Daredevil (2003)

Maybe I’m partial to superhero films, but I hope I am not. I do my best to show what movies I think are good and which ones I think are terrible (*cough*Catwoman*cough*). In my opinion, at least, there are just a lot of good superhero movies out there. And I know that some will disagree with me, but I consider Daredevil to be one of those good superhero films. I have never read the comic book Daredevil, but I do know enough about the basic characters to compare the film to it. From what I know (and remember, that’s not very much) about Daredevil, the film is decently close. The film follows Matt Murdock, who as a young boy, was in an accident, and toxic chemicals got in his eyes, making them unusable. Later, as an adult (played by Ben Affleck), Matt is a blind lawyer by day, and is a masked vigilante at night. He goes by the name Daredevil, and later meets a girl named Elektra (Jennifer Garner) who is as much a ruthless machine as Daredevil is. They team up to fight Kingpin (Michael Clark Duncan) and his assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell), who can throw anything and hit the target perfectly. What follows is the simple formulaic superhero film. But the great thing about the superhero movie formula is that it still is effective, even if it has been used many times. All one needs is to be decently inventive, as Daredevil is, in order for the film to work. My two favorite parts of this movie is the acting, which I find to be very great. I am a supporter of Ben Affleck, and I believe that when he is able to pull out his acting chops, they are effective. Same with Jennifer Garner, who is more than able to pull off some great performances, and has many times. As for Colin Farrell, well, he’s Colin Farrell. He’s great in just about everything he does. The other aspect of the film that I love is the direction and visual aspects of it all. The film’s tone is very dark and it is directed quite sharply, especially when you see the world through Daredevil’s eyes. Well, not really eyes. What happens is that, since he’s blind, his other senses are extremely heightened, and work like a radar system. It’s kind of difficult to explain, but it’s still quite innovative, which is hard to do, especially in the 21st century.
8/10