Comic Tales: Daredevil – Theatrical Cut

Matt Murdock was blinded as a child in a freak accident that heightened his remaining senses and gave him a new one, a ‘radar’ sense that allowed him to ‘see’ what was going on around him. This, along with the murder of his father, a boxer who refused to throw a fight, sets the course of Matt’s future – by day he’s a lawyer, defending those no one else will, by night he’s the masked vigilante called Daredevil. Into his dual world comes the beautiful Elektra Natchios and Matt is smitten at first ‘sight’ of her. But Elektra’s father has links to Wilson Fisk the ‘Kingpin’ of crime and, when he attempts to sever his ties, Fisk hires Irish hitman Bullseye to eliminate both him and his daughter.

Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil gets so much right it’s easy to forgive its failings. The ‘origin’ section of the film is a pretty faithful adaptation of the original comic story, with David Keith playing Matt’s pugilist pop and Scott Terra doing a pretty good job as the young Murdock. He’s particularly good once he’s been blinded and starts learning to use his newfound abilities. The main problem with this section is it’s a little rushed but that’s to be expected – this isn’t a film about a child coming to terms with a disability, it’s a superhero action movie and the audience wants to see grownups beating each other up, not kids.

Cue Ben Affleck as the adult Matt, a man who, it’s fair to say, has issues. Dressing up in a red leather ‘Devil’ suit is bad enough but he also has an anger management problem. This isn’t Peter ‘with great power comes great responsibility’ Parker, Murdock’s credo would be more like ‘with power comes the ability to beat the crap out of bad guys the law failed to punish’. When he meets Elektra he finds more than just a girlfriend, he finds salvation and purpose. Affleck isn’t the greatest actor in the world but this is well within his range, emotions are writ large here, it is after all a comic book movie and they’re not exactly renowned for their subtlety. What helps his performance no end is the onscreen chemistry with Jennifer Garner, who plays Elektra. Their playground fight should be ridiculous (and really is) but the pair seem to be having so much fun that the audience are pulled in as well. It’s probably my favourite Elektra moment in the whole film.

It’s not just with the heroes that the film gets it right, the villains are pretty impressive too, perhaps surprising given how much they deviate from the source material. Colin Farrell’s Bullseye is Irish and doesn’t wear a costume (he just has a bullseye carved into his forehead) and yet he captures the spirit of character perfectly, utterly without conscience and totally demented, he gets all the best lines (and make sure you keep watching after the credits for a little more Bully, something I failed to do when I watched it at the cinema). The comic Kingpin is white and Michael Clarke Duncan clearly isn’t and much fuss was made about that by comic book geeks when the film was released. This ‘geek’ didn’t have a problem with him being black, I just didn’t think he had the range to pull off the part but I was wrong. Duncan does a great job, dominating the screen, not just with his size but his personality.

Rounding out the cast are another couple of inspired choices - Jon Favreau as ‘Foggy’ Nelson, Matt’s friend and partner (when he’s not wearing the DD suit that is) and Joe Pantoliano as reporter Ben Urich. Both manage to do more with what they’re given, which is almost nothing, than you’d think possible, but maybe that’s just me filling in the blanks because I know both characters so well from the comic.

By now you’re probably wondering when I’m going to get around to mentioning what those ‘failings’ that I alluded to earlier are, well the wait’s over. My main gripe is the CGI, Daredevil is a normal man with heightened senses, he’s not Spider-Man, so it shouldn’t really be necessary to have him depicted by a computer and what makes it worse is, it’s such bad CGI. My next moan is about the wirework. Some of it is excellent, fitting in seamlessly with the fights, but there are moments – DD’s fight with Bullseye in the church and Elektra’s confrontation with him on the rooftops – that take you completely out of the film. Daredevil’s showdown with both of the villains is also a bit of a letdown after some of the earlier action, with the barroom fight probably the films action highpoint.

Still, it gets more right than wrong and uses Frank Miller’s run on the comic as its inspiration, complete with religious imagery, Matt is a good Catholic boy at heart.

I’d love to see a sequel to this, which is what Johnson should have done instead of Ghost Rider. Actually he should have done anything instead of Ghost Rider. Affleck apparently isn’t interested in reprising the role and after the less than spectacular Elektra, Hollywood is probably a little wary, but you never know, if the Hulk and Punisher reboots go well we may yet see The Man Without Fear on the big screen again.  Until then I’ve still got the Director’s Cut to look forward too, which by all accounts is superior to this version.

March 27th, 2008 Posted by Ian W | Action, Comic Book, Movie Reviews | one comment