Ghost Rider – Spirit of Vengeance, jettisons most of the original film but it’s not a total reboot either. The gloss of the first film was done away with, replaced with a rough and sleazy style, a high body count and twisted jokes so funny you can’t help but laugh. They also went far more hardcore than the first film, with Nicolas Cage going gonzo and Ghost Rider truly being something from your nightmares. The directing is fast-paced, stylish and uses vast open roads to give it a sense of scope. Spirit of Vengeance was the second attempt to make Ghost Rider cool to filmgoers and, after the lukewarm response to the original, Marvel realised that some of their characters like The Punisher and Ghost Rider didn’t fit in the family-friendly superhero picture. The villains are as bland as the hero, and the cowboy theme of the production comes across as lacking imagination. However, the plot is boring and potentially great moments like seeing Johnny team up with The Caretaker – the original Ghost Rider – are wasted.

The effects aren’t bad, and there’s a certain wicked joy in seeing Ghost Rider in action. Ghost Rider’s grand plan is to defeat Blackheart’s henchmen in a series of brief Boss Battles, while poor Johnny juggles an ex-girlfriend he still loves and a police investigation because the cops suspect him of… something. Why that would be enough to depose Mephisto, who’s presumably accumulated the souls of billions of evil people throughout history, is never explained. Basically, it’s the power of a thousand corrupt souls. That all sounds pretty good, except the battle mostly revolves around Blackheart trying to find the Contract of San Venganza in a scavenger hunt. However, when Mephisto’s twisted son Blackheart tries to overthrow him from ruling Hell, Mephisto calls on Johnny to be his soldier in this war – as the Ghost Rider. Johnny, locked into the contract, spends years trying to avoid having to pay it back. Johnny Blaze, a carnival stunt-biker, sells his soul to Mephisto in exchange for his dad’s cancer to be cured… except, naturally, Mephisto then kills Johnny’s dad in another way.

The first Ghost Rider film was your basic origin story.

That's a negative ghost rider