Daredevil (Film)

I enjoyed both of the first two Fantastic Four movies years later, and I liked, if not loved, Ang Lee's Hulk. I fully expected to enjoy this too.

I didn't. It's crap. Full stop.

In fairness there are individual elements I like. But really, it's not just doing the premise wrong, it's working against common sense, which is the bigger storytelling sin.

So Daredevil pushes the guilty rapist who got off free in court onto the train tracks, and kills him, and calls it justice. As a lawyer is he aware that rape is NOT a death penalty offense in New York City (and it no longer has it at all now)? Do you know what was back then? Murder. Just sayin'.

Him saying he's not the bad guy would be easier to take seriously if he literally weren't dressed like the Devil.

Of course I am going to compare it to the Netflix show. I realized two contradictory things. The Netflix show is better than this. And I freaking HATE the Netflix show! And yet, I still prefer the movie. Why? It's bad yes, but the Netflix show isn't THAT much better. And it's all TV-MA grim/dark all the time (and never shuts it off.) And to keep up with it and The Defenders you also had to watch five other dark and sucky shows it was connected to. The movie sucks worse, but after I watch Elektra, I can just wash my hands entirely of the crappy franchise. I much prefer that I won't be wasting a huge amount of time on something I don't like. I can handle two lousy movies.

This version of Elektra is superior to the TV show simply because I did not want to strangle her in every scene. Also should be noted that while Affleck's Matt Murdock kind of sucks, the truth is, once Elektra came to the TV show, I starting to absolutely loathe Charlie Cox as Murdock. And I never stopped for The Defenders or Season 3. The show's Elektra was so bad because she permanently ruined the main character for me. And maybe this version is a little blander, but she certainly never does anything like THAT.

Also Vincent D'Noffrio's performance as Wilson Fisk is universally praised, but there is one thing Michael Clarke Duncan has all over him, and it amazes me nobody negatively compares D'Noffrio to him for this reason. If Duncan were terrible in the role, I'd understand that. But he's fine. And do you know what else he is? Massive. As the Kingpin SHOULD be. D'Noffrio can chub up all he wants. That's not the same thing. At all. And it amazes me that I've never heard people praising Duncan's massive physicality before. Because that's one of the most major parts of the role in my mind.

I noticed a bunch of small characters I know from the TV show who were clearly created for the comics because they were in this movie first: Specifically Wesley and Ben Yurick.

For the record, say what you will about this movie (and it DOES admittedly suck), Kevin Feige produced it. And he had NOTHING to do with the Netflix show. I am not sure how I feel about that.

One thing I like about the film is that it's PG-13. Kids should be allowed to see a Daredevil property. The character is not an R-rated adults only character like Lobo or the Punisher. The Netflix shows being completely inappropriate for kids is not as bad as the Titans version of TV-MA for the Teen Titans. But it's bad for the same reasons. I loved the Daredevil episodes of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, and his appearance in one of the Incredible Hulk TV movies. I would pissed if they FINALLY did a Daredevil TV show when I was a kid, but it was too adult for me to watch it. And again, this movie is far worse as far as quality is concerned to the Netflix show. But that's one of the reasons I DO prefer it.

The TV show took an entire damn season to put him in the costume, so I appreciate we suited up so quickly and started off mid-Daredevil action. Normally, I don't like playing catch-up to the narrative that way, but the fact that the character starts off the movie Daredevil means it is a LOT less frustrating than most origin movies. I don't have to wait until the last fifteen minutes of the first movie to see the hero in all their glory. Although Affleck is hardly glorious in the role.

Here's something super dumb. This says that Matt Murdock's Kung Fu skills are self-taught. Now, I understand getting into the Stick parts of the origin story might have been a bigger detour for the movie than it really wanted. But Murdock teaching himself those things makes absolutely no sense. I was like "The producers clearly don't think much of me." You could accuse old-school superhero comics of the same level of unbelievable cynicism about their dumb kid readership back in the day, but movies are considered more realistic takes on the source material because they take great pains to try to make the premise seem plausible. This is actually dumber and less believable than being trained in Kung Fu by a blind dude named Stick.

I want Jon Favreau's Happy Hogan to meet Jon Favreau's Foggy (excuse me, FRANKLIN) Nelson. Are you hearing me, Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness?

Do you know what I like? The instant Elektra sees Daredevil is Matt she knows he didn't do it. They could have easily gone the other way for artificial drama, but that would have pissed me off. And enough of the movie already pissed me off.

Another thing I don't like is that Matt is pretty open about his blindness superpowers to his friends, and even total strangers. On the Netflix show Matt pretends his blindness makes him helpless to throw off suspicion that he could possibly be Daredevil. Matt tells Fisk at the end of the movie Fisk will keep his secret or else people in prison will learn he was beaten by a blind man. But as long as Matt's superpowers are not a secret, there's actually little shame in that.

This movie has a bad rap. And unlike the bad raps for the original Fantastic Four and Hulk movies, it's totally deserves it. It sucks. *1/2.