{"id":7095,"date":"2003-02-14T18:29:15","date_gmt":"2003-02-14T23:29:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/?p=7095"},"modified":"2016-01-10T10:03:48","modified_gmt":"2016-01-10T15:03:48","slug":"review-daredevil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmbuffonline.com\/FBOLNewsreel\/wordpress\/2003\/02\/14\/review-daredevil\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: DAREDEVIL"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"It\u2019s looking to be a good year for fans of comic book films. Upcoming months will see Academy Award nominated director Ang Lee\u2019s take on the four-color retelling of Jekyll and Hyde The Hulk<\/strong>, Bryan Singer\u2019s next installment of the civil-rights parable The X-Men<\/strong> and Sean Connery leading a group of Victorian literature adventurers in The League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen<\/strong>. And kicking off the parade of superheroes is Ben Affleck as the blind superhero Daredevil<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Blinded as youth by some biohazardous waste, lawyer Matt Murdock fights for justice in a courtroom by day and as the red leather clad Daredevil by night. Acquiring extra-heightened senses in his accident, Murdock now \u201csees\u201d with a kind of \u201cradar sense\u201d. He is convinced that there is one person controlling all the crime activity in New York, but can\u2019t seem to find out who it is. Into this already complicated life comes Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner), the daughter of one of Kingpin\u2019s associates. When Elektra\u2019s father tries to retire from his life of crime, Kingpin (Michael Clark Duncan) sends for the assassin Bullseye. Daredevil tries to stop Bullseye, but fails, leaving Elektra with the impression that Daredevil was responsible for her father\u2019s death.<\/p>\n

\"\"The cast does remarkably well with the material they are given. Affleck plays Murdock as man whose affable demeanor hides a burning anger over the murder of his father. Colin Farrell does much with the underwritten role of the assassin Bullseye, giving just the right amount of psychotic desperation as his confidence in his own abilities gets shaken during his final showdown with Daredevil.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s any fault to find in this movie, it lies in the script. The first half of the movie seems oddly paced, with some scenes feeling like shorthand for ideas that should have played over a few scenes. There are themes of love, revenge and redemption running through this story that are almost operatic in power, but the film clocks in barely over 100 minutes. With this past summer\u2019s Spider-Man<\/strong> running a solid two hours, the filmmakers could have opened up the film a little more and allowed these themes to breath more.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s maddening about the film is that while it takes its premise seriously and explores some aspects of Matt Murdock\u2019s world intelligently, other things are left untouched. We\u2019re shown Murdock sleeping in a sensory-deprivation tank, presumably because his heightened senses wouldn\u2019t allow him to get a decent night\u2019s sleep with all the distractions. But how are we supposed to believe that Murdock is able to afford being a superhero when he and partner \u201cFoggy\u201d Nelson (Jon Favreau) can\u2019t seem to get their clients to pay their bills. While it probably doesn\u2019t take a Bruce Wayne-sized bankroll to keep things running, secret rooms, spare costumes and funky clubs don\u2019t come cheap.<\/p>\n

\"\"Comics fans will have fun as several writers and artists who have worked on the comic get name-dropped through the movie. Writer\/director Kevin Smith, who wrote a critically well-received story arc for the comic, appears as a morgue attendant. Of course, as the co-creator of many of Marvel Comics’ signature characters, Stan Lee has his customary cameo.<\/p>\n

If Daredevil<\/strong> had been released just a few years earlier, it would have been considered a great comic book movie. Recent releases like Spider-Man<\/strong> and Road To Perdition<\/strong> have really raised the bar for adaptations of comics to film. But even now Daredevil<\/strong> is still a pretty good film and given some of the absolute cinematic disasters that comic book fans have had to sit through (I\u2019m looking at you Steel<\/strong> and Batman And Robin<\/strong>) that\u2019s not a bad thing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s looking to be a good year for fans of comic book films. Upcoming months will see Academy Award nominated director Ang Lee\u2019s take on the four-color retelling of Jekyll and Hyde The Hulk, Bryan [click for more]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[206],"tags":[345,595,31,2366,2492,356,2273],"series":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-review","7":"tag-ben-affleck","8":"tag-colin-farrell","9":"tag-comics-and-film","10":"tag-daredevil","11":"tag-jennifer-garner","12":"tag-jon-favreau","13":"tag-michael-clark-duncan"},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t