Maybe I am just a little too optimistic when it comes to comic book movies, or maybe I just love me some Daredevil a little too much, but I always defend this movie when people talk shit on it. Obviously the first time I walked out of the theater after having seen it, I knew it was bad. I think everybody knew this movie was bad. And in all honesty, there aren’t that many reasons why it should be considered good. The fact that this movie had a Director’s Cut released, however, I think proves that there were only the best intentions when it came to making this movie. Also, anytime someone talks shit on it, there are two other more recent comic book movies that are terrible, those two films being Ghost Rider and Elektra, with the former being just a little bit better than the latter. At least when Ghost Rider is riding his flame motorcycle and whipping chains all over the place, it’s kind of badass to look at. Even though Jennifer Garner was running around in skimpy bondage gear all through her film, it was just so fucking shitty to watch, and Jennifer Garner, a.k.a. Duck Face, doesn’t do anything for me. And believe it or not, yes, I am a heterosexual male who would rather watch  a skeleton riding a flaming motorcycle than a girl in skimpy bondage gear. Before anyone leaves a comment about it, “Sounds like the motorcycle isn’t the only thing that’s flaming”.

Blind, but still has an eye for fashion. Also, sometimes he had red (weird orange) hair, other times, not so much. WTF guys?!

Matt Murdock, played by Ben Affleck,  is the son of an arguably washed up boxer living in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of New York. An accident blinds him, but heightens all of his other senses, giving him near superhuman abilities. When his father refuses to throw a fight, he is murdered, and Matt spends the rest of his life making sure that justice is dished out accordingly, both with his vigilantism as Daredevil at night, as well as his career as a lawyer. The Kingpin, played by Michael Clarke Duncan, is the head of organized crime in the city, and hires a hitman, Bullseye, played by Colin Farrell, who “never misses” his target. In a hit gone wrong, Bullseye kills the father of Elektra Natchios, played by Duck Face, who is Matt Murdock’s love interest. Through bad circumstances, Elektra blames Daredevil for her father’s death and goes after him, and then there is this big rooftop three-way fight kind of thing with Bullseye, Elektra, and Daredevil all kind of fighting each other. Bullseye kills Elektra in the process, but Daredevil critically wounds Bullseye and leaves him for dead as he goes after the Kingpin. Once the battle ends, Daredevil is put in the position to kill the person responsible for his father’s death, but instead chooses to let the police deal with it and let justice be handled through the court system, rather than street justice.

So leathery…so horny…the costumes, I mean.

I wanted to point out the bad things about this movie first, but it’s kind of hard to pinpoint all of them. That fight on the playground between Elektra and matt Murdock? Yeah, pretty ridiculous, I’ll give you that. The whole thing just seemed rushed. Once Marvel saw how successful the Spider-Man movie was, which was released the year prior, it seemed like they just picked a superhero name from a hat to see who got the next film. Once Daredevil was chosen, they just chose some actors who were “hot” at the time, rather than seeing how they all worked together. This was just NOT a role for Jennifer Garner, but her show Alias was doing well, so they threw her in there. Ben Affleck provided the big “star” name, and he really wasn’t THAT terrible, he just wasn’t really all that good. Same thing with Michael Clarke Duncan, he didn’t do a bad job, he just seemed kind of out of place. Colin Farrell was pretty awesome in how insanely over the top his performance was, which Bullseye pretty much is. He just lacked that insanity that the character has, so he was more laughable than he was intimidating. He could have said all the same lines, but if there was a little bit more of an edge to it, or were there a few changes here or there, he would have pulled it off, but instead he just heightened the overall sense of silliness to the whole film.

Wait…Kingpin is black?! Bullseye has an actual bullseye on his face?! WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING TO MY WORLD.

Now let’s try some good things. The director’s cut of this film has 25 extra minutes, mostly with courtroom investigating. That has always been a big part of Daredevil/Matt Murdock, which is that he is short-sighted (LOL he’s blind). He focuses on only one neighborhood to protect, and is pretty self-centered as well as a little egotistical. These personality quirks were demonstrated a lot more in those scenes. As far as the “action” scenes, or any time he is jumping around, there are quite a few similarities to images from the comics that seemed almost shot for shot, so you can tell that the people behind the movie had actually opened the book before. Speaking of opening up the comics, I can’t think of another single comic book movie that referenced as many important creators involved with that character than this film. Stan Lee has his cameo, and Kevin Smith, who wrote a Daredevil storyline, played someone named “Kirby”, named after Jack Kirby, who is as important to Marvel’s history as Stan Lee. The names Everett, Quesada, Colan, Romita, Kane, Miller, Mack, and Bendis are used, all of these people being tied to writing/creating/illustrating Daredevil through the years. Frank Miller also has a cameo in the film, so that’s another one. Ultimately, I feel this film had good intentions, was had talented people involved with it, but everything was just rushed to try to cash in on the Spider-Man success, and hopefully one day we see another attempt at a Daredevil movie. And you’re right, the theatrical version does suck, and the director’s cut is a little bit better, but this film isn’t going to be winning any awards for anything other than it’s shittiness.

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