| The
Review: |
Matt Murdock's (Ben Affleck) day
job is as a lawyer, mostly for pro bono clients. He is trying
to help the victims that live in Hell's Kitchen, a run down
part of New York City (read 'Gotham') where he grew up under
similar circumstances. But at night, Matt Murdock is Daredevil,
a superhero that can be hurt, but still has super powers.
Apparently Matt had a run in with biologically hazardous material
when he was a young man and, as a result, he's blind. However,
all of his other senses have compensated for his blindness
and the result of the exposure to the biohazard is a sort
of sonar that allows him to see using sound waves. Somehow
this translates into him being able to jump from rooftop to
rooftop like spiderman, fight like Bruce Lee, and sense things
better than most people with normal vision. But, of course,
no one is supposed to know that. ***
One day, kind of out of the blue,
Matt meets a woman named Elektra Natchios, Jennifer Garner,
who Matt has to fight to find out her name. The next day they
make love and have developed a very serious relationship (I'm
actually not leaving anything out here, this is how it happens).
As it turns out Elektra's father, Natchios (Erick Avari),
is involved in some dirty business with THE crime boss of
New York (he's the only one in the movie) who goes by the
name 'Kingpin' (Michael Clarke Duncan). When Natchios tries
to sell out, Kingpin orders him killed by an evil henchman
named Bullseye (Colin Farrell (I)). Of course Daredevil tries
to stop him, but fails and is actually mistakenly believed
to have been the one that killed him. ***
Now Elektra has to avenge her father's
death. Having been trained in all sorts of martial arts she
comes after Daredevil. Daredevil tries to convince her that
it wasn't him, but to no avail and she ends up stabbing him
in the shoulder (important plot point) before removing his
mask to find out that it is her lover, Matt. He finally convinces
her that it wasn't him just as Bullseye shows up. Weakened
by his wound from the fight with Elektra, Daredevil can only
watch while she is skewered by Bullseye. ***
Just as Elektra is killed the police
show up and Daredevil has to escape. He finally collapses
on the floor of the Catholic Church where his confidant, the
one person that knows his true identity, Father Everett (Derrick
O'Connor), can help him. But before he can receive medical
attention for his wound Bullseye shows up wanting to finish
what he started. So, Daredevil is now faced with fighting
Bullseye and also decides to finish the whole thing with Kingpin
that very night, resulting in a show down with Kingpin in
his office. ***
Even given the 'suspension of belief'
leeway of a comic book story, this has to be the most ridiculous
movie I have seen in a long time. It was so bad I'm not even
sure where to begin. ***
Ben Affleck is a terrible actor.
I've seen him in two decent roles - 'Good Will Hunting' and
'The Sum of All Fears'. In both he was a supporting actor
coupled with a great actor that was able to carry him (Matt
Damon and Morgan Freeman, respectively). With only Jennifer
Garner to support him in this film, whose only contribution
was her looks, he was simply in too deep. Ben Affleck cannot
carry a film. He is not a leading man and I don't know how
many horrible films it is going to take before someone powerful
enough to keep him out of leading roles realizes this. He
is an 'ok' supporting actor, but he needs someone to push
him or you get something like this movie which can only be
described as a cinematic disaster. ***
As much as I hate to admit it,
Michael Clarke Duncan is in an identical situation. He is
not a crime boss, he's a henchman. Crime bosses need to be
smart, not bodybuilders. No offense to Mr. Duncan (I loved
him in 'The Green Mile'), but he just doesn't come across
as a highly intelligent crime boss. His perfect role was in
'The Whole Nine Yards' - a big, beefy henchman. Just like
Arnold Schwarzenegger, he's better off when he doesn't have
to speak, unless he is playing a slightly less-intelligent
actor. ***
So, who does this leave? Well,
I already said that Jennifer Garner's only contribution was
her looks, so she's out as a decent actor. That leaves only
Colin Farrel and Jon Favreau. Though some may disagree, I
think Colin Farrel has potential and, despite his character
being rather corny in this (killing someone with a paper clip
is corny, not cool), he wasn't too bad. However, the favorite
actor of the film was Jon Favreau, who was probably only in
10 minutes, but they were undoubtedly the best 10 minutes
of the film. He was funny and delivered his lines well enough
that he was a convincing sidekick. Overall, most of the major
names attached to this movie (Affleck, Garner, and Duncan)
but were horrible. The casting director for this film should
be blacklisted forever!!! ***
So, the acting sucked. What about
the rest of the movie? Well, the story fared no better. Instead
of revealing Daredevil's past throughout the movie the first
20-25 minutes are dedicated to his backstory (his relationship
with his dad, losing his eyesight, developing his abilities,
etc.). Sure, they did this in Spiderman, but it was much shorter
and much more interesting. ***
Then there is the relationship
with Elektra. My summary of the relationship may seem kind
of superficial, but what makes this incredible is that my
summary was completely accurate. There is no reason for them
to meet - she just walks into a coffee shop one day while
he's sitting inside. Their introduction turns into an absolutely
pointless 10 minute fight scene that is almost completely
computer generated, and it is all just to find out what her
name is. Two minutes later (the next day in the movie) they
have somehow developed this 'deep' relationship and, bottabing,
Matt Murdock scores. Shallow, pointless, and lame. There is
no relationship and no relationship development. He's attracted
to her looks (that's the only nice thing he ever says to her)
and apparently that is enough to drive the next 30 minutes
of fight scenes in the movie. ***
Skipping a bunch of other absolutely
ridiculous points in the movie I'll just talk about the final
confrontation in the movie. Daredevil, who has been stabbed
by his lover (remember I mentioned that in the summary) is
now in his third major fight of the day (1st - Elektra, 2nd
- Bullseye) with Kingpin, who is about four times bigger than
Daredevil is. Of course, Kingpin has to admit to having killed
Matt's father, which is always the absolute worst thing a
villain can do. Just mention that you were responsible for
the one thing that has been their motivation for the majority
of their life and you're bound to lose; it's like giving them
the gun to shoot you. This gives Daredevil the energy he needs
to defeat Kingpin, despite his bum shoulder, which actually
doesn't affect him at all. The fight ends with Daredevil/Matt
taking the rose on Kingpin's desk, which is Kingpin's 'signature',
and dropping it off the building where his father was killed.
I've never been much of one for tribute's, but dropping a
rose off a building onto the street has to be the most ridiculous
tribute I've ever seen. ***
One last thing that goes hand in
hand with Ben Affleck being a horrible actor and the story
absolutely sucking - the computer generated sequences. Did
Affleck ever actually do any of his own fight sequences? Every
time he was supposed to do anything there wasn't a close up
of his face and most of his 'amazing' stuff - like jumping
off buildings and bouncing up the sides of them were blatantly
bad computer generation. Which reminds me, why don't superheroes
ever just take cabs? But anyway, I much prefer action sequences
where the actors are actually doing the fighting (Jet Li,
Jackie Chan, even Matt Damon). I'm sure Ben Affleck is a nice
guy in his own right, but he really doesn't belong in film.
Not only is he a horrible actor but a pathetic athlete, resulting
in the absolutely horrendous computer generated fight sequences
that made up at least 30% of the movie and 90% of the fight
scenes. ***
Overall, the acting and story are
about as bad as they come (two actor exceptions noted above).
I don't know that this will ever get to the studio and production
executives, but I've got to try, "If you didn't lose money
on this film, you should have. If you didn't lose your jobs,
you should have. Don't ever, ever cast Ben Affleck in a leading
role again."
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| The
Extras |
This 2-disc set is chock full of
extras. Offering both commentary and footage of the movie-making
process, the majority of the extra features focus on how the
film was created. However, there are also a number of additional
features looking into the comic book story, music videos,
and even some DVD-ROM games and storyboards. The extra features
will offer the moviephile several hours of additional entertainment.
***
There are, however, a couple of
things that need to be pointed out. First, for all of you
Jennifer Garner fans, there isn't much to see here. Her screen
test is short, not very sensual, and even kind of silly, with
her cracking up half the time. If you're looking for fantasy
footage, you'll just have to keep pretending. The Kingpin
featurette, highlighting the 'bad guy' of the film is really
more of a rehash of the other featurettes (the HBO first look
featurette in particular). It doesn't really offer much more
information, just a few minutes of additional interview with
Michael Clarke Duncan, though he does kind of poke fun of
Ben Affleck, which I liked. ***
The short featurette with Tom Sullivan
seemed strangely out of place. Admittedly it was interesting
to see some of the extraordinary things he has been able to
do (Tom is the blindness consultant on the film), and I guess
the featurette serves as something of a tribute to the blind,
but when everyone else on the DVD is talking about the DVD
and the story of Daredevil, this just didn't seem to fit as
it focused on Tom's life and his daily activities (jogging,
playing golf, going to the gym, etc.). Don't get me wrong,
the content is very interesting and of course I wish Mr. Sullivan
the best, I just wonder why this ended up on the DVD. ***
The music videos are combinations
of clips of the band interlaced with clips from the movie.
I must admit that I'm not particularly familiar with any of
the bands, but the music was pretty good. ***
With short interview clips from
all of the major contributors to the film, the HBO first look
special worked fairly well as a short, behind-the-scenes look
at the movie. Narrated by Jennifer Garner and including some
nifty special effects of its own, the featurette is well done.
However, I was kind of surprised when the actors and production
crew begin repeating themselves by the end of the featurette;
apparently they ran out of footage but still had room to fill.
If they had cut this just five minutes shorter they could
have avoided the repetition and turned out a great additional
feature. ***
The "Men Without Fear" 60 minute
feature includes interviews with most of the artists and story
writers of the Daredevil comic. Each interview lasts between
4 and 8 minutes and covers what they felt to be their contributions
to the storyline and the Daredevil legacy. It is also interesting
to see the evolution of the Daredevil artwork from its inception
in the 1960s to the present. This extra feature was particularly
enjoyable to watch and is almost worth buying the DVD if you
were ever a fan of the comic book. ***
I do have to point out one final
problem with the extra features and the DVD layout in general
- the menus to navigate between the features of the DVD use
visuals that are supposed to represent Daredevil's sonar-type
vision interlaced with brail characters. This makes the menus
difficult to read and maneuver. It's kind of a cool concept,
but more annoying than entertaining. ***
Overall, very few DVD's can compete
with the sheer number of extra features. The extra features
are a great addition, but, alas, they can't make up for a
horrible movie. --
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