Okay, I'll admit it. I don't know my butt from my elbow when it comes to comic books. I went into this movie with basically no expectations (other than I assumed it would be a total bomb) and no background on this widely known Marvel Comics' character. All that being said I'll tell you what I thought of the movie.

The Movie:

Daredevil stars Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock the lawyer by day and Daredevil vigilante by night. Jennifer Garner as Elektra Natchios the sexy, independent, butt-kicking girl. Colin Farrell as the insane assassin Bullseye. Michael Clarke Duncan as the evil top villan Kingpin. Jon Favreau as Matt Murdock's comical friend and lawyer partner, Franklin Nelson. It also stars Joe Pantoliano as Ben Ulrich, Ellen Pompeo as Karen Page, David Keith as (Daredevil's Dad)Jack Murdock, Erick Avari as (Elektra's Dad) Natchios, Paul Ben-Victor as Jose Quesada, Derrick O'Connor as (if this were Batman he'd be Albert) Father Everett, and they even have Kevin Smith popping up as Jack Kirby.

The movie starts out with Matt Murdock as a child growing up in New York's Hells Kitchen. His dad is a prizefighter and is at the top of his game. One day Matt catches his father in a dark alley roughing up some guy. He can't believe what he sees and runs away. After this discovery by his son the father wants to clean up his act. He goes back to fighting and tries keep things on the straight and narrow.

Matt ends up involved in an accident. Chemicals end up dousing Matt and he loses his sight. Even though his sight is lost, not everything has been lost. He now has increased senses elsewhere (meaning his four other sense) and has a new sight that is like bat sonar.

During a fight Jack is suppose to take a fall. Jack was about to go through with it and lose the fight, when he hears his son in the audience telling him to get up and win. Jack wants to do right by his son and not fall under the influence of the corrupt gangsters that were telling him to lose the fight. Jack gets up and wins the fight and makes his son proud.

Matt and his father don't have long to enjoy the victory when shortly after the fight his father is murdered by the same men that wanted him to lose. I believe it was red roses that were left on his body, which will come up again later in the movie. Matt vows to avenge his father's death.

The movie basically skips over his childhood and then you find him a full grown man. He's a lawyer that only wants to represent the innocent. He can sense when someone is lying. When his cases don't see justice in court, he brings justice to the cases himself. He does this as Daredevil.

The red leather covered, cane-weapon swinging, bringer of justice prowls the night bringing the guilty to justice. All this inspired by the injustice done to him and his father.

Father Everett I think helped raised him and also acts as an advisor for Matt. He's kind of the Albert character of Daredevil, for those of you that saw Batman.

Later in the movie Elektra is introduced. Matt is sitting in a cafe or diner with his partner Franklin when in walks Elektra. Before, during, and after Elektra walks in, Matt demonstrates his enhanced abilities and describes what he thinks she is like and so on. Matt doesn't leave it at that, but instead decides to go out the door and further pursue this fascinating woman. His persistence with her leads to a fight, which in my opinion was kind of absurd. Granted, the girl did give him a run for his money, but still, what person picks a fight with a blind guy? Especially in public, in a playground, with an audience? If I recall correctly, I think even the music used for the fight was off.

As the movie progresses Matt and Elektra get real chummy and she seems to be actually breaking through with him, as girl's in the past could never do. He isolates himself from the outside world, partially due to his double life.

He ends up spending more time with her and her father ends up being murdered as well. Ah, and as luck would have it, red roses were left on her father's body as well. A kwinky dink? I think not.

One scene that does stand out in my mind is when him and Elektra have their moment in the rain. He wants to see her in the rain because it's the only time that he can actually almost see. This is because as the rain drops fall on her and vibrate, those vibrations give a visual effect. It was pretty neat to see.

Elektra ends up believing Daredevil killed her father and fights him like she means it. She eventually realizes it's a mistake, but wounds him before getting to the bottom of things. This annoyed me immensely.

Elektra too is at risk for assassination because the man behind the curtain doesn't believe in loose ends. He likes to clean up his mess completely, including killing the offspring of the main target.

Daredevil makes many enemies as well. So much so that the Kingpin wants him dead at all costs and hires psycho boy Bullseye to get rid of the problem. Bullseye has a real talent with blades, playing cards and just about anything that has an edge or point to it. He can hit hard enough and with such precision that he is actually a worthy and serious villain. Although, his character is nothing serious. The guy's a real fruitcake and is quite amusing. Love the bullseye on his forehead too.

I won't tell you exactly how the film ended, but I will say one thing that disappointed me is that while the fighting with Bullseye was good, fun to watch, maybe even a little over the top, it was much better than the final fight with the main villain, Kingpin. Plus, by the time Daredevil gets to the final fight, you wonder how he'll ever defeat his enemy. Too much was put into Bullseye and not enough with Kingpin.

Conclusion:

My final thoughts on this movie was that it wasn't a bad movie, but like my rating was average. It had some funny parts, it had some sad parts, it had quite a bit of action, but it didn't quite hit the mark. Some of the action was a little over the top though. Especially the playground fight as mentioned earlier.

While Batman and Spider Man could at times be a little corny, Daredevil couldn't keep the balance and pull this off like the other movies mentioned, and instead seemed silly at times. The dialog was lacking. Bullseye and Kingpin were intimidating enough villains, but Kingpin was too out done by Bullseye. Elektra was fine, but maybe they focused a bit too much on her good looks and hard body, rather than her character. As for the main character, Daredevil, I think Ben Affleck did a good job for Ben Affleck, but I don't see him as a Daredevil. I see him as a rather average looking guy, but as a mamby-pamby mama's boy type. Not as the "Man Without Fear" Daredevil. Sorry that's just how I feel.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older