by Dimetre Alexiou
Those seeking a straight-ahead action movie a la XXX will not be
disappointed. Those who are happy just to see another comic book hero
turned into flesh will not be disappointed. Those are not the people I am
writing for. I am writing for people who have followed the adventures of
'the man without fear,' chronicled on paper and communicated through ink,
through the good years and the bad. I write this knowing that we are not
for whom this movie was made.
There are good aspects to this movie. I was pleasantly surprised by the
portrayal of Daredevil's 'radar' sense. (I feel it is more accurately
described as 'sonar' and this movie backs me up. Don't get me started.)
After squirming through The Trial of the Incredible Hulk and the
lazy portrayal of Daredevil's radar sense in the 1990's animated
Spider-Man series, I don't think I could have asked for a better
rendering of Matt's 'radar' sense.
I was also highly impressed with Colin Farrell's portrayal of Bullseye. I
don't think that writer and director Mark Steven Johnson gave Farrell much
to go on, but Farrell obviously ran with the 'psychotic' angle of the
character and had a ball. He tripled the energy on the screen whenever he
appeared.
I also enjoyed the emotional moments between Matt Murdock and Elektra
Natchios, especially when Matt was able to read her face through the rain.
But this is the perfect segueway to where my review turns negative.
Johnson has repeatedly told the media that he is a longtime fan of
Daredevil. If this is true, than he has to realize what was so special
about Daredevil and Elektra's relationship. He truly loves this woman, but
she is not what she once was and he has stop her. It is one of the most
tragic and romantic love stories of which I am aware. In Frank Miller's
stories, Daredevil is highly conflicted when he is fighting Elektra. He
wants to caress her, but he knows she will continue to kill. The stakes
are enormously high for our hero. Not so in Johnson's tale. Elektra is a
perfectly nice woman that Murdock has met in a coffee shop. She is trained
in some sort of martial art, but nobody thinks she is going to kill
anyone.
Anyone halfway familiar with the art of storytelling knows that the higher
the stakes, the more compelling the story. Lower the stakes, and the
audience will care less about the characters' fates. This is what has
happened with this movie. Johnson has tried to please everyone, and he
mistakenly thinks that the way to do this is to cram twenty years of comic
history into one movie. As a result, Elektra's history has been gutted.
She more closely resembles Echo from 'Parts of a Hole,' but is less
compelling. Johnson has obviously done this so there is space for Bullseye
in this movie, and if your going to have Bullseye, than you have to make
space for the Kingpin.
Of Elektra, Bullseye and Kingpin, the character with the most impact on
audiences will be Bullseye, and all the credit for that has to go to
Farrell. Duncan and Garner are talented actors, but Johnson has given them
very little to work with. Anyone who has ever followed Daredevil in the
comics is sure to weep at how the Kingpin has been wasted in this film,
especially since such a talented actor has been cast in the role. Try to
think about how someone totally new to every one of these characters would
react to this film. When the final credits roll, do you think they know
what Kingpin is all about? I can assure you that they are not prepared to
read Elektra: Assassin, or any comic Greg Rucka has written in the
current ongoing series.
Ben Affleck was woeful in the title role. One of his early scenes showing
Murdock in court displayed his atrocious acting ability. Daredevil,
throughout his history, has never been afraid of displaying emotion. In an
early battle involving the Punisher he showed compassion, pleading with a
child not to murder a felon, and allow the judicial system to proceed.
Even when he has fought Bullseye, Daredevil has shown enough humanity to
pull him out of the way of an oncoming train. Johnson has obviously chosen
to overlook this, even though he claims to be a long time follower of
Daredevil. He has allowed Affleck to portray him as a seething monster who
equates justice with 'eye for an eye' style murder, and when that's not
happening Affleck portrays him as a cold-hearted robot. And when
that's not happening, Affleck dons a self-satisfied smirk.
My view is, if Mark Steven Johnson truly respects Daredevil as much as he
says he does, than he should have invested the time and effort to make the
best Daredevil movie possible, and settled for nothing less. I simply can
not believe that Johnson thinks this is that. He has made this for the
sake of getting it made, and unfortunately we have to live with
it. We have to live with the rapid-fire editing that makes the fight
scenes impossible to follow. We have to live with the nonsensical scene
where Elektra comes to the wrong conclusion about her father's murderer
even though the real killer did the deed right in front of her!
It would not be fair to give this movie a failing grade. It wasn't awful,
but it was extremely flawed. Is it watchable? Yes, it is. But, for anyone
familiar with the character over a lengthy period of time, is it the best
it could have been? Not even close. Does 'the man without fear' deserve
better? Yes he does.
