Daredevil

We see Matt Murdock living the tough life as a boy in Hell's Kitchen before being blinded in an accident that also gives him super-senses and then experience the death of his father that turns him into a lawyer by day and the vigilante Daredevil by night but then Matt falls for a girl called Elektra who's father is associated with the Kingpin who calls in a top assassin named Bullseye who has a run-in with Daredevil and Elektra respectively and if you think that is a lot going on in a 103 minute film you'd be right.

Matt Murdock / Daredevil (Ben Affleck)
Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner)
Bullseye (Colin Farrell)
The Kingpin/Wilson Fisk (Michael Clarke Duncan)
Franklin 'Foggy' Nelson (Jon Favreau)
Young Matt (Scott Terra)
Ben Urich (Joe Pantoliano)
Wesley Owen Welch (Leland Orser)
Nikolas Natchios (Erick Avari)
Father Everett (Derrick O'Connor)
Jack Murdock (David Keith)

Year: 2003
Censorship Rating: M (for violence mostly)

With the success of "X-Men" (2000), "Blade II" (2002) and "Spiderman" (2002), Marvel Comics was a pretty hot property in Hollywood. Suddenly every studio wanted a comic book movie and Marvel was well positioned to take advantage. Looking at the pantheon of Marvel's most popular characters, Daredevil was an obvious choice for film adaptation - he generally works solo, has a lot of pathos in the backstory and some well-defined villains to fight. I'm sure that many people at Marvel and at the studios saw "Daredevil" as a surefire hit. Well, up until release day, anyway.

The film opens with a slightly cut back form of the traditional Marvel credits (ie its done in CGI with names being formed out of things associated with the titular character - see the opening credits of "Spiderman" and "Spiderman II" for other examples). We pan up to the top of a church. A bloodied figure holds himself up on the large cross at the top. There is a lot of police action in the sky behind him. Flashes of other images / characters cut through the image of the figure and the church. Blood stains the stained glass [arty, no?].

The figure (Daredevil, in case you were wondering) tries to rappel down from the top of the church, but falls part of the way and lands hard near the altar. He is in pretty bad shape. A priest somes in and takes off Daredevil's mask - the priest knows that Matt Murdock is Daredevil and is trying to see if he's okay. Matt starts a flashback sequence.

We move back to Matt Murdock's childhood in Hell's Kitchen. He gets picked on by bullies, but runs instead of fighting them. Arriving home, he finds his ex-boxer dad Jack "The Devil" Murdock asleep / drunk in front of the television. Dad doesn't want Matt fighting - "don't hit nothing but school books" he tells his son. Matt asks his Dad if he is working for Fallon, the local crime boss, to which Dad says he isn't. Dad gives Matt some sage advice: "You can do anything if you're not afraid" [which is just the first of many examples of the whole 'Man Without Fear' thing being clumsily shoved in the audience's face. Also, David Keith, who plays Jack Murdock, has a head and jaw that looks carved out of stone. It really suits his 'determined boxer' look. Apparently part of this came from special effects make-up, but I really liked it].

Taking a shortcut home from school, Matt comes across his father shaking someone down for Fallon. His golden image of his father now tarnished, Matt starts to run, only to get into an accident involving hazardous waste. Some gets into his eyes and we get to see his optic nerves frying from the internal perspective thanks to some CGI.

Matt wakes in hospital to the sounds of explosions. The source of these explosions turns out to be droplets in Matt's IV drip. Matt has gained a new (and slightly overwhelming) view of the world - he now has super-hearing and a radar sense. This change scares and confuses Matt as he is barraged by a cacaphony of sound and images. Gradually [well, 30 seconds] Matt's enhanced senses settle down. Matt's Dad comes in and apologises for being one of Vallon's thugs.

Matt's accident makes Dad and Matt determined to succeed in life. Jack Murdock goes back to boxing while Matt hits the books while training his "body and senses". [We get a Stan Lee cameo in this bit, as is required by Constitutional Law in all Marvel films.] The bullies try to push Matt around again, but some fancy wirework fighting [and the fact that they are incompetent bullies - just watch the guy try to rush Matt and how easily he defeats himself] sees them off.

[Oh, and way to hide your secret abilities Matt. You're blind, but beat up three guys who stand over you. I'm sure no-one will suspect your gift. Unfortunately, Matt's tendancy to show off pops up all the way through this movie.]

Fallon appears to Jack Murdock and tells him to throw his next fight. Dad doesn't do this and wins by knockout instead. When leaving the fight stadium [by the back door when you know you've just angered a mob figure? Perhaps you took a few too many in the head there Jack] Dad is beaten to death by some goons, including one that casts a big shadow. Matt hears his Dad being beaten and rushes to his aid, but arrives to find his Dad dead with a red rose on his chest. Matt decides to "seek justice, one way ... or another".

A now adult Matt Murdock wakes up in his sensory deprivation chamber and we get to see how his life works. [At this point, it appears that having super-hearing in the centre of New York isn't that great of a deal.] In court we see Matt prosecuting a scumbag who did something nasty to Matt's female client [err, isn't Matt a criminal defence lawyer? Shouldn't someone from the District Attorney's office be doing the prosecuting? Shouldn't Matt be defending the scumbag instead? Or is the woman on trial for something? I know, I know - we are just meant to see that Matt is a good guy and helping the victim in this scene, but it makes no sense at all and is very lazy scripting]. Despite the scumbag being slimy and unpleasant and Matt's client being the fairly obvious victim, the scumbag gets off. This is blamed on the Kingpin "footing the bill" of a fancy lawyer for the scumbag [but perhaps Matt is just a really incompetent lawyer?].

In order to see justice done, Matt suits up as Daredevil and we get to see his multifuncitional cane / billy clubs / nunchucks / grappling hook in some warm-up action. Daredevil then goes jumping over rooftops and falling great distances [and doing so incredibly without breaking both legs several times over].

[Aside: here is one of "Daredevil"'s most jarring flaws - it is full of physically normal people who can jump and fall long distances without any ill-effects. In my opinion, the audience can accept Daredevil's radar sense and Elektra's martial arts skills pretty easily, but when it comes to seeing a normal human fall 20 m onto concrete and land with no ill-effects, suspension of disbelief just flies straight out of the window.]

The scumbag is celebrating his victory in a bar. Daredevil seeks "justice" by beating up everyone in the bar in a wirework-and-CGI dominated fight scene. [It's a good thing for Daredevil that all the thugs with guns shoot like stormtroopers. However, his radar sense doesn't save him from getting hit with a few melee shots, which seems incongruous.] Mr Scumbag escapes into the subway. Daredevil follows him, but almost gets himself killed when a noisy subway train distracts him. Scumbag hesitates in shooting Daredevil and gets himself run over by a train for it.

Reporter Ben Urich shows up at the subway as the police are investigating the area. When the police deny that Daredevil exists, Urich throws his lighter on the floor which ignites a flaming "DD" on the ground. [1) Someone saw "The Crow". 2) That's destruction of evidence I do believe, but because he's a street smart and gold-hearted reporter, Urich isn't arrested on the spot].

Matt arrives home [and takes off his mask before he enters his home, which seems like a stupid thing to do out in the open, but what do I know?]. He takes a shower and we can see he's got a lot of scars. Matt also spits out a tooth and chews down some painkillers. A woman has left a "Dear John" message on his answering machine that indicates that he is distant and secretive. Matt retires to his sensory deprivation tank for some rest.

[Aside: so we can see that being a vigilante isn't easy. However, this scene made me wonder how he got his Daredevil stuff. I don't think Matt could have made it all himself - costume, mask, weapons - so you have to wonder how he managed to outfit himself without leaving a trail that leads right back to his relationship with Daredevil. "Daredevil" never tackles this issue, so we are left to imagine that he got it all via mail order.]

Matt goes to confession. The priest is against him being Daredevil because of what it will do to Matt's soul and because the priest is "not too crazy about the outfit, either". Matt is told that a "man without fear is a man without hope" [which again clumsily draws in the 'Man Without Fear' bit and is also patently wrong in my opinon. A man without fear can still have hope, while fear is an absolutely fantastic hope killer.]

Foggy Nelson (Matt's legal partner) meet in a diner and debate their choice of clients - Foggy wants "rich and guilty" while Matt is happy with "honourable" but poor [you know, for a lawyer paid in fish, he has an absolutely fantastic apartment, some pretty snazzy suits and no apparent money problems. Who knew fish was so valuable?] Matt tricks Foggy with some mustard-laced coffee [it's not a bad gag, actually] while also attempting to woo a beautiful woman who entered the diner [who Matt smelled before she even opened the door. Either this woman lays the perfume on thick or Matt can smell beauty even through closed doors.] Unfortunately for Matt, she isn't buying what he's selling, and leaves the diner. Matt follows her, wanting to know her name, which leads to a 'love at first fight' scene in a children's playground. The fight contains a bit more wire fu. Matt loses to the woman despite being armed with his cane. However, he does learn her name - Elektra Natchios.

Cut to a large building where Wilson Fisk (who is not-so-widely known as the Kingpin) is told tha Father Natchios wants out of ... well, we aren't really told, but we'll assume it's bad.

Back to Matt and Elektra, now chatting. Matt again shows off his special abilities [way to hide your powers, Matt. Why even bother with a mask?] We learn that Elektra trains with a new martial arts master every year [which seems an odd way of training. I've got nothing against cross-training martial arts, but how many masters would fully teach a student they know is just going to leave them in 12 months?].

Cut back to Fisk. He orders Father Natchios be set up as a faux Kingpin and then killed. Fisk also calls for Bullseye to be brought in.

In England, Bullseye is displaying his skills in a bar by winning bets on games of darts. He gets the call from the Kingpin and sets out to leave the bar. However, the man who lost the bet insults him, which leads to Bullseye killing him with paperclips through through the throat.

[Aside: Just take it for granted that Bullseye twitches, grumbles, grunts, flairs and generally just hams his way through every scene he is in. Colin Farrell really lets the brakes off any sense of subtlety he may have about acting and just lets Bullseye bite chunks off the scenery. I state this here because stopping to mention it everytime it happens would make this Overview much, much longer. So, just remember: Bullseye = ham.]

Matt and Foggy talk and it is revealed that Elektra's dad (who's name is Nikolas) is a billionaire. [Crime does pay!]

On the plane trip over, Bullseye is being bored by an elderly woman sitting next to him. He kills her with a well-placed peanut ricochet - she ends up choking to death on it.

Daredevil goes out on patrol. He comes across one of the Kingpin's goons and chases him into an apartment building. The goon gets Daredevil all angry by telling him that Hell's Kitchen belongs to the Kingpin, which leads to said goon getting a sound beating. This beating scares a child in the apartment. Outside, up on the roof, Dardevil ponders that "I'm not the bad guy... I'm not". [You wage an underground fight against criminals using fear and violence, yet wonder why you aren't loved by children? Honestly, for a smart guy Daredevil / Matt Murdock can just be dense at times.]

Matt goes to his law office where he finds Elektra has sent him an invitation to an exclusive high-society Ball. Being all depressed about what happened the night before, Matt plans not to go, but Foggy convinces him to keep spending time with Elektra. Matt shows off [yes, yet again, and by doing something no blind person could do]

On his way home, Matt finds Elektra following him. He takes her to his favourite rooftop area. Matt takes note of her necklace [which is vaguely important later]. Both of these characters are scared by their feelings for each other. Matt convinces Elektra to stand in a conveniently timed rain shower so he can "see her".

[Aside: At one point I watched "Daredevil" with my wife. During this scene, she very accurately noted that Matt could have achieved the same thing by squirting her with a hose, which is certainly less romantic, but much more practical than waiting for rain when you are on a date.]

[Oh, and this is Matt showing off again, pratically telling Elektra that he has special abilities. Or is slightly nuts, given his whole "hearing rain on your face" speech. You decide.]

Elektra and Matt kiss. Matt's super-senses pick up a crime in progress, but Elektra's soft touches convinces him to stay with her. They spend the night together.

Matt wakes up alone [super-senses and need for a sensory deprivation chamber to sleep forgotten at this point in the script apparently] but Elektra has left an invitation to the Ball on her pillow. At the Ball Matt and Foggy run into Ben Urich (the reporter). They chat for a bit and something is made of the part where Urich sees Matt's cane. Matt and Foggy also bump into Wilson Fisk. Matt tells Fisk that he can't represent him because he only takes clients who are innocent [since we are ever told HOW Matt knows that Fisk is dirty, this scene makes Matt look like a rude, self-righteous git instead of noble lawyer that the script wants him to appear].

Elektra poses on the balcony [for the benefit of the lovers of the female form in the audience] and Matt makes his way up to her. They dance and fall further in love. Elektra reveals that "good things don't happen very often" to her. Matt tells her "nothing bad is going to happen". [And in a completely shockless twist, the audience gets to see in these next few bits that something bad is going to happen to Elektra. The Vocal Reversal Rule strikes again.]

Elsewhere, Bullseye kills a man it's Frank Miller for all you cameo watchers out there] and rides off on his motorbike.

Back at the party, Fisk ominously threatens Father Natchios. Father leaves the party via limo with Elektra in tow.

Bullseye meets up with Father Natchios' limo [err... how? It's a bit of a stretch to have Bullseye meet up with one limo coming from the wrong way without any guidance from elsewhere. But anyway...] while Daredevil can be seen tracking the limo from the rooftops [boy, Matt sure can change costumes and move very, very quickly when he wants to. Did he wear his leather costume under his tuxedo just in case?]. The limo crashes after Bullseye sends a few shiriken through the windscreen. Daredevil drops down to intervene and Bullseye throws another shiriken at him, but Daredevil dodges. "I never miss!" says an annoyed Bullseye and tries to run Daredevil on the motorbike, but gets somersault-kicked off it for his trouble.

Somehow [and I mean it - I watched this bit in slow-mo several times and there is no way that Bullseye could have done it except for it being in the script] Bullseye ends up with one of Daredevil's billy clubs and throws it at Father Natchios. An explosion from the limo [that causes no other damage] causes Daredevil to miss catching the club. Father Natchios is killed by the billy club and Elektra emerges from the limo just in time to think Daredevil is responsible. Daredevil flees the scene while Elektra cries over her dead dad.

The police recover the billy club and a cop yells at Urich "does all this make you happy?". [Actually, you'd think the police would be happier that the Kingpin is dead - since that's what Father Natchios has been set up as - and it's hardly Urich's fault anyway.]

Matt throws a tantrum and trashes his Daredevil equipment. He goes to confession to agree with the priest that revenge isn't the way to go. At Father Natchio's funeral Matt tries to talk to Elektra and to convince her that seeking revenge won't help her. She leaves Matt alone in the rain.

The city coronor (Kevin Smith, making it three writers of Daredevil appearing in this movie) takes some cash from Urich and shows him the secrets of the billy club. Urich recognises the cane form of Daredevil's equipment as belonging to Matt Murdock.

Bullseye sees the Kingpin about going after Daredevil. The Kingpin sends Bullseye after Elektra first.

Urich catches up with Matt and warns him that the Kingpin will be making an attempt on Elektra's life [and it's a good thing Urich is there to seamlessly vomit motivation at Matt to get him back into the Daredevil costume!].

Elektra uses her expertise in sai fighting against some sandbags [which is less than impressive since sandbags are defenceless and don't hit back - by comparison, we are shown Daredevil is a skilled fighter when he beats up an entire bar of criminals, some armed with guns. Elektra fights ... sandbags. Just think for a moment what this makes us, the audience, think about the characters]. Matt suits up as Daredevil. Bullseye stalks through the night. All manage to end up on the same rooftop in pretty quick succession.

Elektra runs into Daredevil first and after a short battle Daredevil ends up with a sai through his shoulder [so again, Elektra beats Daredevil]. Prior to delivering the killing blow, Elektra unmasks Daredevil to find her old flame Matt is underneath. Bullseye then shows up nearby and Elektra goes after him (stopping to re-mask Matt first) with some wire fu jumping. Elektra tries to play 'catch the sai' with Bullseye, but comes off second best. Bullseye then, in pretty short order, ends up stabbing Elektra through the gut with her own sai. The police close in while Daredevil hears Elektra's heart stop.

Daredevil flees to the church. This ends the flashback [remember? From the opening three minutes? No? You are not alone...]. Bullseye arrives at the church to finish off Daredevil. Daredevil shakes off some pretty heavy wounds [obviously he uses one of his inspirations] to fight Bullseye on the church's large organ [the music kind, for those of you thinking in the gutter!]. Bats fly out of the organ [obviously aware that their agent had booked them into the wrong superhero film]. Daredevil dodges or blocks everything Bullseye throws at him. Bullseye then discovers that Daredevil is vulnerable to loud noises and uses this to gain an advantage. However, Bullseye wastes this advantage by taking the time to monologue on about how 1) Wilson Fisk is the Kingpin, and 2) that Fisk leaves a rose on the body of everyone he kills (thus linking him to the death of Matt's father). A recovered Daredevil hears a sniper's bullet being fired and uses it to main Bullseye's hands, then tosses him out of the top-story stained glass window. Bullseye lands on Urich's car [and for a moment of unintentional comedy, watch the police wave their guns around at everything. It's an accidental shooting waiting to happen]. Daredevil goes after the Kingpin. The Kingpin [having read the script] prepares for Daredevil's arrival.

[Aside: "Daredevil" really annoyed me with the inconsistency of fighting ability displayed by the main characters. Elektra defeats Daredevil twice. Bullseye takes less than five minutes to kill Elektra. You'd think that this would indicate that Bullseye would be a better fighter than Daredevil, but (for the most part) the horned one has it completely over Bullseye. Maybe he didn't like hitting women (which is understandable, except when they are trying to kill you) and maybe he was just trying to stay on Elektra's good side, but the only way I could really explain it was to attribute Daredevil's fluctuating power levels due to poor scripting.]

Daredevil and Kingpin fight, with Kingpin easily winning [which, if you watch the DVD extras, is partially because of all the reflective surfaces in the Kingpin's office. I didn't get that part at all before it was explained to me, but then I may just be slow]. The Kingpin unmasks Daredevil and reveals that he only ever killed for "business. That's all it ever is - business" [which is a great moment in my opinion].

Daredevil realises that there is water flowing through the decorative pipes in the office (using the inspiration of an Elektra flashback to help him work it out) and starts to break them. The water temporarily blinds the Kingpin and helps Matt get his bearings. Matt ends up breaking both of the Kingpin's knees [super-ouchie!].

Despite having the opportunity, Matt elects not to kill the Kingpin because he's "not the bad guy". Matt says that the cops are coming for Kingpin and that he will have a hard time in prison if he reveals he "got beat by a blind man". The Kingpin swears revenge. [Matt also says "Justice is served", which is what I thought the Scourge says, not Daredevil. Anyway...]

Daredevil drops a rose on the location where his dad died. The rain clears up and the sun starts to shine.

Foggy and Matt debate Daredevil's existence in the diner. Matt misses Elektra due to the ringing door remind him of when they first met. He goes wandering and finds Elektra's necklace (with braille lettering) on the rooftop where they met. Matt narrates about how he "saved" himself and how "faith is all you need" [blah blah blah - sorry, but this ending seems a little too smug for me to accept.]

Urich, having written a story on the true identity of Daredevil, elects not to run it. Daredevil goes out on patrol, assuming the role of a "guardian devil". End of movie.

In the credits, we get a short scene of Bullseye doing a little bit of pest control in the hospital. [For my money, this is the best scene in the film, so take the time to watch it.]

In my opinion, "Daredevil" got unfairly treated when it was released. It did reasonable business, certainly, but some of the reviews were so scathing and the fans so rapid as to make one think that this must have been one of the worst films ever released when it is nowhere near that level. Is it a mess? Yes - it has too many characters doing too many things, meaning that not enough time is taken to develop any depth to either the characters or the events. However, it isn't that bad either - compared to the general quality of superhero films, it is quite passable. It is my opinion that the biggest mistake was the casting of Ben Affleck. But not because he did a bad job - he didn't - but because of the baggage he was carrying at the time.

Affleck was coming out of being massively overexposed due to his relationship with Jennifer Lopez, with the general public having been exposed to months and months of every detail that the tabloids could get about the Bennifer entity. Following this kind of attention, Lopez appeared to do the right thing and lay low for a while, while Afflect attempted to play the lead in a major release picture which just kept his face in public view for that extra period. When "Daredevil" came out, full of holes and problems, it was Affleck who bore the brunt of the negative reviews and fan hatred. Having Affleck in "Daredevil" did something that no film studio wants to see in a leading man - he actually turned people off going to see the movie. The public had gone from just being sick of the constant attention lavished on Affleck to, in some cases, having developed a near-pathological hatred of the man. "Daredevil"'s problems certainly don't stem from Affleck, but he certainly seemed to be the focus of fans' ire.

"Daredevil" did have a number of other, greater problems. It had the weight of expectations (both from fans and the studios) that it would be another franchise - another "Blade", another "X-Men", another "Spiderman". It was helmed by Mark Steven Johnson, a director with a short resume who obviously had a love of the Daredevil character but was being micro-managed by studio suits every step of the way.

On this note, I recommend that people watch the first 10 minutes or so of the 'Making of "Daredevil"' on the DVD - it's one of the few 'Making of...' documentaries that isn't filled with super-happy people and you can see the number of fingers involved in every decision made on the film. The 'forty minute discussion on the colour red' anecdote is particularly telling, as is the number of different potential costumes suggested (and shown) for Daredevil. One of the complaints made is that the suits wanted "Daredevil" to replicate the feel of "The Matrix" and "X-Men" but on a much smaller budget and with an unconfirmed and ever-changing schedule. While imitation may be the best form of flattery, unless you've got the time and the money to do it right, copying someone else's work just reminds the audience they aren't watching the original and better source.

I've already said that hiring Affleck was the biggest mistake, but that wasn't "Daredevil"'s biggest problem. The biggest problem was the amount of material that got squashed into the running time. It was like someone tried to put all the best bits of Daredevi's comic storylines into one film and ended up making them all look pretty weak due to their brevity. If just one of the story arcs within "Daredevil" had been cut, with the extra time given to flesh out the other scenes, then this movie would have been a lot stronger.

For example, take Matt's relationship with Elektra. As it stands, they meet, they fight, they fall in love, her father dies, she goes off to get revenge and then she's dead. Frankly, I didn't care. No time was given to why the audience should even care about Elektra and what she meant to Matt. With a bit more time given to fleshing out this relationship, Elektra's death may have had some emotional impact. Instead, the audience has barely connected with her before she dies. Her death (delivered to her by Bullseye after an insultingly short fight) has no meaning to it.

Or take the role of the Kingpin. In my opinion, Michael Clarke Duncan gives an excellent performance as Wilson Fisk, with just the right mixture of softness and menace, in the scenes he is in. But there aren't many of those scenes. In actual fact, you could remove all the Kingpin's scenes and really not have made any difference to the events of the film. Just have someone else order the hit on Nikolas Natchios and you've have everything covered (I'll get to the murder of Jack Murdock in a second).

I could go on, but won't. In short, if only someone had decided to focus on just one or two arcs (eg Daredevil's origin, the conflicted relationships between Elektra and Matt / Daredevil) rather than four or five, then "Daredevil" would have been a much stronger film.

Of course, at this point it is useful to note that a Director's Cut of "Daredevil" is available that many people indicate is better than this version (which is the theatrical cut). At some point I'll review it and make a comparative judgement about that version.

Overall, the performances in "Daredevil" are pretty good. As stated above, I really enjoyed Duncan's performance (and for those who complained about it - having a black Kingpin made no difference at all), while Colin Farrell made a fantastically watchable ham out of Bullseye. He brought some spice to "Daredevil" that this film really needed. Jennifer Garner is not ugly, I'll give her that, but isn't given enough material to work with to actually make an impression. I still haven't bought the hype that she is the next It-Girl and I doubt that her performance in "Elektra" (to be reviewed shortly) is going to change that impression. Jon Favreau isn't too bad as Matt's off-sider (but again, on limited material) while Affleck gives a solid performance as Matt Murdock / Daredevil that unfortunately can't overcome the deficiencies in the script.

Two final, overly-picky points about "Daredevil", both gripes:

1. As noted several times in the Overview, Matt doesn't appear to do anything to protect his identity as Daredevil or the fact that he has powers, showing them off at every opportunity. Given that the film presents him as being active for quite a period of time, I find it hard to believe that he hasn't blown his own cover. He hasn't, probably because it was in the script. This continual showing off just annoyed me though.

2. Why must numerous films where family members die at the hands of criminals end up with the main protagonist squaring off against the villain who pulled the trigger? It just cheapens the protagonist's actions as a 'hero' when all they are after is direct revenge. Part of the fractured nobility (as far as it goes) of dressing up in a costume and fighting crime stems from its protection of others - the hero doesn't want other people to experience the losses that they have. Although partially motivated by a desire for revenge, in general it is not a revenge the protagonist is going to get since they will likely never find the culprit. As such, vigilantism becomes the next best thing. Having the hero beat the villain responsible for killing their father (as the Kingpin did to Jack Murdock) arguably provides closure for the hero, making me wonder why they would wake up tomorrow and elect to remain a devil when they could go back to a normal existance. But maybe that's just me.

"Daredevil" takes arguably the strongest / most recognised moments from the Daredevil comic book series and compacts them all into one movie. Thematically the film is pretty close to Daredevil, but the execution is weak overall.

Too many events and characters crammed into too little a film. Although this makes "Daredevil" a mess, it isn't unwatchable and some of the performances (Farrell as Bullseye especially) help push this movie into something you could sit through once without too much pain.

Bullseye biting chunks off every scene he is in! The uninspiring wire fu / CGI fu fight scenes! Matt displaying his super-abilities to all and sundry while trying to keep his Daredevil alter ego a secret! Bats in the church! Normal humans jumping and falling huge distances without damaging their legs! Daredevil has its fair share of Funktastic moments.

Date of review: 28 March 2005