Daredevil (2003)

Daredevil (2003)

Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, and Colin Farrell

Directed by: Mark Steven Johnson

Plot: Matthew Murdock is a down on his luck lawyer in Hell's Kitchen (a neighborhood of New York City) who was blinded at a young age by a toxic chemical.  Luckily, the chemical enhanced his other senses, as well as giving him a new "radar sense" that allows him to "see" the world around him.  This allows him to become Daredevil, a vigilante who protects the innocent against criminals.  Unfortunately, this lifestyle doesn't lead to many long lasting relationships, until one day, he meets a beautiful woman named Elektra Natchios.  They immediately hit it off, and start dating, as things start finally looking up for Matt.  However, crime boss Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. the Kingpin) has ordered a hit on Elektra's father for trying to bail on their dealings, and hires the marksman known as Bullseye to pull off the assassination.  And when the Kingpin assassinates someone, he goes after their whole family.  Will Matt be able to protect his new love and take down the biggest crime lord in Hell's Kitchen?  

Characters: For the most part, this film is pretty well acted, with every cast member giving a decent performance.  Ben Affleck makes an okay Matt Murdock.  He pulls off the stunts well, and his chemistry with Jennifer Garner feels genuine.  He also does a great job with the physicality of being a blind person, using small details such as feeling the walls to figure out where he's going, or staring off into space when he's having a conversation with someone.  Jennifer Garner is also pretty good as Elektra.  She manages to balance the emotional and physical aspects of her character pretty well.  Despite this, I don't think she was the best choice to play Elektra, since the character is supposed to be Greek, and Garner is obviously not.  However, the best performances come from Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farrell as Kingpin and Bullseye (respectively).  They both look like they're having the time of their lives, hamming it up whenever they get the opportunity.  Duncan was a great choice as the Kingpin, giving off a great sense of power and confidence that the character needs.  Farrell, on the other hand, is just insane, and uses every opportunity to act crazy, which is very entertaining. 

Writing:  Despite having a fairly simple plot, this film feels very overstuffed.  Elements like Ben Urich reporting on Daredevil's activities and the Kingpin's assassination attempts feel shoehorned into the story in order to make room for the romance.  This also goes the other way, with the action scenes making the romance feel rushed.  I'm fine with having a movie be romantic as well as full of action, but the writers should have chosen to chose between making the film a love story or an action movie if they wanted to make the film under 100 minutes, instead of trying to do both and making both sides weaker for it.  Affleck, despite putting in a passable performance, is very poorly written.  His dialogue is okay at best and cheesy at worst.  Also, his character arc is very ill defined.  The the movie tells the audience that he's learned how to be a better hero, but his actions never show a change. Garner, like Affleck, is also very poorly written.  She falls in love with a man she just met, her reasons for learning martial arts are ill-defined, and she feels like she was shoved into the movie because of her character's popularity in the comics, making her feel like a cardboard cutout of a much more fascinating character.     

Production: The film has a very stylized look to it, with great lighting and coloring.  Many of the scenes, especially the ones with young Matt Murdock, look like they've been ripped right out a comic book, which looks very cool.  The sets are also well made and convincing, with Wilson Fisk's office being a particular highlight.  Unfortunately, those are about the most positive things I can say about the production.  The choice of nu metal for the soundtrack was unique, but it doesn't really fit the character of Daredevil in my opinion.  The action scenes aren't that great either, using a clunky mix of wire fu and CGI that doesn't hold up very well.  There are many scenes where characters will jump impossibly far distances without breaking a sweat, and are replaced with rubber-like CGI stand-ins while doing so, which can really take the audience out of the movie.  This is most apparent in the final fight between Bullseye and Daredevil, where all of these elements come together in a very silly-looking climax. 

Trivia:

• The eye contacts Ben Affleck had to wear in order to appear blind were so thick that they actually block out most of his vision, effectively making him blinded for real.
• This was the film that Affleck would meet his future wife, Jennifer Garner.  They would meet again when he filmed a cut scene on the spin-off, Elektra, where the actors started their relationship.
• Affleck was originally supposed to play Bullseye, while Colin Farrell was supposed to play Daredevil, but were recast after auditioning.
• There are many cameos of and references to comic writers and artists who worked on the Daredevil comic.  Many of the boxers Matt's dad fights are named after famous comic writers (including Brian Bendis and and John Romita), Frank Miller (the man credited with revamping the character) is killed by Bullseye for his motorcycle, and Kevin Smith (another writer on the comic) plays a lab assistant named Kirby (after Jack Kirby, one of the comic's first artists).

Final Verdict: I wouldn't consider myself a huge fan of Daredevil, but I know enough to recognize that the filmmakers could have done a lot better.  Although it does have some entertaining performances (especially from the villains) and an interesting visual aesthetic, the poor CGI, awkward action scenes, and overstuffed plot drag the film down.  I know that there's a supposedly better director's cut out there, but this is a critique of the finished product, not the director's original vision.  As it stands, I definitely do not recommend seeing this film.  Instead, if you want to see a faithful adaption of the character, I would suggest watching the recent Netflix original series, Daredevil.  It has better acting, better fights, and the thirteen episode format allows plot threads to play out more smoothly.

Next time, in preparation for the much anticipated seventh installment, I'll start my journey that takes place a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away...

Stay Tuned