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| Daredevil
Directed By: Mark
Steven Johnson Plot
Summary - Review 1 - Review
2 - CURRENT REVIEWS
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| Fate deals young orphan Matt Murdock a strange hand when he is doused with radioactive waste. The accident leaves Matt blind but also gives him a heightened "radar sense" that allows him to "see" far better than any man. Years later Murdock has grown into a man and becomes a respected criminal attorney. But after he's done his "day job" Matt takes on a secret identity as "The Man Without Fear," Daredevil, the masked avenger that patrols the neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen and New York City to combat the injustice that he cannot tackle in the courtroom.[TRAILER] For me, “Daredevil” was over in the blink of an eye. It not only kept my interest, but kept me excited about what would come next. I think this is perhaps the greatest compliment a film can receive. I gave my time, and I don’t regret a second. This does not mean that “Daredevil” will go down as one of my top films of the year. It is just a fun movie that I thought was pretty darn good. “Daredevil” is the newest in a long line of comic book films, joining the ranks of “Superman,” “Batman” and last year’s record-setting “Spider-Man.” The unlikely superhero in this installment is Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck), a man who went blind as a child and soon after overheard the savage murder of his father. He has vowed to protect the decent citizens of New York City, and be the guardian angel that his father never had. He works as a lawyer, as his father always hoped, and takes out “justice” on those that skirt the judicial system. Franklin (Jon Favreau) is his co-worker, and serves as “Daredevil’s” steady comic relief. One day, as Murdock and Franklin discuss the mysterious Daredevil that keeps appearing in the city’s papers, in walks Elektra (Jennifer Garner), a master of martial arts and the film’s default romantic interest. Lurking in the background are memorable enemies that seek to take Daredevil down. There is Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan), an elitist who orders the deaths of people under the guise of “business,” and Bullseye (Colin Farrell), a clearly pathological marksman that can kill a person with a variety of everyday weapons. My favorite was Bullseye’s deadly use of an everyday paperclip. “Daredevil” works because it does what so few comic book films remember to do – keep a story centered around an actual human being. Unlike “Spider-Man,” which allowed its very story to be enveloped by special effects gone berserk, “Daredevil” is first and foremost a story about the character of Matt Murdock. He is a surprisingly sad and lonely character. His father dead, and existing solely to hunt down evildoers, he does not really have anyone to talk to. He can never tell anyone, besides a disapproving priest, about his nightly heroic acts. In fact, many actually mistake him as an evildoer. His commitment to crime-fighting makes it nearly impossible for him to lead a normal life. If all this sounds a bit dark, it is. “Daredevil” is not a celebration of an individual superhero, but a story about a lost soul that has yet to confront his past. He is a conflited hero, a lost soul and like all great characters is richer thanks to his complexity. I want to address the uniqueness of Murdock’s blindness. Rarely is a superhero physically impaired. Spider-Man has webbing, Superman can fly, but I cannot think of many action heroes that make use of a physical disability. But rather than letting Murdock’s blindness sink “Daredevil,” writer and director Mark Steven Johnson (“Simon Birch”) makes it perhaps the most amazing aspect of the entire film. His blindness has sharpened Murdock’s other senses. His hearing, his smell, and his touch all give him what equates to human radar, and the viewer is frequently placed inside Murdock’s head, seeing the strange images and sounds that he sees. But this gift is also his curse. He is constantly plagued by excruciating noise. He has difficulty tuning things out. His sensitivity to noise is the weakness his enemies exploit. You may be wondering why I devoted so much space to the description of Daredevil himself. For me, this is what “Daredevil” is all about; the uniqueness of his character, the cursed blessing of his disability, and the emptiness with which he lives day by day. As he overcomes his struggles, commits himself to his task, and even begins to fall in love, we remain interested and absorbed because we legitimately care about Murdock the person – about the eyes behind the mask. For those, like me, who didn’t really enjoy “Spider-Man,” it is refreshing to see a film get it so right. If “Daredevil” makes one mistake, it is not transferring this humanity to the fight scenes. In Daredevil’s few fights, he seems to become superhuman, making absurd leaps and slow-motion moves that almost stop the film’s believable story dead in its tracks. Thankfully, there are few of these fights and each one is so important to Murdock’s life that we endure their superficiality, waiting anxiously to see how it will turn out. There is so much more that deserves mention, like the lighting, the hilarious insanity that Farrell brings to Bullseye, and the original set pieces, like a church’s grand organ, that enliven “Daredevil’s” action sequences. Much like the movie, my review must come to an end far too soon. 
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