Retro Review - Daredevil
So after watching 21st Century Fox's 'Daredevil' back in 2003 as a youngster, I spent the last few pounds on my iTunes account to rent it and watch it back as an adult.
Daredevil became one of my favourite comic book characters after his appearance in the Spider-Man animated series in 1994-1998 in the two part episode 'Framed' and 'The Man Without Fear'
I will note here that this was my only experience with the red knight, so my comic book knowledge of him is very little. The Origin story was told in the Spider-Man episode and that's the core of my knowledge.
Star of 'Good Will Hunting' (One of my favourite movies) Ben Affleck plays the title character of Daredevil/Matt Murdock alongside now-wife Jennifer Garner who portrays Elektra, the love interest of the blind lawyer.
So, acting. Ben Affleck. As Matt Murdock, I thought he was average. Give him 6.5/10. The scene in the park where he's squaring off with Jennifer Garner as their non-hero counterparts is mesmerising and if the movie had a little more of that charm, it might have been more successful critically. The Daredevil scenes were very disappointing, though this is down to production and Affleck didn't have much control over that, hence the generous seven.
Jennifer Garner: One of the most beautiful women alive. She's also the best actress who's executed a superhero role, with the exception of Anne Hathaway in 'The Dark Knight Rises'. Think of Halle Berry in X-Men and Catwoman - Awful. Jessica Alba in the Fantastic Four - Dire The character design was pretty poor, however. Garner would have nailed the role if her hair had been dyed black, true to the character and if they got rid of that awful leather costume and left some free flowing fabric. Give her an 8/10
Colin Farrell as Bullseye - For one of Daredevils biggest enemies, I expected a little more. Farrell was okay, but some scenes, damn he was awful. I'd have liked Vin Diesel to take this role, though he was apparently offered the role of DD, which would have been disastrous. VD would have brought some steel to the movie that it really needed to make you hate Bullseye. Don't get me wrong, I hated him in this, but mainly because the voice was hugely irritating. 4/10
Michael Clark Douglas as Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin of Crime - Again, hugely disappointing. Though he was large and bald, the character wasn't anywhere near the Kingpin that we saw in the comics or in the Spider-man series mentioned above. Michael Chiklis, who portrayed Ben Grimm in Fantastic Four would have been ideal for this role. He was actually the only one I liked in that movie and beefed up a bit, he could really have done the Kingpin justice. Though for his actual portrayal, MCD gets a respectable 7/10
I've only gone into detail on the major roles but Jon Favreau as Murdocks business partner Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson is great. He doesn't take it too seriously and carries the comedy aspect of the movie very well. David Keith as Jack Murdock is brilliant in his few scenes including the boxing and emotional scene of Matt's first taste of blindness at the hospital.
The plot - The Murdock/Elektra romance is done excellently and the writing of this segment is better than most movie romances such as Peter and Mary-Jane, Reed Richard and Sue Storm. The origin story is excellently placed and portrayed by David Keith as mentioned above and Sam Terra, the young DD. The use of Bullseye and the Kingpin is kind of rushed and I'd like to have seen them build up to using the Kingpin in a later movie, perhaps using minions such as Bullseye in those leading up to it. Similar to the way Marc Webb is trying to implement the Sinister Six in his rebooted Spider-Man series.
So overall, the movie doesn't jump out at you. If it was on my shelf, I'd probably watch it once every few years for a change as opposed to The Avengers which I can watch all day, every day. Not that I do.
If you've not seen it and you like superhero movies, it's okay. It's worth watching, and better than spending your time watching X-Men Origins: Wolverine or even The Amazing Spider-man, which personally I like.
If you know Daredevil though, it'll probably let you down a little.
The reason I chose to watch and review this movie is because the rights to the Daredevil movies and all its characters have reverted to Marvel as Fox failed to have a movie in production by October of last year. This could see the man without fear added to the Marvel cinematic universe but as it's already been planned out into phases, I can't see how he'd fit in though I think he'd appeal more universally than Iron Fist or Black Panther. It is exciting though to think that after Thor, Iron-Man and Captain America we could get a great Daredevil movie. (I didn't miss Hulk, just it was terrible. Though Mark Ruffalo could have made it work)
So who could portray the next Daredevil? Any thoughts or ideas? Some names such as Matt Damon, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Bradley Cooper have been thrown around. Whilst I'd be happy with any of those, I think Levitt is the perfect candidate.
He's really made a name for himself recently and built up a broad resume since transitioning from a child actor to an Adult big timer. Starting with (500) Days of Summer, he showed that he could do romance and feel good movies. As one of the small budget movies rocketed in popularity, so did Gordon-Levitt. A year later he worked alongside Leo Dicaprio in Inception which was a huge success before doing another small time movie 50/50. He then went on to have the biggest year in his career last year after Looper and The Dark Knight Rises made him one of the biggest names in modern cinema.
Girls have his poster on the wall, his movies have been hugely successful and he's become a cult hero after 50/50 and smash hit (500) Days of Summer. But he hasn't yet carried a superhero movie, could he catapult Daredevil into the limelight alongside Batman and Spidey?
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