Review of Daredevil (2003) by Mike B — 03 Jul 2016

Superheroes can be like your favourite band. When not portrayed correctly, the more hardcore fans can quickly become dismissive. A movie version of the cult classic episode of Daredevil (comic issue #181 by the legendary Frank Miller) was always going to be tough to live up to.

I was expecting to be disappointed by Kingpin, and Bullseye, and especially Elektra, but surprisingly, these all held up. However, Affleck is the weakest link here, and as the main character, it's a pretty important link.

As a fan, I'm glad it was made and I actually own the DVD (the extras alone are worth the purchase), but I nearly think Jim Carrey would have been more believable in the role. It just didn't feel like the team on this movie got to the essence of the character.

I would not have kept buying the comic if the character was as one sided as the movie portrayal, and the Sai impalement scene (a historically devastating scene in comic history) does not carry the impact that it should, as the relationship between Elektra and DD was not built.

It's hard to talk Daredevil without talking Spiderman, the more well known red crusader from the Marvel brand, and to be fair, there are some turkey Spider Man movies out there too. So the bottom line is, while it didn't live up to expectations, bear in mind this was the first decent shot somebody took at a very complicated character.

Perhaps the next will be better?