The way it works in 8 out of 10 cases is a studio decision will lead to the finding of a screenwriter and director and a movie like DAREDEVIL is made. That’s the way it happened with SPIDER-MAN, with THE X-MEN, with HULK. But DAREDEVIL’s writer/director, Mark Steven Johnson (writer on GRUMPY OLD MEN, and writer/director on SIMON BIRCH) had a vision and a passion for a particular character, the blind lawyer from Hell’s Kitchen, Matt Murdock, also known as Daredevil, the Man Without Fear, and he set out to make this movie without having to be asked.

I read the DAREDEVIL comic book regularly for almost 10 years, between 1986-1995 and it’s always been sort of a joke that Daredevil was a poor man’s Spiderman, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Daredevil has always been a much darker character than the web-swinger. Spider-Man’s wife was an ex-super model, Daredevil’s girlfriends are always drug addicts or murderers. How is there any comparison? But we were talking about the movie.

Matt Murdock was blinded as a child when a vat of radioactive waste was dumped on him. While his eyesight was taken, his other senses were heightened to a superhuman degree and Matt is given a kind of radar sense where he can use the soundwaves around him to form a picture of his surroundings (Johnson says this “shadow-world” took almost a year to develop on film, and it‘s one of the things that makes the movie). He can hear heartbeats and feel the wind shifting in front of him and (in the comics at least) can read print with his fingertips, feeling the ink on the page. By day he is a pro bono lawyer with his partner Foggy Nelson (played with a wonderful sense of humor by Jon Favreau) and if he happens to lose a case, he goes around the system and takes justice into his own hands as the red devil of Hell’s Kitchen, the horned superhero Daredevil. Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock was a simple case of casting the present day leading man, Affleck’s the typical male movie star and who better to play your hero than someone so recognizable. Plus, as with the director, Affleck says he’s always loved this character and was eager to play him.

Every superhero has that one major arch villain and Daredevil’s has always been The Kingpin, Wilson Fisk, the mammoth of a man who controls all the crime in New York and who has remained, to date, untouchable. Johnson took a chance by casting Michael Clarke Duncan, but that chance paid off. Comic fans are very possessive and if even one important detail is overlooked, they go crazy. Casting the big black man to play the big white man seemed, at first, like a simple act of ignorance. This guy can’t possibly know what he’s doing, right? But those who stuck around for the movie saw Johnson knew exactly what he was doing, casting for the good of the movie, not the history, and Duncan makes an excellent Kingpin of Crime. Mark Steven Johnson does know his Daredevil, but he also knows when to take a chance away from what the fans would be expecting.

The plot of this movie takes a while to get going, we’ve got an overlong origin story in the beginning followed by a lengthy introduction to the hero, but eventually things get moving. One of the Kingpin’s men, Nikolas Natchios, wants out of the organization. This is unheard of and, to get back at him, the Kingpin hires an assassin, Bullseye (Colin Farrell in one of the worst cases of overacting I‘ve ever seen), to take care of him.

Enter Elektra (the beautiful Jennifer Garner; has she ever looked better?), Nikolas’s daughter, into Matt Murdock’s life because every hero needs his love interest. This was a plot thread taken directly from the comics, a story arc written by the incredible Frank Miller, who created Elektra, introduced her as an assassin, and she and Matt fell in love. Elektra was then murdered by Bullseye in one of the most unexpected shockers of the day. In the movie, Bullseye eliminates Natchios, but Elektra mistakes Daredevil for the killer and she goes after him. She discovers his identity too late and while Daredevil lies bleeding to the side, Bulleyes attacks and, again, in a very shocking and unexpected turn (for the casual moviegoer, that is. Us comics readers knew it was coming and Johnson, Farrell, and Garner did an amazing job), Elektra is killed before Matt’s eyes--so to speak. Daredevil gets his second wind, takes out the assassin, then goes after the boss.

The plot of this movie is very simple, probably a little too simple. The love story between Matt and Elektra is so quick, I didn’t believe for a second they’d only met twice before they wound up in bed together. Maybe it’s the chemistry between the actors, but they seemed to me as if they’d known each other for years. But Johnson seemed to have been choosing style over substance from the beginning anyway, wanting to tell a visually interesting story as opposed to a logical one (for instance, how does a lawyer who makes almost no money off his cases afford the type of sanctuary Murdock‘s got?). And if that was his intention, then he succeeded. DAREDEVIL is a thing of beauty to behold, at least for this longtime fanboy.

The colors have been digitally treated so they can pull certain things to the fore, like the sickly green of an early courtroom scene, or the soothing midnight blue of the nighttime sky in the next scene. The camera is used not as a way to let us see the actors and what they’re doing as in a lot of boring movies, but as another way of telling this story, with tilted shots, sweeping arcs, and what Johnson calls a Dutch shot. An example of how he uses the camera comes from that same sickly green courtroom scene. Matt is losing his case and he’s helpless to do anything about it, yet. As a way of showing his powerlessness in this setting, Johnson doesn’t follow Affleck’s movements. If Matt walks into the scene, we can see him, but Johnson refuses to track him if he steps out of the scene again because in this setting, Matt is not in control. It’s not until the next scene when Daredevil appears that Matt has gained the upper hand again. When you get down to it, considering the filmmaking versus the story, DAREDEVIL is really more a technical movie than anything else. The most interesting things about this story are not the details, but the way they’re presented. So maybe Johnson is a better director than he is screenwriter? I think so. But for me, I’m just glad someone took on this character who had such a deep understanding of it, staying true to the heart of Matt Murdock, his Catholic background, his depressing childhood, his daily struggles. The plot may have been lacking, but Johnson did a great job in presenting one of the most underrated superheroes in comic books.

*******

The big thing lately is the DVD version, what’s it got on it, how many discs is it, how many hours of extra are on there? Some directors and studios, I believe, go a little overboard when putting together the DVD package and that’s definitely the case here. First off, not every DVD released these days HAS to be a 2-disc set. Sometimes all that is of interest to us can be put on 1 disc. For instance, I enjoyed the Making Of featurette. But including the HBO First Look special too was a waste of time since it was basically made up of HALF the Making Of feature. Do we need this information twice? I loved the interviews with past writers and artists on the DAREDEVIL comic, Frank Miller, John Romita (Jr. AND Sr.), Gene Colon, Kevin Smith, etc. But who really needs Jennifer Garner’s screen test or the multi-angle scene studies? 3 music videos? Are you kidding me? There is a thing called overkill and it has definitely struck the DAREDEVIL DVD.

I was however, very interested in seeing the evolution and making of the costume because when you’re talking about a super-hero movie, that’s the first thing the fans want to know, what’s the costume look like. We were treated to a TV version of Daredevil in the 80s in one of 3 made-for-TV Incredible Hulk movies and that version scarred us so bad, the fans were holding their breath waiting for news of the costume. To see that Johnson and company got it absolutely right without letting it look goofy was a huge relief.

I was also very interested in the commentary track from Johnson and producer Gary Foster. I love listening to commentary tracks and then watching the bad parts because I want to see if they acknowledge those scenes. Johnson and Foster did. There is so much of this movie that was CGI, but only 3 really badly done scenes and everyone, including the filmmakers, know it. I like when the director can admit something sucks.

I think for all its faults and shortcomings, DAREDEVIL was a very good superhero movie, made by a director with a genuine passion, not just for the act of moviemaking, but for the subject itself and that love of the material shows through, so I have to like the movie even more then. I just hope his love of other characters (I hear he’s developing the GHOST RIDER movie next) is as deep as the one for this character. Meanwhile, I’d love to see a sequel.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older