I hope you love comic book based movies because we're going to be up to our ears in them this year. Up first is Daredevil, based on the Marvel comic of the same name. It follows Matt Murdock, a blind lawyer born and raised in the area of New York known as Hell's Kitchen. His father was a professional boxer killed by the mob for failing to take a dive. Young Matt witnessed the murder, even though he didn't see it. Weeks before that, he was rendered blind by a chemical accident but the chemicals that stole his sight also amplified his other senses, giving him an almost radar-like ability to sense what is around him. Driven by an intense need for vengeance, Matt trains himself to fight, builds specialized weapons and takes to the night, stalking Hell's Kitchen as a masked vigilante, picking off the predators he isn't able to deal with in court.
Think of Daredevil as Batman but scaled down to more realistic terms. He isn't a billionaire with endless resources for weapons and vehicles. He doesn't face deal with massive schemes by villains to take over/destroy the world. But he does deal with the murder of his parents by putting on a costume and beating up criminals in the middle of the night. Oddly enough, he has the radar ability you'd think a guy who takes his inspiration from bats should have had. Go figure.
Ben Affleck plays Murdock/Daredevil. Affleck's best roles are almost always comedic. He has an easy charm and good sense of comic timing that make him a natural for that. Here, he's at his best when playing Murdock dealing with ordinary daily life. Unfortunately that's only about a quarter of the role. Much of the rest of it is fighting, flexing and grimacing at the bad guys, causing him to look a little awkward. Not bad mind you, just a bit uncomfortable. He does however put that charm to great effect in scenes with Jennifer Garner. She plays Elektra, daughter of a wealthy Greek shipping magnate, and a serious ass kicker.
The pair meet in a coffee house but soon adjourn outside to a playground to take part in the traditional acrobatic sparring that most people engage in these days before trading names. I'm kidding of course but seriously, kids might want to try this. It sounds silly when I write about it but the scene is clever and sexy even as the two try to smack each other around. Definitely the best fight/flirt scene ever filmed. Foreplay as a contact sport.
Chemistry between the Garner and Affleck is excellent and makes their growing romance a pleasure to watch. I'm sure women find Affleck easy on the eyes but I barely noticed. Garner is simply stunning from the moment we first see her and she seems to get steadily sexier as the movie goes on, a feat I would have assured you impossible after the meet cute fight. Garner is definitely one to keep an eye on. She has an uncanny ability to kick some serious ass and then appear remarkably vulnerable in the very next scene. Her range is great and couple with drop dead gorgeous looks, it all but assures her a fast rise to superstardom. Sigourney Weaver has long been considered the only woman who could open an action movie successfully. I bet Garner can muscle on to that very short list in no time flat.
The movie actually gets off to an awful start. The first several minutes are an orgy of fast cuts, flashes of other scenes, gratuitous CGI effects and awkward titles that had me all but ready to give up on the film. Seriously. Things were not looking promising. Then we saw Daredevil's secret stash and I all but chucked my notebook. But then we meet Murdock's law partner Foggy (Jon Favreau) and I calmed a bit. Then Garner appears and I not only forget the bad opening but my name as well. Soon after we meet our villains, The Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and Bullseye (Colin Farrell) and I'm once again happy. The secret of this film is not the action, not Affleck's heart throb status and not the special effects. No the secret is in the supporting characters. Elektra is a love interest as dangerous as the star. Kingpin is a virtually note perfect take on the original comic character where Duncan seems to be having a ball. Bullseye is an over the top, fun and frightening villain. They need only about two minutes to introduce him as deadly and crazy and Farrell barely has to say a word to do it. Nice. Foggy is a riot. All of these people build a rich tapestry against which we can find a reason to care about Daredevil.
The plot involves Elektra's father trying to back out of business with the Kingpin, a mob leader of mob leaders. He takes offense and calls in his top assassin, Bullseye, to dispatch the old man. Bullseye has the great ability to be able to throw anything with deadly accuracy. He's so good a paperclip becomes deadly in his hands. He finishes his task in grand style, managing to implicate Daredevil in the process. Elektra now seeks revenge on her boyfriend, only she doesn't know that her boyfriend is Daredevil. Plus Bullseye is intent on bumping off both of them. You don't need to know much more than that.
When you get right down to it, most superheroes could be considered vigilantes, Daredevil more so than most. This is a guy whose moral code is a quagmire. He's honest enough that he won't take clients that aren't innocent (no wonder his partner complains about how little they make). At the same time he thinks nothing of beating up or even killing a criminal. I'd have loved to see this explored in some depth but the film dispatches most of that conflict with a few cornball lines like "Can one make a difference? There are days when I believe that and days when I don't." Ugh.
The film makes a point of hitting all the little details that comic book fans will love to death. Look for cameos by comic book legends Stan Lee and Frank Miller. Take note of the names of fighters and clients. Look for the extend cameo by Kevin Smith (Clerks, Chasing Amy) who wrote the Daredevil comic for a time. Obviously the average moviegoer will never notice these things but it shows respect for the source material to take the time to do these things.
Daredevil doesn't meet the high standards set by its predecessor films X-Men and Spider-Man but that doesn't make it a bad film. For the most part it's an entertaining bit of action that serves as appetizer for the bigger comics coming to the theater later this year.
- John Shea
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