Going into this, I was very nervous. "Daredevil?" Why make a "Daredevil" movie? For certain, the comic has had several great runs in its history with writers like Frank Miller, Brian Michael Bendis, and Kevin Smith, but is a mid-card comic property the stuff of which movies are made?
With these doubts in mind, I went into the theater expecting a slap-dash film put together to tide comic geeks like myself until "X-Men 2" and "The Hulk" drop this spring. What I got, however, was a very enjoyable, if much darker, film with a few great performances and lots of action.
First, as I have mentioned, this flick is much darker than its two immediate predecessors, "X-Men" and "Spiderman." The film sets up a great atmosphere for the story, in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York with requisite loads of crime and grit. Also, a fairly decent, if altogether forgettable, score by veteran composer Graeme Revell ("The Crow") lends to this feeling.
Ben Affleck is great in the lead, wearing the costume much better than I expected. He looks natural as a superhero and even plays blind lawyer/alter ego Matt Murdock flawlessly. The picture is really stolen by Colin Farrell, however, playing super-powered contract killer Bullseye. The Irish actor plays the character with such a snarling, deadly demeanor that you'll actually shudder. John Favreau is a hoot as Murdock's insensitive law partner Foggy Nelson. After many films playing straight man to Vince Vaughn's comic relief, Favreau picks up the comedy for this film and does an excellent job. Finally, Michael Clarke Duncan, who has a history of playing ultra-memorable characters, picks up his first comic movie role as the Kingpin, the crime boss who inadvertently triggers Murdock's war on crime. As a fan of the comic I was skeptical of the choice, but Duncan pulls it off quite admirably.
Unfortunately, sexpot Jennifer Garner in the role of tough gal/love interest Elektra Natchios left me very flat. Garner, star of TV's "Alias," just wasn't Greek or mysterious enough to pull off the character. Her girl-next-door charm fits her well on TV, but not here.
My major problems with the film are the score (or lack thereof) and some of the outlandish fight scenes. Has anyone else noticed the utter lack of memorable music from the Marvel movies? None of them have scores that you can hum after the movie, like the Batman and Superman films of the 80s. "Daredevil" is sadly similar, opting instead for a soundtrack composed almost entirely of disposable nô-metal acts like Fuel and Evanescence. The songs actually detract a lot from what would be very tense scenes in the movie.
Finally, why do all new movies that have any sort of fight scene have to rely on wire-teams these days? The grand violators of this crime in the movie are Elektra and Bullseye, who face once in the movie and proceed to flip and fly between two buildings like it were nothing. If memory serves me correctly, neither of the two have any sort of super-agility or flight powers, and yet they go off "Crouching Tiger"-style. Just choreograph a fight scene! Is that too much to ask?
"Daredevil" is definitely more a film for fans of comics than casual movie-goers, but it will not leave you disappointed afterward.
Responses:
Refresh frame to view latest entries.
Name: b.faust
Comments:
This movie seems more like my taste more than last year's Spider Man. I'm looking forward to seeing this, Zac. Good reading.
Name: Nick
Comments:
RIght on, it was definately nothing like what I expected from this movie, I was blown away at how dark and violent it was compared to Last Year's Spider-man. Roll on over to the Tartan online (can I say that here?) at www.thetartan.com to check out my review of it and see more thoughts on the film.
Name: Mike Flick
Comments:
I thought the movie was great, too. Ben Affleck nailed the character, and it was especially a great performance seeing how he acts as a blind man. Colin Farrell (happily reppin' us Irish) is just as amazing as Bullseye. I knew that after I saw him in "Tigerland" and "Minority Report" that he had the ability to be a great rising star. That scene as Bullseye in the airplane and the annoying old lady was a CLASSIC.
Name: Shaggy
Comments:
It wasn't so much the music that bothered me but the fact that we have seen this all before. Batman and Spiderman did all this. The only thing I thought ruled was the "vision" he saw in. That was interesting. Other than that I thought the movie was a bore.
|
