Review of Daredevil (2003) by Jonas K — 03 Sep 2013

This is a sloppy, bland and forgettable attempt to give Daredevil the big screen treatment. The only redeeming value here is Daredevil`s suit design, a decent soundtrack and about 5 frames that actually shows class and style.

The screenwriting is terrible, absolutely awful. The movie tries so hard to give us emotional response but the attempts fail tremendously. The dialogue is at a "Batman and Robin" level which says alot. The characters are so poorly written and uninteresting. I didn`t care for what happened to anyone in this film. Alot of people blame Ben Affleck for this horrible mess but I disagree. He is in my opinion fine in his role it`s just that the screenwriters sucked out all the talent they possibly could from these actors. The script is not that good either some would argue it`s even worse than the screenplay.

The action is mediocre at best with sloppy editing, strangely coreographed fight scenes and sub-par effects for it`s time.

We have two villains in this movie and not suprisingly both of them are bad. This again is because of the script. Bullseye freaks me out due to the over-the-top scenes and a personality that makes him come off as a douche (in a bad way). Kingpin is as bland as it gets with no development, I am talking no developement through the movie. We only get to see him about 7 minutes tops through the entire film.

Now to the 5 frames I was talking about. Well it`s not literally 5 frames but it`s close. There are 2 moments in particular that I found digging through the trash and that was one shot of Daredevil`s shadow plastered onto the wall of a crime scene. The size of the shadow aswell as the small horns are intimidating and gives Daredevil an edge to him which he desperately needed through out but we only get this moment of about 3 seconds. There is also the scene when Daredevil takes off his costume and you can see the scars on his back. Great way of showing his pain, suffering and vulnerability. I also want to mention the nice camera shots and directing that went into this scene. If only the entire movie was this good.

Keep away from this movie even if it`s the director`s cut which was the one I watched. It still sucks either way.