I’m just going to come out and say, I don’t like this movie. It has moments here and there that are alright but over all it’s pretty forgettable and in some parts down right bad. Released in 2003 it actually did very well at the box office even “garnering” a spin-off
ELEKTRA in 2005, a movie which proved tremendously BAD but BETTER than this film! After the film was released Ben Affleck essentially said he would play Daredevil again if the next movie was darker. However a couple years later he said this, “by playing a superhero in Daredevil, I have inoculated myself from ever playing another superhero… Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn’t want to do again soon.” That’s my biggest compliant straight away. Ben Affleck is almost definitely not a superhero like
Toby Maguire or
Edward Norton. What I mean is he is not the worst person suited to play a superhero just not the best.
Admittedly though the film has an awesome cameo with
Stan Lee where a young Matt Murdock is standing at a crosswalk next to Stan who’s reading a newspaper. Stan starts blindly walking into the street almost getting hit by a car but doesn’t, because young Matt blocks Stan’s path with his pole.
Matt’s relationship with Elektra is not very cool. When they meet, there is resistance from Elektra to Matt’s advances. This culminates in a face off between the two. It’s like in nature when the male has to fight the female and conquer her before mounting her. During their fight Matt asks “So does every guy have to go through all this just to get your name?” Elektra replies, “Try asking for my number.” It just makes me cringe a little. There’s a good piece of dialogue between Matt and his friend/legal partner Franklin. Matt says “She’s outta my league and I’d rather just end it before it starts.” Franklin says “That’s gotta be some kind of record Matt. You just completely bypassed the whole relationship phase you went right straight into the break up.” Who can’t relate to giving up on something without even trying because you don’t have faith?
That’s what the movie’s kind of about. Matt regains his lost faith and hope through Elektra to realize that one mancan make a difference and then keeps on dispensing justice. Well that’s kind of cool, but then after they do get together they have this really cheesy love scene. And I mean cheesy. I can’t play the music but if you haven’t heard it, it’s bad. They sit facing each other holding and caressing one another. It even comes complete with a close up shot of Elektra making a point of touching his scars with her finger tips. It’s forced, it’s fake, it doesn’t suspend my belief that I’m watching two young lovers and not two actors. There’s lots of that in the whole film. A lot of the acting is cartoony, the stunts look fabricated. You can see the awkward movements and see that they’re being pulled by a harness or some other unnatural contraption. Their reaction times also seem slow in fight scenes so there’s no suspense; you can basically tell where their blow is going to land.
The music in this film is also unbelievably bad. I prefer a score to modern music for most movies. It slips into the back of your mind and melds with what is currently going on in the movie. Watching a film with lots of drama or action is strange when you remove the music. A score would have been much better suited for this film, or at least a better selection of music. Hoobastank? Uhhhh, another cringe moment. The one redeeming factor for this movie is the graphics for Daredevil’s bat-like sonar sight which became referred to by the animators as the “shadow world.” It’s cool getting to see the waves of sound travel or smell turned into sight. And the appearance of rain hitting objects is pretty neat as well. But that’s about it. There’s nothing really memorable or thoroughly enjoyable about this movie. It’s mostly bad acting, badly chosen music, and bad stunt work… followed by an even worse spin off. But don’t let me deter you from watching it. There are people out there who like it, so you might too.
- ComicBookBlogger
