Daredevil

2/13/03 - Review

In a year when there are many comic book heroes coming to the big screen, we get our first taste of superhuman powers with the Twentieth Century Fox release of Daredevil.  Ben Affleck plays the Man Without Fear Matt Murdoch in this comic book adaptation of a blind lawyer who seeks justice for himself when the courts fail on their own.  When Matt was a 12 year old boy, he came upon his father shaking down a man that owed the Kingpin, played by Michael Clarke Duncan.  Upon seeing this, Matt ran away only to be doused with a canister of biohazard material.  He lost his sight but his other four senses increased into a superhuman form.  Matt and his Dad made a commitment then to never give up and quit.  His father was a prize fighter but when he refused to take a fall, the Kingpin had him killed so Matt decided then to dedicate his life to serving justice to those that justice did not serve.  As Matt Murdoch fulfils his promise to his Dad, he continues to punish the wrong doers even though his Priest friend advises against this.  Matt soon becomes involved with Electra played by Jennifer Garner.  Her Dad works for the Kingpin but he tries to get out of the “business” but the Kingpin had him killed by Bullseye played Colin Farrell.  Murdoch must become the Daredevil and stop both of these men by serving them his form of justice, vigilante style.    

I assume that Fox plans on making several sequels to this movie just like all of the other comic book movies.  I just hope that at some point they can make it better and come up with some of their own material in the process.  The movie was cruising along just fine until Electra’s Dad gets killed.  As soon as that happened, the movie rocketed toward the climactic ending.  Everything happened so fast that I think the producers got lost in their own ideas.  Next thing you know Daredevil is fighting Bullseye and the Kingpin.  Then, it just ended.  For one thing it was too short of a movie.  The producers could have made it longer while in the process added some more dialogue or maybe story into the last third of the movie.  It was only 1:45 so I don’t think there would be any trouble from the studio if it was 15-20 minutes longer.  Don’t get me wrong, the action sequences were incredible.  Daredevil kicks some serious ass on screen.  Definitely not a friendly movie for the young kids like Spiderman was.  Speaking of Spiderman, it looks like the producers couldn’t come up with their own material.  I can point out at least three or four scenes where I saw the same thing in Spiderman.  Why do I want to see the same thing again?  I will tell you that the cast was great.  Every body did a terrific job with their part, especially Affleck.  He did some damage with the fight scenes, but he did an even better job as a blind man.  Colin Farrell was awesome as the Irishman, Bullseye.  There is also a nice cameo by Kevin Smith.  The script was good too, until the movie went into hyper speed.  Maybe the sequel will pick up the slack.  I have to say that overall I am a little disappointed because Daredevil was one of my favorite comics.  The movie had its moments (i.e. kick ass fight scenes) but in the end, it came up short of my expectations. 

Grade

What do you think?