Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25143 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-10-13
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English, Greek, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 99 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Whether or not one likes Daredevil the movie probably has a lot to do with whether or not one likes Daredevil the comic book. To its credit (or, depending upon your perspective, its detriment), Daredevil is one of the most faithful comic-book adaptations to make it to the big screen. Yet in a world where the red-suited crimefighter is hardly a cultural icon in the same league as Batman and Spider-Man, that will mean very little to most filmgoers.

Daredevil tells the story of Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck), a young lawyer who spent his youth getting kicked around by life in Hell's Kitchen, NYC. He's blinded at an early age in an industrial accident, but when he recovers, he discovers that his remaining senses are superhumanly acute. When his father, a boxer, is killed by gangsters for refusing to throw a fight, Matt Murdock vows to dedicate his life to fighting for what's right. To that end, he becomes a lawyer by day and a masked vigilante by night--Daredevil, the Man Without Fear.

Using as its source material a classic (well, to comics fans, at least) Frank Miller story line, the film manages to find room for Daredevil's origin, his love affair with Elektra (Jennifer Garner) and his first meetings with his two arch-nemeses, Bullseye (Colin Farrell) and Kingpin (Michael Clark Duncan). Colin Farrell has fun with the psychotic Irish assassin Bullseye, who can use nearly any object as a deadly projectile (and who, as he proudly states, never misses). Michael Clark Duncan adds stone-cold menace to the Kingpin of Crime, the criminal mastermind at the nexus of New York's underworld. Yet Daredevil tries to cram too much into its relatively short running time, and ultimately it's the relationship between Matt Murdock and Elektra that suffers--Garner does all she can with the character, but she could have benefited from a bit more screen time. And the action sequences--particularly the faster-paced, Matrix-style wire fights--only succeed in making Affleck and Farrell look a bit awkward (unlike Garner, neither are natural martial artists). Still, Daredevil is a film by comic-book fans, for comic-book fans, packed with cameos and in-jokes sure to appeal to the die-hards. If that's you, then there's much to love here. --Robert Burrow

Synopsis
The latest Marvel Comics superhero to hit the big screen is Daredevil (Ben Affleck), a man blinded by a radioactive chemical accident as a young boy but left with superhuman senses and agile acrobatic ability. Like his Marvel compatriot Spider-Man, Daredevil attempts to lead a normal life by day as Matt Murdock, a Hell's Kitchen defense attorney. By night Matt becomes Daredevil, a brooding superhero fighting for justice in the dark and squalid New York streets overrun with vermin and criminal injustice. Wearing a red leather suit and mask, Daredevil leaps from high skyscrapers and tracks his enemies with his radar-like vision, punishing those who are guilty but whom he cannot tackle in the courtroom. At the center of the city's villainous underbelly is Daredevil's nemesis Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and his psychotic, knife-wielding deputy-assassin Bullseye (Colin Farrell). Daredevil fights their powerful forces alone, until he meets Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner of ALIAS fame), a skilled martial artist and sexy superheroine who is after Bullseye and Kingpin for murdering her father. Sparks fly as the two heroes take on the underlords of crime together in this action-packed adventure fantasy that will surely delight fans of SPIDER-MAN, X-MEN, or BATMAN.

Customer Reviews

Director's Cut For The UK Hopefully!
I got the director's cut a couple of days ago, but my TV not being up to much I was stuck with it in black and white, but still this is a great film. I enjoyed the original release but the director's cut has so much more, the storyline is less rushed, the added sub-plot is great with some excellent, funny moments that shouldn't have been cut and above all, there's actually some character development! There's no end of great scenes between Matt and Foggy, thinking of the dog story, whereas on the original release there were none and some great moments, especially those with Coolio in them, all of which were cut. There's less of Elektra which makes the film work much better. All in all brilliant and hopefully it will be released here soon so I can enjoy it in colour!

a superhero for adults...
The greatest thing about Daredevil is it's integrity to its source material, and yet in a way that also proved to be its downfall. From the opening moments the film reveals both it's stylishness with our hero atop a church, wrapped around a stone cross, and also its darkness as we see him fall, injured, aided by a priest who seems oddly unsurprised by this occurance.

For those who don't know the history of this admittedly less mainstream comicbook, Daredevil is the story of a superhero who was blinded in an toxic chemical accident, which greatly heightened his either four senses. His greatest skill is the ability to "see" through the sounds he hears (allowing for a nice "rain vision" special effect). After seeing his father murdered by underworld thugs, he becomes a crimefighter, by day as a successful lawyer in Hell's Kitchen, and by night as a violent costumed superhero.

Daredevil's [Ben Affleck] violent nature is the key feature that sets this film apart, for where most superheroes would disable, capture or trick bad guys into hurting one another, Daredevil is perfectly happy to kill criminals himself, often in a brutal manner. He has lost faith in the legal system's justice, and yet it is much harder to condone his own brand through vigilante exploits to hunt down those who evade the court's convictions, and it's often difficult to decide whether we can really side with him at all. Indeed Murdoch's life by day appears far more appealing than his nighttime excursions, as we are shown the unglamourised side of his superhero lifestyle as he returns home, popping pills and submerging himself underwater in a metal coffin-bed in order to close off his abilities and rest. This is definitely not your standard superhero film...

The extended forage into Daredevil's past will not be to the taste of those hungering for immediate action. However, the intentionally slow buildup is essential for us to truly care about the character. His relationship with his father is expressed perfectly, his father painfully aware of his own failings while trying to instill a sense of right into his son.

Once the background is complete, however, the film launches into a rather standard scenario, with very carricatured heroes and villains, especially Bullseye [Colin Farrel]. Farrel hams up the role to such a degree and with such charisma that he steals every scene he appears in. Indeed it is rather a let-down when Daredevil manages to beat him despite the fact he discover's the hero's weakness. Kingpin [Michael Clarke Duncan] as the crime-lord is a (physically) towering presence.

Elektra [Jennifer Garner] is another interesting role, providing both a love interest and an adversary for Daredevil, and Garner is smouldering throughout in both capacities. Unusually for a superhero's girl, she is clearly able to look after herself, as she swiftly reveals when he makes his advances (although quite what possessed her to spar with a blind man is best left unasked). The chemistry between Matt and Elektra is brilliantly apparent, but the romance is not fleshed out as successfully, failing to show us why they care so deeply for one another. The support roles are wenderfully played by Jon Favreau as Matt's law partner and friend, to the point where we genuinely want him to know the truth, and a rather underused Joe Pantoliano as the reporter following sightings of the mysterious vigilante hero. It is also refreshing to find a black villain after a long stretch of excessive "political correctness" that banished such things from our screens. A superhero movie rests, of course, on its star, and Affleck certainly looks suitably heroic in the dark crimson costume, and also gives Daredevil a human side, as a man feeling the pain of his position, prone to making mistakes and going too far.

The dialogue is simply superb, fresh and well-delivered, especially for a comicbook movie translation. However, this belies a rather serious lack of any real story, the movie's gravest failing. Aside from his history, we are shown little more than Daredevil using his powers, the action dominates the plot. This is only a problem because, despite its impressive choreography, we are not really shown anything new, and there are more than passing similarities to the very recent Spiderman (not nearly enough time has passed for this to be considered homage rather than rip-off). The dark filming style creates a very different feel, however, developing a more adult atmosphere. Hell's Kitchen tends to feel sterile by day, much like Gotham City. This "noir" style is the biggest payoff of the film, and what ultimately sets it appart, since not even Schumacher's recent Batman attempts achieved this.

So Daredevil returns to the dark visual stylishness of Tim Burton's Batman, but is let down through a patchy storyline and action sequences that often appear all too familiar. However, through loyalty to the comicbook, the central character (almost an anti-hero at times) is alluring and charismatic, so while we question whether it is justice or vengeance he is drawn towards, we cannot help but be intrigued by this darker and perhaps more adult approach to the standard superhero film.

I love superhero movies...
and this one is one of my favourites; Superman is just too strong for his own good in my opinion, and Spider-Man was nowhere near dark enough. In fact, the only superhero movies that I like more than this are Batman and Batman Returns (the classic Tim Burton ones). This film is imperfect, that's for sure; certain characters (such as Elektra and Kingpin) are underused, I found the whole flashback thing rather annoying, and sometimes the soundtrack feels out of place. On the plus side, however, it stays close enough to the comics to satisfy nerds without getting bogged down in too much detail as to Deredevil's past, it is deliciously dark, has some great fight scenes (especially those involving Bullseye), features decent performances from Colin Farrell and Jennifer Garner, has Jennifer Garner (in vaious eye-popping outfits), and even throws the odd bit of humour into the proceedings. Not a classic but thoroughly enjoyable nonetheless, with some good extras on the second disc.