Trailer:
“How do you kill a man without fear? You put the fear in the man.”
After Spider-Man and X-Men made the grade, Marvel was ready to launch a plethora of big name adaption’s from Hulk to the blind superhero Daredevil. Unfortunately Daredevil lacked something that made Spider-Man really work. A director who was truly inspired by the character. Sam Raimi was a long time fan of Spider-Man and knew the direction he wanted to go with the character. Here poor Matt Murdock is pulled all over the place like a five year old holding the lease of a chiwawa. No one seemed to have a clue on the tone of the film or what to do with it.
Daredevil begins at the end of the film, then flashes back to when he was a child. Generic narration by Ben Afflec is played over every scene as we watch how young Matt Murdock was blinded after finding out his father was a gang enforcer. Losing his sight inspires his father to return to boxing, but the Kingpin of Crime doesn’t take that too well and has him murdered. From there the origin is cut short and we return to the present day where Matt is now the crimefighter Daredevil, using his enhanced senses and agility to fight the criminal underworld of Hells Kitchen.
The film is truly beautiful and the cinematographer on it must be commended for his work. How they depicted his powers and the religious symbolism was very well done. It wasn’t overly artistic like Watchmen or 300 was, but it was very good looking and clever in its visual presentation. One such example is the illusion of Virgin Mary crying the blood coming out of Daredevil’s wound. To bad that the scorecard doesn’t even out in the story department.
The main issue with the film is inconsistency in the script. Some scenes come off as really well done, while others are hocky to a ridiculous extent. First on the list is one of the worst scenes in CBM history where Matt Murdock asks for Electra’s name and she then decides to beat up a blind man on a school playground. The lack of logic for this scene is astounding and even if they filmed it, how did it still not end up on the cutting room floor during the editing process. How did this scene make sense to the characters involved and how did it make sense to the makers?
But the dialogue also is painfully uneven. While some scenes are well scripted, like those between Jon Faverou and Afflec, others are clumsy and corny. The villain of Bullseye, portrayed by Collin Farrel is also almost laugh worthy at some points. But it was in no way the fault of the actor. Sure he was cool in the comics but Bullseye’s powers don’t seem to translate to well to the big screen. Most of his stunts (like catching stain glass as it falls) just comes off as ludicrous and looks silly. It doesn’t help that Bullseye is also just one big bore of a character.
On the flip side however, Clark Duncan does a phenomenal job in the role of The Kingpin. Sure he might have been a fat white man in the comics, but Duncan has the huge build and intimidating features to pull off the role. He works well as a behind the scenes main villain and though he doesn’t get much action or characterization, what is there is entertaining.
The main protagonist of the film is portrayed by Affleck and this might have been a misstep in terms of casted choice by the makers. Does he do a horrible job? No. But in many ways Daredevil is Marvel’s answer to Batman when you consider his personality as a crimefighter. Yet Ben Affleck still comes off as a pretty boy even under the mask, and he isn’t particularly intimidating. Now I’m not saying he had to sound like a growling dog getting hit by a cattle prod like Christian Bale, but he shouldn’t have just been himself either.
In the role of Matt Murdock Affleck did a much better job, as playing a blind man is not always an easy task. He did a good job of appearing blind but still believably endowed with some sort of advantage. His girlfriend Electra (Jennifer Garner) is truly awful in the movie as her character has about fourteen different personalities ranging from hard to get to gogglie-eyed damsel, to badass babe and none of them fit together in any logical way. It doesn’t make much sense and her relationship to Murdock isn’t built up in any coherent order. Her abilities just seem to pop out of nowhere and then vanish just as quickly when the script needs them to.
Jon Favorou enters the CBM scene in the film as not a director but rather an actor, Matt Murdock’s business partner Foggy Nelson. He might have been the best performance in the film due to the simple fact that he was actually somewhat consistent. Sure, as comic relief he might have not always been funny, but I at least liked the back and forth between and Affleck.
I also can’t write this review without commenting on the awful score. The original music was forgettable or obnoxious and everything else were popular pop songs targeted at the younger audience. The pandering was so obvious they might as well had a title card and album label each time one came on. It’s like how they chose the score involved throwing darts at the top ten pop hits of the time.
So that’s about it. The film is far from being the worst of Superhero films, but some bad casting choices, inconsistent scripting, and cringe worthy use of music dropped it fast. You might be able to go see it and enjoy some of the action and the visual finesse but the acting and plot might have you wishing you’d go blind too.
FINAL RATING: 4/10- (40%)
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