Daredevil (2003)

So yesterday, no shit, I woke up, looked at the date, saw April 10th and my immediate thought was, OH SHIT, DAREDEVIL IS COMING TO NETFLIX. I of course am talking about the TV series, not this movie. Now I've had seen most of Daredevil coming into this viewing. I knew that the movie was not that good. Now I had heard that the director's cut of the film added a little bit more to the film and therefore made the film a little bit more bearable. So I thought I thought I'd give this film the benefit of the doubt, let it give me its best shot to impress and I will pass judgement after I had seen the ENTIRE movie from beginning to end.

Daredevil came out in 2003, a time where superhero films were still in a state of not knowing quite what to be. The first Sam Raimi Spider-man had come out a year prior to this film and had done pretty well and I assume had been green lit for a sequel. Everyone wanted to have a film that could spawn a sequel and Daredevil was no different. But it was also a time when superheroes needed to be dark and gritty. While Sam Raimi's Spiderman was fun, Daredevil, Punisher, and Blade were all dark, and because of this, not as entertaining to watch. And to top it all off, this movie caught Ben Affleck at a year which I would say it probably his lowest year of acting. I think with the exception of Paycheck, which I actually enjoy, this movie and Gigli are probably considered two of his worst films he's ever done.

Let's take a look into Daredevil.

Daredevil centers on the story of Matt Murdock. While the movie starts off with a horrible flash forward then flash back thing, it really starts when Matt is a kid and shows the relationship between him and his father (played by David Keith), a boxer with connections to organized crime.

After a horrible accident with hazardous material, Matt is struck blind. However, while he is blind, his other senses are heightened to superhuman ability and has a sort of radar vision.

In the movie its really kind of a rip off of "the one" vision from The Matrix but that's neither here nor there. I would say it kind of negates the fact of him being blind. What the movie does it put you in the eyes of Murdoch and shows you how his other senses make him able to basically see but in kind of a blue matrix-y way.

At the time it might have been a cool visual, but it kind of makes me think that Matt Murdoch is blind but its more "blind".

Anyway, after learning to master his new abilities, almost instantly, Matt's father is murdered when he doesn't throw a fight. Its really kind of a blue collar Bruce Wayne storyline.

After this, Murdoch decides that he must be the one to serve justice when the corrupt system cannot.

Fast forward when Matt has turned into "blind" Ben Affleck and Matt is now a defense lawyer with his partner Franklin "Foggy" Nelson (played by Jon Favreau), looking to defend the innocent, despite the fact that that doesn't exactly pay the bills.

 Here's what I'm going to say about these two. A little bit more of the lawyer angle is added to the Director's Cut as there is an added subplot, and the fact is, these two are awful lawyers.

Franklin Nelson can't hold a courtroom without Matt, Matt never shows up because he has commitment issues, or something like that. I mean I get that totally innocent people can't usually pay but damn, these guys don't deserve the fluke they get. They're really awful.

That being said, the subplot of Coolio being accused of killing a hooker does kind of tie the story together a little bit better, it does touch one something that I think the television series (from what I've seen) does better.

But because these two are awful lawyers, this allows for Matt to dawn the red devil costume and seek justice for those who did not get it from the system.

Now I've always thought Daredevil's costume looks a little silly. Maybe its the leather, maybe its the mask, something, but I've never liked the costume, at least in this film.

In the beginning of the television series, he has a sort of ninja looking costume that I really like. I want them to stay with that costume for the entire time because the red really doesn't do anything for me.

Now the way that Daredevil distinguishes himself from other superheroes is that he is totally cool with letting a rapist be run over by a subway. He's okay with dolling out his own justice when the system is broken. Now this could have been a really good moral question. Who gives him the right to dole out this justice? What does this do to him as a person. There's a couple scenes where Matt is saying to himself, I'm not the bad guy. I'm not totally sure if this is the movie trying to develop those moral questions some more but it really doesn't go anywhere... at all. At the end he doesn't kill the Kingpin, even though the Kingpin is probably the only person he would want to kill and his reasoning is, "I'm not the bad guy". What the fuck does that mean? It could have really been an opportunity to learn more about Murdoch as a character, but nope.

The also do the same thing with Murdoch as a character. Him picking and choosing their clients, only choosing those who are actually innocent is an interesting moral stand. It deprives them of monetary wealth but if I don't know anything about the moral compass of this character, I just see that as stupid. Furthermore, apparently Matt is afraid of commitment or something like that? There's a couple scenes where you hear on his voicemail that he is this distant sole that nobody can crack, but then its just thrown away. I mean what are you going to focus on here? His moral dilemma of killing criminals? His bad lawyering skills? Or the fact that he can't commit to anything.

...Unless you're Jennifer Garner that is.

And that's another thing, the movie can't focus on a theme, it also can't decide which storyline to focus on. The very second we get any development with him and Elecktra, there's a scene of Bullseye and Kingpin (oh don't worry, we'll get to them). When there's a break in the case of Coolio, they jump over to Daredevil doing vigilante shit.

Now I will concede that some of that is due to the director's cut and the fact that the Coolio subplot was cut for time but as I'm watching it, I do see some connection, but at the same time there really isn't. There isn't any connection between Murdoch moping over the city saying, I'm not the bad guy to Elecktra's father being murdered. There's doesn't seem to be much of a connection between Joe Pantoliano running around trying to figure out who Daredevil is to Matt being Daredevil.

But anyway Matt smells Jennifer Garner come into a cafe and asks for her name. She doesn't give it to him, he follows her to a play ground and what we get is probably the weirdest fight scene I've ever seen in a superhero film.

There is no surprise in this scene, no question at any point how in god's name a blind guy is able to do these incredible things. And on top of that, its really a dumb fight scene.

I think the movie was really trying to be Matrix-y and it just turned out looking really stupid. Its a hot chick fighting a blind guy at a playground. There had to have been one guy at Fox Universal that said, "hey... maybe this scene is incredibly stupid".

Obviously not as Elecktra and Matt start a relationship that came out of flipping no where.

Now to the plot I guess.

Michael Clarke Duncan plays Wilson Fisk (aka Kingpin) and he wants to control all of New York's organized crime. Now from what I understand, he feels he can't do that with Daredevil running around, therefore he hires a hitman, Bullseye (played by Colin Farrell) to come and do hitman-y stuff.

Now, by villain's standards, these guys are actually not horrible... I mean Colin Farrell is but I'll get to that in a second.

Let's start with Kingpin. Casting the late Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin I think was a brilliant choice. Its more how he's written that isn't that great. He's mainly the bad guy because people say he is. He kills people sure, but he doesn't have any huge plot that he actively pursues, he just kills people. Which don't get me wrong is bad, but he doesn't actually do any incredibly main villain-y things. There's no plot being uncovered, with the exception of the murder of a prostitute. I don't know, I think Michael Clarke Duncan did a good job with what he had, but he really didn't have that much to begin with.

And then there's Colin Farrell. And my god, Colin Farrell is bad in this film. Again, I think its mainly a matter of a poor script. But I think Colin Farrell just said fuck it with this film and went over the top to the nth degree. His lines are horrible but he's just fun to watch. I really hope, with all my faith in Colin Farrell as an actor, he knew this script was bad and he just decided to have fun with it regardless but going all the way.

Well anyway, Kingpin orders the hit on Elecktra's father and Bullseye kills him. Due to the circumstances, Elecktra believes Daredevil did it and vows revenge.

The rest of the movie is, Daredevil and Elecktra fight, Elecktra wins. Elecktra and Bullseye fight, Bullseye wins, Elecktra dies. Daredevil and Bullseye fight, Daredevil wins. Daredevil and Kingpin fight, Daredevil wins. The end.

This movie is so sloppily put together that I can't tell you an overarching plot of this movie besides Daredevil versus Bullseye.

The structure of this film is its greatest weakness. It runs on the assumption that as long as you get a guy in a ridiculous costume fighting another guy in a ridiculous costume that people are going to flood to the theaters and enjoy this film.

It doesn't work like that.

The reason Marvel and Fox (now. Not during this film) is so successful is because they are creating stories for these characters. Iron Man is more than just a guy in a mechanized suit, he's Tony Stark who is an interesting character who fights evil in an Ironman suit. Its not the punches or the action these people do, it what they do as characters that is interesting. Has Marvel always done it perfectly? No. I would say that upon second look at their phase 1 films, some of them really aren't as great as people say they are. But I can say that because we've reached a point in comic book films where we expect the rich story provided to us by Captain America: The Winter Soldier, or X-men: Days of Future Past. We expect the entertaining characters of Guardians of the Galaxy, and when we know what good is, its easier to point out something like Daredevil for being just awful.

Now... the question you've all been waiting for.

What does this mean for Ben Affleck becoming Batman next year?

I'm not gonna say Ben Affleck was good in this film. He wasn't. Affleck was really phoning this one in, hopefully because he knew how bad the script is. And the script is bad. Again, I said that this movie's biggest downfall is the script. There really wasn't anything that could be done about it. I think that even if Affleck brought his A-game, this movie still would have tanked and Affleck still would be questioned when it was announced he was playing Batman.

The hope here is that Affleck learns from this incident how not to make a superhero film and how not to be a superhero. I think people are right to be skeptical about Affleck playing Batman because the truth is, this is exhibit A.

I would say the biggest thing that I didn't like about Affleck in this movie was that he was just down right boring. To use the television show as a comparison, Charlie Cox plays Matt Murdoch as an interest character who has this dark side to him when he dawns the ninja costume and becomes Daredevil, but he doesn't monologue dark depressing thoughts when he's Daredevil, and when he's Matt Murdoch, he's quiet but at the same time he's witty and actually a fun guy, when you can get a moment with him. I've only seen a couple episodes of the show but so far they've really done a good job with Matt Murdoch.

Now, I haven't seen Ben Affleck acting as Batman. I've seen him in the costume... kind of and I still am skeptical to be honest. However, the hope is that the script for Batman v Superman is good because I think Affleck can act if given a good script.

I don't know, what do you think? What do you think of the 2003 incarnation of Daredevil? Do you think it will tarnish Affleck's Batman? Comment and Discuss below! Also shoot me a message on Twitter @cmhaugen24 and follow me to get updates on movie news and reviews.

I'll leave you with this. Here's the honest trailer. Enjoy!