Daredevil (Director's Cut)

Year: 2003
Director: Mark Steven Johnson
Cast: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clark Duncan, Colin Farrell

My review for Quantum Of Solace will be a little late, so in the meantime let's take a look back to a comicbook movie I had the opportunity to view a second time, in its proper form.

Why do I say 'proper form'? Because back in 2003 when the film was released, it was banned in my country, over the title which contains the word 'devil'. Yeah. Bummer. I had to watch a bootleg copy, and it was very low quality. But that was back then. This is now, when I finally have the director's cut DVD, so I get to see the whole nine yards, as the saying goes.

Daredevil takes place in New York City, Hell's Kitchen to be more specific. It focuses on Matt Murdock, a young boy raised by his boxer dad Jack. An accident with toxic materials robbed Matt of his sight, but it gave his other four senses superhuman sharpness, and his sense of sound acts like a radar, so he can technically 'see' even when blind. When his father refuses to throw a fight for the mob boss in the Kitchen, he gets killed. Matt swears to dedicate his life to upholding justice.

As an adult, Matt is one half of a law partnership with his best friend Foggy Nelson. By day, he defends the innocent in court. By night, he seeks justice as the vigilante Daredevil. One day, Matt meets Elektra Natchios, daughter of the wealthy Nikolas Natchios and they both fall in love. However, tragedy strikes when Wilson Fisk, the mob boss who has business dealings with Nikolas, has Nikolas killed. Elektra, like Matt, seeks revenge against the man responsible. She thinks that Daredevil did it, after spotting his presence at the scene, but in reality it was done by Fisk's assassin, Bullseye. Can Matt help find justice for Elektra and himself?

Daredevil is directed by Mark Steven Johnson, the same guy behind the other Marvel film Ghost Rider. So can we expect the same quality from this film as we got from GR? Unfortunately, yes. I don't know, it seems that Johnson has made a name for writing really corny lines and really over the top scenarios. For example, check out the scene where Bullseye walks through customs at the airport. It's bad enough he's dressed like a rock star, then they have cheesy music in the background, and he swaggers through like he's high on drugs. No matter how deadly he may be, it doesn't make sense for a villain to draw attention to himself like that. Then there's Fisk's dialogue, which really sounds like it was pulled right off the comicbook pages.

Oh, but it doesn't end there. Let's talk about the action sequences. Now, some of the stuff looks really cool, but you can tell they used a lot of wirework, especially for the scene where Daredevil fights Bullseye in the church on a giant pipe organ. All that flying around, plus seeing Daredevil jump from building to building makes this movie look like a Hong Kong kungfu flick.

Then there are the deviations from the comicbook, like Daredevil letting a perp get run over by a subway train, making this Daredevil look more like The Punisher. There's Karen Page (played by Ellen Pompeo) who only gets a minor role when she has a large place in Daredevil history. Then there's Fisk aka The Kingpin played by Duncan, who should be a white man, but is a black man here. But deviations are not unusual in comicbook films, so it's not surprising.

Performance wise, Affleck does an okay job playing the lead role. But I think that in this film, you'll realize that Affleck was never really a talented actor, he's much better behind the camera than he is in front of it. He won an Oscar for writing, and he directed Gone Baby Gone, and it all proves he is much better in that role. Garner is much better playing Elektra here than in her spin off film, since you get to see more of her vulnerable side here. (Note: I hated the playground fight scene between Matt and Elektra, it's so cartoonish) Farrell hams it up as Bullseye, and you gotta give him credit for getting the best scenes, like when he kills an old lady on an airplane with a peanut. And Duncan, well....got the worst lines, as I mentioned. Iron Man director Jon Favreau provided some nice comic relief as Foggy Nelson.

This director's cut includes an extra subplot about a perp linked to the Kingpin, played by Coolio. And I gotta say, it does make the film better, it has the Dark Knight type quality to it. But some of the other extra scenes, like the super long ending, the excessive top of the building poses and the extra narrative could have been done away with.

Perhaps Daredevil needs a reboot, just like The Incredible Hulk. If it does, I hope DD has that same billy club as his weapon. Man, that's probably the best thing about this film. That's the most fucking cool weapon I've ever seen! (3.5/5)