Daredevil Reviewed! [spoilers and so forth]

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

I've seen this movie twice in two days, so you could say I was impressed. I've only read a few Daredevil comics (my dad had some), so I knew the basic premise (but nothing about Elektra).

It wasn't the best movie ever, but it was still a darn good time. I hope that they have some of the cut scenes when the release the DVD, because I got the sense I was missing some things.

I particularly loved the "radar sense." It was really interesting to see how Daredevil actually views the world.

And despite the occasional wire-fu moves and thirty-foot jumps, I think they did a decent job of showing Daredevil as a more human super hero. Case in point, the many scars, and the prescription pain pills. He goes out there and gets hurt every night he patrols, but he still does it. You can bet he probably has some poor doctor client that is paying his legal fees in medical care for him.

The bit at the end where he goes from nearly comatose with pain and blood loss to kicking the snot out of both Bullseye and the Kingpin was a bit much, but oh well, at least they were cool fight scenes.

Overall though, I love this movie dearly. And the music as well. I am so buying this soundtrack the minute it comes out (not out in my area yet, darn it!).

 

[krunchyfrogg]

Are you guys kidding?

The best parts of this movie, in order:

Jennifer Garner
The trailers for Hulk and X-2
The cameos by Frank Miller, Stan Lee, and Kevin Smith
Radar sense

This movie was pretty damn crappy, and I like DD.

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

All in all I enjoyed the movie. Mostly it captured the spirit of Daredevil. My biggest disapointment was the fight between Daredevil and the Kingpin at the end. It was just too quick. Maybe it was just me, but I was expecting some long drawn out fight between the too of them. Oh well it could have been worse. It could have been Batman & Robin.

Also I felt Bullseye came off more as comic relief, rather than a psycho.

 

[Chun-tzu]

You had me up until you mentioned Buffy....

You thought they should have portrayed him as more of a comedic vampire slaying high school cheerleader? And that would be MORE gritty?

The fight scenes in the Buffy show don't use wire fu. They're intense, well choreographed, and look reasonably realistic. Unlike, say Mutant X.

 

[physicscarp]

Stinker!!

I have to agree with krunchfrogg. The best parts included the X-2 trailer and a leather clad Jennifer Garner.

Not only did they turn the entire DD story into one of revenge (which leaves them without a good motivation for a sequel), but it was poorly filmed.

SPOILER! MAJOR SPOILERS!!! I'm warning you, go away.














Where does DD get the billyclub wire to escape from Elektra after her father dies? His club is buried in the guy's chest, and they even make it a point to tell show us that he's missing it!!! But then he quickly produces a new one and swings to safety!

Or when in pursuit of Quesada (way too much name dropping by the way!), Quesada runnning away from DD comes out of building stage left, trips, sees reflection of DD on top of building stage right!! Why isn't DD coming from the same place Quesada was?!

Daredevil was a wuss, who spent half of his fight scenes on his back, simply lying there in pain. Literally lying there!! And as for Matt Murdock, champion of the people, lawyer to the masses, he loses his only case to a rapist!! How can I possibly believe that this man, who not only gets paid in fish and sporting goods, but loses his only case, can afford a sensory deprivation tank??!!!

Not to mention, that after allowing this rapist to die on the tracks, he apparently takes the time to spread gasoline on the ground to claim credit for this murder!!!

This was not a good movie. I place this right next to Batman and Robin.

Carp

 

[Psychotic Dreamer]

Where does DD get the billyclub wire to escape from Elektra after her father dies? His club is buried in the guy's chest, and they even make it a point to tell show us that he's missing it!!! But then he quickly produces a new one and swings to safety!

If I recall correctly he had a billy club on each hip. So therefore he grabbed his secondary one and swung off. Could be wrong though.

 

[Isida Kep'Tukari]

Re: Stinker!!

I have to agree with krunchfrogg. The best parts included the X-2 trailer and a leather clad Jennifer Garner.

Not only did they turn the entire DD story into one of revenge (which leaves them without a good motivation for a sequel), but it was poorly filmed.

Well, it started out as revenge and vengence. There's death, mayhem, and general brutality at Daredevil's hands. He goes, in the course of the movie, from vengence to justice. Merciless to merciful. I'm just saying.

SPOILER! MAJOR SPOILERS!!! I'm warning you, go away.














Where does DD get the billyclub wire to escape from Elektra after her father dies? His club is buried in the guy's chest, and they even make it a point to tell show us that he's missing it!!! But then he quickly produces a new one and swings to safety!

Well.... he doesn't. As the billyclub is taken away as evidence and eventually the reporter sees it. As was seen throughout the movie, the billyclub breaks into two parts. I think he lost them both when he knocked Bullseye off the motorcycle, but Bullseye only picked up one of them. Daredevil grabbed the other to make his escape.

Or when in pursuit of Quesada (way too much name dropping by the way!), Quesada runnning away from DD comes out of building stage left, trips, sees reflection of DD on top of building stage right!! Why isn't DD coming from the same place Quesada was?!

I think that was the point. That Daredevil somehow got in front of him, and Quesada didn't know how.

Daredevil was a wuss, who spent half of his fight scenes on his back, simply lying there in pain. Literally lying there!!

Daredevil isn't Superman, Wolverine, or Spider-Man. He has no extraordinary strength or healing powers. You'd probably want to catch your breath and regroup as well if you were getting beaten that hard. I think we, as a movie-going public, are too used to heroes that can take a beating that would put a normal guy it traction, but still keep fighting. *shrug*

And as for Matt Murdock, champion of the people, lawyer to the masses, he loses his only case to a rapist!! How can I possibly believe that this man, who not only gets paid in fish and sporting goods, but loses his only case, can afford a sensory deprivation tank??!!!

He lost the only case that we saw, to an extraordinarily slick, expensive, experienced lawyer in the pay of a powerful crimelord. A lawyer who didn't have Matt's morals, and was all to eager to use any weapon, including calling the victim a drug addict. And in many rape cases, with a man's word against a woman's... it doesn't always go well.

As for the low pay vs. sensory deprivation tank... I won't argue with you there. It is rather far-fetched. Necessary, for him, so he can sleep without hearing half the city. Though I wonder how he managed to sleep the night he was with Elektra. I think it was a cool idea, but the writers kinda forgot that no matter how cool the toys, one has to be able to pay for them. Many other superheroes also seem to be millionaires (Iron Man, Batman, even Professer Xavier has some kind of fortune), and I think that's something they forgot. Kinda hard to take out a loan for that kind of stuff...

Not to mention, that after allowing this rapist to die on the tracks, he apparently takes the time to spread gasoline on the ground to claim credit for this murder!!!

*shrug* He was in this for vengence at the beginning of the movie. And rather extreme vengence at that. He wanted people, particularly the kind of people he went after, to know what he would do to them. Nothing like putting fear into the heart of your enemies. It does half your work for you.

This was not a good movie. I place this right next to Batman and Robin.

Dear lord no! At least this didn't have Mr. Freeze spouting off really bad cold-related quotes and puns every five minutes. That alone places Daredevil at least one notch above B & R.

So that's my two copper pieces.

 

[teitan]

Welp, time for my two cents. This review comes from a lifetime comic fan.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, the few bits that I thought were overdone I can't bring myself to nitpick because what was done right was so well done that it overshadowed the bad bits.

The rooftop scene between Matt and Elektra when he uses his radar sense to see her in the rain was the most romantic and powerful moment in the movie for me. I felt the need that Matt has for Elektra and felt the pain he felt when she was killed. Garner was just gorgeous and amazing in this movie and the whole relationship was done much better than those in the Batman movies and in Star Wars Episode II (though I could probably do a better romance scene on toilet paper with my butt than Lucas could). I can not believe that I could actually feel the emotion of this movie the way that I did.

Some critics have been unduly harsh on some aspects of the movie in looking back at some of the pre-press on this flick. One criticism I read was about Daredevil letting Joe da Q die on the railroad tracks, and this criticism completely misses the point of the following scene of Daredevil beating the man in his apartment in front of his kid. "I'm not the bad guy" was the perfect summary for this movie. Seeing the child cry and Daredevil's face really brought this home to me, Daredevil in his pursuit for revenge had become the very monster that he was fighting, and now Matt, through Elektra was struggling to come through. Unlike Batman, Daredevil is not the root persona, Matt Murdock is and Murdock comes through in Daredevil after this scene. Batman is not the disguise for Batman, Bruce Wayne is the disguise for Batman and that is the difference between Marvel and DC. Johnson really seems to understand the difference between Batman and Daredevil and it shows as any other director would have made this movie like the Crow or Batman, Johnson just really hit the right stride in potraying this difference. No he wasn't as great a director as Raimi for Spiderman but he brought across that same love of the character that Raimi did for Spidey.

The sensory deprivation tank was a neat idea, not as foreign to Daredevil as some think, but I really hope it is not something that Marvel imports into the comic book like the new look for Toad or the X-Men costumes. I also liked the portrayal of the radar sense, it was original and really illustrated how it works quite well. The scene with young Matt in the hospital was just amazing and portrays a real and very traumatizing experience for such a young boy.

Bullseye was great in my own opinion, Colin Farrel pulled off the madness of Bullseye, which was always a goofy kind of madness and nothing like the Joker or Goblin, at least until the brain tumour kicks in. The glee that Bullseye gets in killing is a more subtle glee than the Joker as portrayed by Nicholson, but it was also more readily apparent and shocking. Frank Miller played the dead guy quite well. The old lady was spot on Bullseye.

The soundtrack wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, I was expecting MTV crap, and I got some of it, I always imagined Murdock as a jazz man myself, but hey, he wants to listen to crap rock in the morning, fine with me. Evanesence was just perfect for the scenes they played it in, not obtrusive and portraying the emotions of moment so well that I felt each and every moment. (starting to sound like a geek ain't I? LOL) I wish they had gone with a little softer stuff, or more of a score than they did, but overall I really think the music kicked some rump.

What I didn't like was some of the over the topness of the action scenes, though it makes sense considering the characters are Daredevil, trained by Stick (who wasn't in the movie for good reason) and Elektra, trained in a different martial art every year since she was 5 and that should lead to some amazing moves. Bullseye should have been a little more on the brutal side. The big flaw was that so many characters had similar fighting styles, so the whole deal looked a little fake, but not intrusively so.

The battle with Bullseye and Elektra I thought was just perfect. No Elektra was not a pushover in the comics, nor was she in this movie. Matt getting sudden energy in the church was not very realistic, but it was dramatic and the battle was amazing though I thought the organ pipes were a bit too much, though very indicative of the comic book roots and really pretty, while it reminded me of some of the cruiserweights in WCW back in the day, very choreographed though essential to Bullseye discovering Daredevil's sensitivity to sound.

Overall I give the movie an 8 out of 10 as a movie and a 9 out of 10 as a comic book movie, putting it in league with Batman Returns and Batman Forever. 10 being Spiderman and Superman I & II. 3 being Batman and Robin and 6 being Superman IV for reference sakes.

Jason

 

[Eosin the Red]

Re: Stinker!!

Not only did they turn the entire DD story into one of revenge

While I thought he should have been tamer in the beginning, the story was always about revenge. Some of us have read DD for 15+ years and would have been mighty pissed if they dramatically changed one of the top 20 comic story archs written.


Most of these lapses are already addressed in a plausible fashion by others but here is my cp.

Daredevil was a wuss, who spent half of his fight scenes on his back, simply lying there in pain. Literally lying there!! And as for Matt Murdock, champion of the people, lawyer to the masses, he loses his only case to a rapist!! How can I possibly believe that this man, who not only gets paid in fish and sporting goods, but loses his only case, can afford a sensory deprivation tank??!!!

1. Yep, that is what people do when they have been stabbed through the shoulder. Lie there and moan.

2. They did note that JQ in no way could afford the legal defense that he recieved, it could only have come from the Kingpin. We all know that money buys a better defense and Matt is not known as the man who never looses a case. As a matter of fact, Matt/DD is more known as an all too human hero.

3. The easy explanation is that after 10 ish years of legal wrangling the company transporting toxic waste without proper safeguards ponied up and settled with young mr Murdochs legal team.

Not to mention, that after allowing this rapist to die on the tracks, he apparently takes the time to spread gasoline on the ground to claim credit for this murder!!!

Again, I thought this was out of character for DD pre-Bullseye/Electra but I do not see how it was impossible? They also needed to introduce some other elements, that were nicely folded into the story with that scene.

We learned that:
1. Their is an un-identifed Kingpin of crime
2. Rumors have circulated of a vigilante.
3. The police have no leads on either.
4. There is a reporter on the trail of both stories.
5. DD is trying to strike fear into his enemies and warn them away from Hells Kitchen.


I would have preferred a more goodie tooshoes up front who grows darker as the story accelerated and I would have preferred that DD not face the Kingpin in this movie.

 

[Dr Midnight]

I got REALLY tired of the close-up, quick-cut shots of the action. I like to see what's happening in a fight and the shaky edits were just a cheap way out of making sure it was done correctly (IMO).

Bullseye was SUPER cool. I now prefer that Bullseye to the comic Bullseye. Man, he scared me.

All the lines straight from the comic in the Elektra death scene, terrific.

Foggy, fantastic. Mustard coffee equals funny hee hee.

I liked Ben's blindness. It was believable.

I hate Elektra. She bores me to death in the comics, she bores me to death here.

JACK THE DEVIL MURDOCH
vs
JOHN ROMITA
excellent.

Kingpin was a little too iconic villain for me. A little too MIAMI VICE bad guy of the week.

When it comes to superheroes, I always prefer unknowns playing the part. Ben distracted me every time I saw him. It took me out of the movie. Not that he didn't do a good job... he did. I just kept thinking of Ben Affleck, not Matt Murdoch.

A lot of the shots were great. The blood leading up to DD hugging the cross- I loved that.

Overall, I'm left with a feeling similar to SPIDER-MAN. It's good, but it's a one-watcher. It's not SUPERMAN. Something's missing.