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Daredevil (Widescreen Edition) Customer Reviews (19 - 21 of 72 Reviews)

4.5 stars - This review is for ALL EDITIONS of the film
Daredevil (2003.) A film based on the Marvel comic book series.

INTRODUCTION:
I'll be honest - I've never been a big comic book reader. But in recent years, a number of films based on Marvel comic books have been released, and out of boredom I have gone to the theatres to see most of them - and I have been VERY impressed, despite my lack of knowledge on the comic book universes. Following the release of the 2002 blockbuster Spider-Man, Marvel attempted to bring one of its lesser-known charaters to the big screen - Daredevil. And now the film has arrived on DVD. Read on for my review of Daredevil.

STORYLINE:
Many years ago, a young boy was involved in an accident involving chemicals. The chemicals caused him to go blind, but at the same time, strengthened his four other senses. Following the murder of his father at the hands of a crime lord, he becomes a crime fighter, vowing to get revenge for his father's death, and to prevent such a tragedy from ever occuring to anyone else again. Keeping a day job as a lawyer and fighting crime by night, he continually makes an effort to maintain peace in his home city, and to find his father's killer.

FILM OPINIONS:
Overall I was very satisfied with this film. Admittingly, I had never heard of the Daredevil character until this film arrived in theatres, but that didn't keep me from being impressed by the movie. A lot of people diss Ben Affleck's acting in this movie, but I think he filled the role pretty well. Likewise, Michael Clarke Duncan makes a great Kingpin. As a whole, this film has a darker and more menacing film than Spider-Man did, but I think this only adds to the appeal. I do have a few minor complaints, though. First of all, the story is too similar to Spider-Man (boy gets involved in a freak accident and gets super powers, father figure dies, he becomes a crimefighter and has to juggle it with his everyday life, etc.) The other complaint is that the ending of the film is a bit anticlimatic and seems rushed - the battles that lead up to the final battle are, in my opinion, MUCH more exciting. Still, despite these flaws, Marvel has served up a damn good film adaptation of the Man Without Fear.

DVD:
There are two different DVD releases of this film - the original 2003 DVD release, and the 2004 Director's Cut release. The original DVD release has a whole second disc worth of bonus material (much like the Spider-Man DVDs), which is pretty cool. If you're the kind of person who buys DVDs for the sake of all the bonus material and such, I recommend this edition. And then we have the Director's Cut. This version is only single disc, but this version of the film adds in nearly half an hour worth of extra footage, while at the same time cutting out some of the footage that was added to the theatrical edition. Of course, the stuff that was cut is NOT VITAL to the storyline, and the lost footage revives a subplot that was missing from the theatrical version entirely. Unfortunately though, the Director's Cut has almost NO EXTRAS on it, other than commentary, a featurette with the director, and trailers for Alien Vs. Predator and I Robot. WHY THE HELL WERE THESE TRAILERS INCLUDED AS EXTRAS!? The trailers for Daredevil would have been much more appropriate. I really wish the Director's Cut had the second disc of bonus material the original release had. If you're more interested in the movie itself rather than all the bells and whistles DVD releases add to films, the Director's Cut is recommended. Final verdict here? The original DVD release is better if you want bonus material and the film as it appeared in theatres. The Director's Cut is better if you want a fuller, more complete cinematic experience that the director originally intended (and it really IS the superior version of the film.) Whichever version you decide to buy is up to you, just keep these comments in mind.

OVERALL:
Overall, Daredevil is a damn good film, and I was very impressed. And it's great to finally have a Director's Cut version available, so that fans can finally get a lengthier version of the film that adds in some depth that was missing from the theatrical release. And if you want the theatrical version, or you just want a lot of DVD extras, the older edition is still available. No matter which version of the film you choose, Daredevil is fast-paced, dark-toned action film that won't fail to please if you're into this sort of thing.

Dark movie, with a positive message.
Well let me start off by saying that I haven't seen the most recent DVD release of the Director's cut so I can't give you any information on that.
I do want to talk about the film's moral content but that will probably be last.
So let's start out with the story.
Matt Murdock (played masterfully by Ben Affleck), the man without fear, begins the story with his father being a out of luck boxer.
Matt grows up in a rough neighborhood called Hell's kitchen, after an accident he finds that he has special abilities.
He has a hightened sense of smell, touch, taste, and feel.
After several tragidies accur to him, he grows up, becoming a lawyer, and also (in the darkness of the city) becomes Daredevil.
Matt fights for justice, but if he loses a case (and justice, in his own version, is not fulfilled) he serves it with ultra-violent style.
Matt's love interest Elektra (played by Jennifer Garner) comes into the picture eventually, but their relationship, though trying to be emotional, feels forced.
There is a lot more to the plot (and I've really hastily scanned over most of it) but I think that I will focus more on the moral content in my review.
Matt Murdock is a complex character.
He is a man who is trying to do what he feels is morally right, but he often allows his own emotions to drive him.
His only confidant, a catholic priest, guides him and directs him in the proper way of justice.
Matt tries to listen but again, he is driven by emotions.
His relationship with Elektra is immorall, they sleep togeather premaritally (and a side note, the sex scene is not immensely bad but get's the point across).
The priest, while providing the moral basis for the film also has some quotes that don't ring true.
For instance, "A man without fear is a man without hope." That may be true in a wordly sense but not a spiritual sense.
God has not given a spirit of fear, outside of the respect of him.
The violence: Considerable, prolonged and at times bloody.
The mood of the movie is overall very dark so I wouldn't recommend it for people who are sensitive.
The foul language: Present throughout, for most Christians it will probably be enough to drive them away.
This is definately not a movie for children and sensitive teens.
I know I keep giving warnings but whoever is to watch this should be able to emotionally handle it.
Overall: Daredevil is a great movie, it does have many positive messages, but parents should be warned that there is plenty of content to keep the youngsters away.

A Catholic Superhero with Glimmers of the Catholic Mystery
Americans these days talk of something they call `a guilty pleasure'. Something they shouldn't enjoy - often due to so-called political correctness - but nonetheless do. When I see Daredevil, I understand the feeling. This film contradicts many values I try to stand for. There is brutal, gratuitous violence - including a murder played for laughs in one scene - a brash, flash superficiality and much else besides, which smacks of what John Paul II called `the culture of death'.

Yet I've found the film strangely compelling. At one level, I grew up with American superheroes - and my inner teenager finds something `cool' about a Catholic superhero. Yes, here we have a superhero whose origins are not only explicitly Catholic - but who continues to practice as an adult. (He goes to confession twice in the film).

Moreover, the film is filled with Catholic imagery. The iconography of a neo-Gothic church dominates the movie. A church bell restores the tormented young Daredevil to a sense of peace - and so forth. All of this is perhaps more important than it first appears. As I wander through modern culture, I increasingly feel the poverty of the sacred. There are so few visible reminders of life's mystery and depth. So much of what we see only proclaims a utilitarian efficiency and functionalism. Not to mention, countless exhortations to consume, consume, consume. Here in Daredevil we find a world significantly more replete with the kind of visual and aural reminders of the sacred that has always been distinctive to the Catholic vision.

Alone, none of this would suffice to redeem this dark comic-book film, did it not offer something else. That something else - in spite of everything - is heart. On a second viewing, I was surprised by how much human-ness breaks through the admittedly crass modernism and violence. Arguably, the central message of the film turns out to be: mercy. There is also something very touching about Daredevil's commitment to the innocent. And, as opposed to other superhero films, which promote infantile ideas of grandiose power, we have here a human being who visibly suffers. In conscience, psyche and a pain-wracked body. Here, Ben Affleck as Daredevil gives a moving performance.

Despite everything, the film has feeling. The film also appears to be less the product of a Hollywood assembly line and more the personal vision of one man: writer-director Mark Steven Johnson. On a second viewing, I couldn't help but think: in many ways, Mark Steven Johnson may have succumbed to the harsh commercial culture of modern Hollywood - yet underneath it all, something breaks forth in his film that is tender, very human and points in surprising ways to the power of the Catholic Mystery.

Postscript: I'm going to sit on the fence here. Elsewhere on Amazon, I've provided reviews, which speak to the possibility of a Catholic renaissance addressing the increasingly soulless robot-icisation of our culture. To recommend a brutal and in some ways, vacuous mainstream Hollywood movie in the midst of this, doesn't sit entirely comfortably with me. I wrote the above review some time ago in another context - never used - a time when I was younger and less serious than I feel today. Looking at it now, I'm not entirely sure how I'd feel about this film. But I do believe, as Benedict XVI has emphasised, that `the action of Christ and the Spirit outside the Church's visible boundaries must not be excluded' and that testimony to the redemptive power of mercy, humanness and Christ must not be overlooked - even in the most unlikely of places.

Also - this review refers to the theatrical version, not the director's cut, which I believe is more brutal and may cut some of the Catholic aspects (at least one of the confession scenes for example).

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