Let's get one thing straight: It's easy to make fun of Nicolas Cage. The man is convinced that "acting" literally means "yelling and twitching into a camera." Perhaps he once had a stage mentor who was an epileptic; or maybe he's just playing us all in some kind of elaborate Hollywood con. Whatever the case, he is surprisingly one of the few factors holding back Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance from being a really fun movie.

In fact, with the amount of massive explosions, flaming vehicles, dudes getting disintegrated and car chase sequences, Spirit of Vengeance seems more like a summer movie than anything else. Whatever else it may be, Ghost Rider is visually pleasing. I mean, there's a scene where the Rider hops in a gigantic mining apparatus, sets it on fire, and starts killing dudes with it. Who can say no to that kind of action?

The trouble with Spirit of Vengeance is that its shining moments are interspersed by long dialog scenes and scenes of Nicolas Cage freaking the hell out for no apparent reason. While spiritual talk and mental angst definitely have a place in a movie about a murderous demon beast who possesses a stunt driver, the talky bits do drag along.

Then there's the strange cinematic choices. The locales, sets and special effects are all great. But how do you justify ten minutes spent on the bad guy murdering a completely innocent EMT? There's some very odd pacing at work in Spirit of Vengeance and it interrupts the ride and keeps the audience from enjoying the explosive fun.

Some of the casting choices are impressively flawless, Mr. Cage notwithstanding. Johnny Whitworth as Ray Karrigan is exceptional, and Idris Elba is tons of fun as an alcoholic monk. The animated segments of the movie, short flashbacks concerning the mythos of the Ghost Rider universe are all brilliantly done and Cage even narrates them convincingly. The Ghost Rider itself has a surprising amount of personality for a silent murder machine, and is one of the good uses of CGI in a genre where we usually see anything but.

There's enough guts in the cast and cinematic appeal of the movie to hold it up, even though nothing in this universe can convince us that Cage is the badass he thinks he wants to be.