Review of Daredevil (2003) by Craig H — 13 Jul 2012

It's a different kind of superhero film to be sure, he's a different kind of superhero! A blind lawyer by day a man without fear at night. Meet Matt Murdock, aka DAREDEVIL.

This is a real tricky film to like, it's dark moody and gritty and maybe that kind of sums up our blind hero quite rightly. Murdock (well played by Ben Affleck) is blinded as a child after seeing his father doing a bad deed. When his father is killed by an unknown Kingpin he makes it his life's work to get even and protect the people of Hells Kitchen at the same time.

The film often stagnates when director Johnson tries to fit his love story in. Jennifer Garner is completely rubbish in her role, she offers nothing at all and her character is wasted in what possibly accumulates into maybe twenty minutes of screen time. When you put a character in a film just to say you put them in you know your doing the wrong thing!

Also wasted is Colin Farrell, he certainly does a better job than Garner but not much but with what he has to work with he does a really good job, even if he is subject to killing grannies on aeroplanes with nuts!

The less we say of Michael Clarke Duncan the better, he hams it up to the absolute extreme playing Fisk. His acting is crummy and in the way he plays it I reckon he knew it! What a waste of one of the great Marvel villains.

What does work is Daredevil himself! Affleck plays him perfectly and he is a very convincing blind man out for justice. If nothing else this should be one of the main reasons to watch this film to the end.

CGI is poor and doesn't stand up to something such as Spider-Man, however the CGI isn't helped by being shot against dark backdrops and moody lighting, again the director needs to take a real long look at this the next time he tackles a superhero.

With a weak plot and some negatives here and there you may think it not worth your time, but here is a hero born out of darkness and trying to bring light to those within darkness. That theme rings out throughout and it's what kept me watching. If you're looking for a fun time flick Spider-Man on because this is mean and gritty and if that's how your like your superhero then this is the one for you!