opinion, there was too much comedy and not enough real character development. It lacked a believable climax and the acting left much to be desired, even for Cage fans.

I have heard a lot of my friends say that they felt as though the film was spiritually insulting. As a senior at a Christian university, I went in knowing that it was fiction and expecting to take nothing out of it. It is a fictional movie and should be viewed as nothing more. I would recommend it to those who just want to sit back for two hours and enjoy a movie that has great special effects. It is worth seeing it on the big screen for the reason alone.
My Ratings: Average / 4
—Kim, age 21

Neutral—I wish that just once Hollywood could incorporate Christianity into its supernatural films. But it seems I’m naive to think that things will ever change. Ghost Rider had its adrenaline pumping moments, things that caught and held my attention. The characterizations are wonderful, the dialogue funny without bordering on corny.

But the spirituality of the story definitely walks a very uneasy line. Anything from Satan is evil, we know that, as Christians. Yet, here we have a really cool “hero” created by Satan as a bounty hunter for his wishes. Hmm, something doesn’t sound quite right. Albeit, this bounty hunter turns against his maker and decides to use his curse for good if at all possible. But that too leaves the question of whether his actions stem from compassion for the innocent or a thirst for vengeance. Before considering this movie for an evening out, remember where your treasure lies. Don’t let Hollywood dictate what you believe. It’s a great watch, but unless you are solidly sure of your faith and God’s truth, don’t even go there. Ghost Rider is mind-blowing, but is it really worth the risk?

Neutral—My husband and I and two friends went to see this movie last night, and truthfully I wish I hadn’t bothered. It had a lot more “evilness” to it than we expected and there were some frightening and morbid moments. Not a movie for children or young teens. I don’t believe there was any swearing, though there was a lot of cleavage! The only thing I could take from the movie was that it presented how evil and deceptive satan is and how he will do anything to destroy peoples lives. Use discretion if you’re going to watch it.

Neutral—I in no way recommend letting younger children watch this movie. But with that said your teenagers who go to school with other secular influences will probably have a strong desire to see this movie. What I would suggest is watch it with them. Wait! Before you dismiss this look at it this way: It can open up a great opportunity for conversation. In today’s world, Satan is portrayed as “sexy” or “fun” but by watching this movie you can talk about (SPOILER*) how satan tricked Johnny into signing away his soul because of his love of his father. Johnny’s motives were sincere but they were sincerely wrong. This is how satan works in our real world today. He doesn’t appear with horns and flames he shows himself as something that is desirable to us. He shows himself as something that gives us instant gratification rather than waiting for God’s timing. Who’s to say that if Johnny had sought after God his father wouldn’t have been healed? It wouldn’t have worked for Hollywood but hey it might be some ideas you could talk to your teens about. How would the movie have been different if Johnny knew God? I hope this helps you in some way. Thanks for your time. God bless.

Negative—When I went to see “Ghost Rider” I expected to see a great movie. After all, it is a MARVEL film AND it stars Nicholas Cage. However, I was veeerrryyy disappointed; everything about this movie was bad. It had no good moral quality, the graphics were awful, and they must have picked up their script from “the book of cheezy lines.” Not to mention the thin, jumpy plot and predictable bad guys (they also threw in flash-scenes of grotesque “demon faces” whenever the devils were around). I wouldn’t recommend this movie for anyone of any age simply because it would be a waste of your time and money. Keep your wallet from crying and save your money for Spiderman-3.
My Ratings: Offensive / 1
—Gwen M., age 18

Negative—I just came back from the film and found it interesting. Having read a number of Ghost Rider comics in younger days, I was curious to see if the movie followed the comic books to any degree. Having seen the movie, I would issue a strong caution on letting any young people (teenager and below) from seeing this show. To me, though I did enjoy the film, it would bring about a sense of confusion in many minds. The Bible does state, repeatedly, that Satan is the root of all evil, but in the movie, Satan cons a man into selling his soul for basically a good cause. My concern is that a moral confusion would ensure whereas many today do not have any sort of solid Biblical teaching on Satan, evil, good or any other Biblical concept. There are many younger adults and kids who cannot think abstractly much less Biblical, and would look at this film as encouraging demonic activity and interest.

There would be those who would consider such a pact as they would think it would be neat to be Ghost Rider, and unfortunately, we as a country are so weak in Biblical doctrine and teaching most of us do not have the ability or knowledge to counter such an argument.

As to movie quality, the special effects are impressive, and that is about the most positive I can say about this movie. Johnny Blaze’s girlfriend does provide some eye candy, but really adds nothing to the story. It becomes predictable and the ending is not a real surprise. Again, I advice extreme caution on this movie.

Negative—I went to see this movie with a young friend of mine, he didn’t seem as uncomfortable with it as I was. The quality of the film was excellent, but I can’t over-look the dark side of it. In the story, evil is depicted as a good thing. They make Johnny Blaze (Nicholas Cage) out to be some kind of superhero, when he’s really like Satan’s bounty hunter. The entire movie seemed to have a demonic presence. I was very disappointed. I can’t recommend this movie to anyone, keeping our minds pure is far better than watching great CGI.

Negative—I thought this movie was very bad. I went to see it with my friend, and we both walked out of there trying to think of anything morally good. It promotes fighting evil with evil, and revenge. To me, it makes it seem like evil is better than good, and working for the devil is the best thing to life. I would definitely NOT recommend this movie to any Christian, or person, for that matter.
My Ratings: Very Offensive / 3½
—Rachel, age 15

Positive—This movie does NOT give honor to things which are evil. As an impressionable young person, I certainly did not walk out of this movie thinking the Devil was not so bad. If anything, this movie reinforces the fact that deceptiveness and lies are all the devil is capable of. The theology of this movie is not Christian. There are mentions of demons hiding within elements, and many other spiritual ideas which do not match Christian doctrine. It does not, however, attempt to disprove anything Christian, and could be an interesting jumping off point for discussions of the different misconceptions people have about theology. This is a scary movie, and I would not recommend it for young children. There are frightening demons and several pop into the screen unannounced in order to make you jump. It is, however, a very fun movie, and made me want to punch my fist in the air and say “Yeah! Go Ghostrider!” I don’t think this movie was intended to have a message. It is just attempting to bring a comic book to the screen, and it does so with great special effects, cool action sequences, a few laughs, and lots of really cheesy lines. If you are looking for a simply entertaining night at the movies, this is a good movie. Otherwise, rent “One Night with the King.”

[–] rob-2423 13 years ago

A movie isn't going to damn one to Hell. I am a fellow Christian, and know that my salvation comes through the Son, and only in the Son. This is an eternal gift, and cannot be revoked, especially for something as nominal as watching a movie. I respect your beliefs, and agree to an extent, however I don't see it as glorifying Satan, rather simply as entertainment. The thing I like about the movie is the lack of foul language, I would much rather see a clean movie like this than to watch some piece of garbage that blasphemes every other sentence.

[–] nineinchnail1981-74-611426 13 years ago

So letting Hollywood dictate what you believe in is wrong, but it's okay to let a 2000 year old book written by MEN dictate what you believe? How about looking inside yourself to figure out what is real and what is right and wrong instead of blindly following what any outside source tells you, be it a movie or a book or whatever.

[–] Lunchbox-3 13 years ago

I'm not a Christian so I can't argue anything from a Christian perspective but if you are, I think this movie presents a pretty clear case for Christians being good and Satan being evil and should be "morally acceptable" to a Christian audience.

The Curious Case of Johnny Blaze

What has happened to Johnny exactly? He has been bound to a possessing spirit, and the resultant being is called the Ghost Rider. Mephistopheles has caused this fusion. So we should look at who these characters are and what their motivation is.

Johnny Blaze is shown to be an innocent. He "made a deal with the devil" to save his father from the cancer that was killing him. But let's look at that deal. First off, Johnny didn't really sign it. When Mephistopheles said he wanted Johnny's soul, Johnny laughed at him. He didn't believe it was a real offer. When he opened the scroll to look at it, his finger was pricked and his blood spilled on the contract which Mephistopheles accepted as a signature. So the first point is that Johnny was tricked. Maybe the filmmakers are implying that no one would sign such a contract willingly, the only way the devil can get anyone to sign is to trick them into doing it. We don't know for sure since Johnny never even gets a chance to review the contract. Maybe he would have signed it anyway but we can't know that. I think you can safely say this movie makes such a deal look unattractive. Then of course after the devil cures Barton's cancer, Barton dies anyway the next day in a motorcycle accident. So again the movie shows that dealing with the devil, or even considering such a deal will be bad for you. One reviewer commented that perhaps if Johnny had sought out God instead of the devil Barton would have been healed by God, without trickery. I think this brings up a good point. God does not seek you out and ask if you need help. If you want God's help, you have to seek Him out. The devil however will seek you out when you are in need and make you an offer, because that's when you will be more likely to make a bad choice. Another thing to point out in favor of Johnny's character is that he steers clear of vices such as drinking, smoking and gambling. It's never stated outright why he does this, the best explanation comes from Nicolas Cage in the DVD commentary. Johnny believes he will go to Hell when he dies due to his contract with the devil, so he is in no hurry to die which is why he doesn't indulge in vices which will harm his health. Regardless of the reason, abstinence from vices probably makes him a good role model for Christians.

Next we ask who is the possessing spirit? The movie gives no answer. It will be up to the movie's sequel to provide that answer. The spirit is an angel from Heaven called Zarathos. Zarathos was an angel of justice who was tricked into Hell by the devil and was "driven insane" by all the injustice and immorality he witnessed there. Which leaves him a powerful but confused entity.

Mephistopheles may be a lesser demon rather than the devil himself but for the intents and purposes of this story, he is the devil. We are told he cannot act in the human realm which is why he must create an agent to work for him. He has bound Zarathos to Johnny Blaze to create an agent, the Ghost Rider. I'm not sure it's really stated why he needs to do this instead of just using Zarathos as his agent. Unless Zarathos is similarly prevented from acting in the human realm and can only channel his power into Johnny. We're shown that at first, Johnny is an unwilling participant in the fusion, meaning it must be Zarathos in charge of the shared persona. Zarathos has presumably been confused and tricked by Mephistopheles into doing his bidding. The devil presumes that Johnny, a human, will be too weak to do anything about his situation and will continue to act as his pawn. This turns out to be wrong as Johnny eventually takes control of the persona or at least comes to an understanding with his possessing spirit, as seen in the "talking to the fire element within" scene. So this also shows the devil to have built his plans upon a house of cards. He is relying on the weakness of humans, and when the human turns out to be strong, he loses his gambit. Another question is why the devil wants an agent on Earth that is only capable of defeating evil. The answer is, he really doesn't. That's why he doesn't activate Johnny's powers until such time as he needs him, otherwise he'd be out there making the world a better place. But when another evil being starts getting in Mephistopheles' way, he unleashes the Rider to deal with it. Notice that after all of the demons have been vanquished, the devil tries to take the powers back from Johnny so that the Rider doesn't continue to walk the Earth doing good deeds. But Johnny won't have it.

So the Ghost Rider should be not be seen as an evil entity doing good. It should be seen as the holy fire of an angel whom the devil tried to corrupt to do his bidding but the goodness of a human redeemed him and turned him back against the devil.

The rest of the movie follows this theme that evil is essentially weak and built upon lies. Every time Ghost Rider comes into a physical battle against a demon, he bests them easily. There is nothing they can do against him unless they trick him or use a human pawn as a hostage. When the lesser demons are destroyed, Blaze tells the devil he will keep the power and use it to battle evil. There is nothing the devil can do about it, he has no power. The fact that his last Ghost Rider, Carter Slade, also turned against him and continues to walk the Earth as a free man with the Ghost Rider powers shows that the devil is also stupid enough to try the same flawed tactic twice.

Then there's Blackheart, leader of the lesser demons. For a character who claims to have all of the devil's powers without being bound by his rules, he is vanquished pretty easily too. He absorbs the souls of a thousand sinners to become powerful. Yet all Ghost Rider has to do is use his holy Penance Stare to make those souls atone for their sins and Blackheart is forced to atone along with them. Without the souls inside of him, Ghost Rider could not have forced Blackheart to atone, that's true. But without the souls inside of him, Blackheart was not very powerful either. Yes, he could kill humans. He could kill them all day long. But Blackheart's goal is to rule Hell. The people he killed were mostly innocent and went to Heaven so they wouldn't increase his coffers in Hell so he would tire of it eventually. He had to hide out on Earth because in Hell he was not as powerful as his father. So there was little he could do to increase his powers in Hell except for this gambit for the thousand unclaimed souls of San Venganza. He was mostly a frustrated demon who only had one shot at power. He took his shot and failed.

The only other character is Roxanne Simpson. She isn't given much to do. In the comics, Johnny Blaze sold his soul to save her father Crash Simpson instead of his own father Barton. That gave them somewhat more of a connection which is overshadowed in this movie by Johnny's connection to his dad. She is mostly there to act as a damsel in distress which doesn't really pan out since she stands up to the devil alongside Johnny and isn't in much distress. I suppose you can mostly take her relationship with Johnny as an unfortunate case of two good people being driven apart by the devil's lies. Young Johnny leaves her behind because he believes he is cursed, which turns out to be false. He was never cursed. He was bound to an angel with the power to destroy evil. The devil was banking that both Johnny and Zarathos would be too confused to realize their potential and continue to do his bidding, but he turned out to be wrong.

So the big problem with the sequel is that even though Johnny is supposed to have realized this in the first movie, he still believes the Ghost Rider to be a curse that he must rid himself of. I guess that's just because he doesn't actually know that the Rider is an angel yet, and he still believes himself to wield the devil's power. After he discovers the truth he embraces his role as the Rider.

Well, that was too much thought for such a silly movie. I liked the movie for the most part because I like comic books. It's cheesy, sure. But I can't see it as being pro-demonic or pro-Satan. Everything that Johnny does in the movie is against the devil and his minions and he lives a pretty clean life. The demons don't acquit themselves well at all. Not only do they fail, they are defeated so easily and they empower the heroes in the process.

[–] necromancer-666 13 years ago

HELL YA IT DOES!!! SATAN RULES!!! I LOVE SATAN!!! I would love to be the ghost rider. Lord Satan why don't you give me a deal like that. I won't ever turn on You though!!!

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] thunderztorm 12 years ago

Why oh why discuss your personal beliefs in relation to a friggin' comic book movie.

I can't really decide if it's because you're completely insecure or just not smart enough to know any different.

Anyhow, I'll help you out a little bit - in the source material, the Ghost Rider is actually created by God himself. Ghost Rider is basically the modern version of the old testament avenging angel - no more mr merciful God here.

Either way, it's a fictional movie based on old folklore and myths. Call it what you want, it's all the same in the end - Jesus, God, Allah, Odin, Thor, Ra - it's all just humans trying to explain the unexplainable and get reason into randomness because they can't handle reality.

[–] gallileo60 12 years ago

I bought it, and sure am glad....Its just fiction, kinda like most religions....I do not watch movies for a lesson in morality, but to each his own I suppose...

You Have a Hard Lip, Herbert..

Better Living Thru Chemistry

[–] coolrvd 12 years ago

lol if people got offended by Ghost Rider's films then they'd probably mess their pants if they ever read his comics. Ghost Rider is a religion heavy comic..just like Spawn and others like him. If you're easily offended religion-wise,then no..Ghost Rider isn't for you. Both Ghost Rider and the Punisher have an upset attitude towards God..For ex in this scene featuring Ghost Rider he's calling out God because he's tired of all the troubles he goes through and isn't finding any peace or freedom from the curse

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Gd8NBIma-zo/TJTt8RWZovI/AAAAAAAAO0A/BLw4mwxhbXg/s1600/shadowlandghostrider1+-+shoutattheheavens.jpg

The I saved heaven for you part..Jason Aaron did a run on Ghost Rider where he had the archangel Zadkiel succeed where Satan failed in taking over Heaven,and it was up to Johnny Blaze and Danny Ketch(the two main ghost riders)to save it. Like I said..if you thought the movies were offensive..ha anyways I'm a christian myself and it's never bothered me. I find it actually pretty cool because they changed Ghost Rider's origin to where he's the ultimate weapon of Heaven. He was compared to the flood that God sent to wipe the wicked from the Earth if that gives you a hint as to how powerful Ghost Rider is suppose to be or his purpose. If anything Ghost Rider represents fighting inner demons in comparison to Johnny fighting the curse