Daredevil

Daredevil

Starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, Michael Clarke Duncan

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

The Story:
Growing up in the mean streets of Hell's Kitchen, Matt Murdock suffers an accident that leaves him permanently blind, but his other senses are heightened to superhero status.  Now as an adult, Matt (Ben Affleck) is not only a lawyer, but a masked vigilante known as Daredevil who patrols the streets at night, dishing out his own form of judgment.

New York City is under the ruthless thumb of The Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan), who controls all the crime in the city, with his right hand assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell).  Daredevil attempts to bring them down, while also falling in love with mysterious assassin Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and trying to protect the city he loves.

The Synopsis:
Back before the words "Marvel Cinematic Universe" was a thing, before Kevin Feige turned the entire cinematic world on its head, before superhero movies were as common as Tic Tacs, there was "Daredevil," and boy was it a mess.  Maybe back in 2003, it wasn't as bad as it is now, but judging on how poorly the film produced a profit, I'd say it was pretty bad for its time as well, a film that does not withstand the ravages of time and is an almost unwatchable mess.  Yes, we can forgive it some for being one of the first superhero movies in the modern era, but even that doesn't permit it to be anywhere near good - from the story, to the acting, the effects, the fights, and everything in between - there's not one redeeming quality to the film.

To their defense, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner worked with what they had, which wasn't much.  And hey, they fell in love on set and got married and had some kids out of the deal, so it's not all that bad, right?  It's interesting too that Affleck said he would never put on another superhero costume because he felt downright silly in the Daredevil outfit (to his credit, he's absolutely right), but since then he's donned another vigilante superhero costume - Batman - in another unfortunate superhero film that got lambasted by the critics and audiences alike.  Maybe Affleck should stay away from superhero movies altogether.

Affleck isn't the only parallel between Marvel's Daredevil and DC's Batman, as both men are mere mortals with no discernible superpowers (unless you count Daredevil's heightened senses), heroes who work alone, who work at night, dealing out their own form of justice, and branded as vigilantes by the public - Batman just does it all better.  Daredevil's costume design is humorous at best and disastrous at worst, in a time where directors didn't know to take superhero films seriously and considered them low-brow works.  To say "Daredevil" didn't get the justice it deserved is an understatement, as now there's a critically acclaimed Netflix series about the exploits of Mr. Murdock, and it's vastly better than what we got on the silver screen.

A part of what made the film so terrible is the unwillingness to make it completely R-rated.  There's a Director's Cut that fully glorifies the use of the R-rating, but that's not what audiences got.  Instead, the film seemed poorly edited (which it was), with laughable effects (which it had), in a film that doesn't withstand time (which ti doesn't).  The entire opening telling Murdock's backstory was unnecessary and paralyzingly awful, the scene where Murdock meets Elektra gives off an odd stalker vibe, especially in the time of #metoo, and the film seemed to shoehorn in a romance between the two characters who - despite falling in love for real - somehow had absolutely zero on-screen chemistry.

The villains existed in a world pre-MCU, who hammed up their performances in a way that probably made sense at the moment, but now is almost unwatchable, because you can't help but feel bad for them.  As Bullseye, Colin Farrell gives a wild-eyed performance, an unglued assassin who kills on a whim and offers nothing of depth.  Then there's the late Michael Clarke Duncan, who plays Kingpin like an ole-timey villain, standing in his huge penthouse with a cane and cigar, who tries the best with what he had.

Jennifer Garner's Elektra is easily the most underwritten of the characters, despite having a rich comic book history of her own.  She's trained in all forms of martial arts and an expert at the sai, but her first encounter with a villain ends...well...less than desirably for her.  Not to mention the cringe-worthy Evanescence montages showing her talent that gets totally wasted, her entire backstory is completely abandoned.  Maybe it's flushed out more in the Director's Cut, but I can't bring myself to watch it - the film is such a mess I hope to never see it again.

The Summary:
It's best to forget this film ever existed, and instead rely on the stellar Netflix series to give the life of Daredevil the respect it deserves.

The Score: D