Movie Review: Daredevil (2003)

Daredevil, Director's Cut [2003]

Daredevil came out at a period of time where superhero movies were either sequels of already established superheroes (mostly just Batman, Spider-Man and the X-Men) and where the producers and audience alike are sort of torn between the tone of superhero movies. This was before Batman Begins and Iron Man re-codified what superhero movies should be, so poor, poor Daredevil came out at around a weird time where superhero adaptations had to appeal to both the adults and children; cannot be too cheesy but cannot be too dark... and apparently was released with around 30 minutes chopped off the running time, 30 minutes that were restored in the Director's Cut. 

I don't really remember a lot of the theatrical cut -- hell, I don't remember much about this movie other than 'blind man beats up bad guys' and a vague recollection of watching it. It's swept under the rug of so many more impressive (or impressively bad) superhero movies or movies tied to an ongoing continuity. The release of Marvel-Netflix's highly successful Daredevil TV show has all but displaced this movie in the nerd collective's mind.

But is it that bad? I picked up the Director's Cut version of this movie a while back, and I watched it. Having essentially forgotten everything about the theatrical version, it was all but a fresh movie to me. And... and it's a perfectly fine movie, one that, while probably nowhere up to the heights that the MCU enjoys, is a perfectly serviceable superhero outing. I'm not sure just which scenes were on the chopping block and don't really care enough to look it up, but the movie does a pretty neat balancing act of Matt Murdock's origin story, Daredevil as a troubled vigilante ("I'm not the bad guy!"), Matt Murdock as a lawyer, Elektra's sort-of-origin-story and the whole plot of there being a an underground Kingpin who's been manipulating everything -- from the rigged trials Murdock has to deal with by day; to the assassination of Elektra's father, a businessman who wants out from the Kingpin's influence; to even, in 1989-Batman-style, the murder of Daredevil's father. Oh, and Bullseye is there, too, as the big physical menace to fight Daredevil for a good chunk of the movie before he connects the dots and hunts down Kingpin. 

The story's pretty decent if simple, and there's a neat thematic attempt at trying to sell a darker, more mature superhero storyline interwoven with pretty well-choreographed (even if there were some rather dated CGI) fights. That said, there were definitely some parts that I think didn't work quite as well. Colin Farrell is extremely hammy and glorious to watch, but I also think that it didn't quite fit the tone of what the movie was trying to do. I'm also not a big fan of the Elektra subplot, which just takes up a hefty chunk of the movie's runtime. I am not opposed to Elektra's backstory being tied to the Kingpin/Daredevil conflict, or that Elektra is Matt's love interest in this movie, or that the Daredevil is framed for the murder of Elektra's father, but the whole "Elektra suddenly gets sais and can kick a lot of ass, stabs Daredevil, and then abruptly gets killed by Bullseye" chunk just feels like a huge chunk of trying to have your cake and eat it. 

Perhaps my favourite part of this movie is the confrontation between Kingpin and Daredevil. Kingpin (here played by the intensely imposing Michael Clark Duncan) is built up pretty well throughout this movie as a ruthless titan, and when he takes off his suit and begins pummeling Daredevil -- who's been through Bullseye and Elektra fights throughout the movie -- it's pretty damn awesome. Sure, the whole 'rain lets me see' plot point is a bit too cheesy, but it's still a pretty decent movie that honestly doesn't deserve the flak it gets. And it probably wouldn't get that much flak if the studio hadn't butchered the movie when it was released to the public.

There are also some neat bits of retroactive recognition too, the most obvious being Ben Affleck a.k.a. our newest live-action Batman, as Daredevil. Affleck's performance is another highlight of the movie, where despite some obvious "oh my I'm in love" nonsense, he does an amazing job at making Matt Murdock feel like he walked off the comic book pages, angst and all. Jon Favreau (MCU's Happy Hogan) played Matt's lawyer sidekick Foggy Nelson, and that bit is just hilarious.

Overall, it's a surprisingly solid movie, all things considered. It's a flawed  movie thanks to a bit of a mishandling of the subplots and trying too hard to introduce Elektra and the 'Elektra dies' subplot into a movie that already tries to explore multiple aspects of Daredevil's character... but I still enjoy it anyway unironically.