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Quote of the Moment
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"I believe there's a hero in all of us, gives us strength, makes us noble, even though sometimes we have to give up the thing we want the most."
- Aunt May, Spider-Man 2
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Rating:   out of five
Written By: Kelvin Hui
"I prowl the rooftops and alleyways at night searching for justice, blind justice. A guardian devil. When I was twelve years old I had lost my sight, but I got something back in return. My remaining four senses functioned with superhuman sharpness; I could hear a whisper a block away. But the most amazing of all was a kind of radar sense. Soon the world will know the truth, that one man can make a difference." Fortunately, the devil makes a good difference; he made me happy and entertained me for 110 minutes. Sometimes this is an important difference, when a film can put a smile on your face and make you excited after you’ve seen it, that’s all that truly matters. There are three superhero films lined up this year in 2003, Daredevil, X2: X-Men United, and the Hulk. The first one being released is our red-horned superhero in February, then X2 in May, and finally the Hulk in June. All three are from Marvel Comics and I hope that the success continues for the company. They are definitely on a streak what with the first X-Men movie, Spider-Man, and now Daredevil. X2 will most likely be good; I am looking forward to the day it opens. I’m not too sure about the Hulk though; I have never really been interested in him or his story. Although the trailers are quite good and it looks like it will be a huge blockbuster. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love superheroes and what they stand for but sometimes I’m just a tiny bit weary of all the superhero films. I mean there have been quite a few already and they are just making more and more. For goodness sake, Warner Brothers is bringing back Superman and Batman, which are movies that already have had their run! Oh and Marvel has many more projects in development like The Fantastic Four and Iron Man, other comic book heroes. But then I remember that as long as the films are well made, then it doesn't matter how many they make. I just hope that studios will continue to make quality films before giving superhero movies a bad name and making me say “Oh no, not another one."
Daredevil, The Man Without Fear is the adaptation of the popular Marvel comic book that has been a mainstay at the company for the past forty years now. It tells the story of Matthew Michael Murdock (Ben Affleck), who as a boy was left blind after being hit by a radioactive isotope. Although his eyes no longer function, Murdock's other senses become superhuman, especially a secret, radar-like ability he develops. Years later in New York, Murdock works as an attorney by day and a crime-fighting vigilante by night, using his special skills to become a superhero. Murdock meets a mysterious woman named Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner), and she catches his eye…so to speak. Of course the two fall in love as the film progresses and develop a sweet romantic relationship. In the movie, there are two bad guys; our hero battles his archnemesis the mob boss Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan), and the dangerous Bullseye (Colin Farrell).
The movie was actually quite good, I enjoyed watching it; it’s fun with a sad story, neat action sequences, a cool special effect, well-written dialogue, a well-chosen cast, a rocking soundtrack, and nice direction. I’m familiar with the story as I have read his biography on the Internet and learned about him through Spider-Man. Now believe me Daredevil is no Spider-Man, literally of course but the two superheroes are very different. I apologize but I have to do a comparison between the two; they both reside in the same city and wear red! Daredevil is dark and brutal, obsessed with revenge much like Batman and his alter ego Bruce Wayne. He has many more frailties within himself than our friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man does. Peter Parker is not really dark, he’s shy, nerdy, and guilty of what became of his Uncle Ben but there is not immorality in him. The two superheroes have different ways of bringing justice to criminals; Spider-Man will tie them up in his webbing and leave them to the police to take care of. Whereas Daredevil may threaten the bad guys, for example in the film he says, “I hope justice is found here, before justice finds you." Let’s just say that this is one man who you seriously do not want after you. This superhero gives new meaning to the name Daredevil, which may mean more than a man without fear. Keep in mind that this is an adaptation of the comic book; I’m not sure how loyal it stays to the original story. I haven’t read any of the comics but I do not believe he was that immoral or violent. Now concerning the films, there is no doubt in my mind that Spider-Man was a better film and definitely a better superhero as well.
Now let's talk about the positive things in this film because there are a few that make it good. The events that lead up to the movie are nicely told by Matt Murdock who is looking back at his past, telling his origins in the process. Ben Affleck’s voiceover is heard throughout this part of the movie and I just love it, it's simply a great voiceover. The story is a sad and dark one, you truly do feel for the characters of Daredevil and Elektra. The action sequences are cool and well choreographed, with a much more violent feel to them. The special effects are fine; the best one would definitely have to be Daredevil’s radar-like ability, which looks very cool on the silver screen. He can kind of see with this superpower but not quite, it looks like a blue radar screen that you may see on submarines or other military-related weaponry. Everything is in blue and he can only see flashes of images when sound is projected to his ears. The dialogue is quick and clever; there is a dash of humour that you have to give into to, to appreciate it. There are a few lines, which are said, that are dry but they are actually quite funny if you interpret them to be. I thought that the cast was actually pretty good; Ben Affleck is fine as the superhero although he’s better as Matt Murdock. I read that he wanted to take the part of Bullseye originally because of his time schedule, which would only allow him a smaller role. Now that would have been a bad-casting choice! Fortunately he was able to be the title character, I couldn’t imagine him as that particular villain.
It was a very good choice to cast Jennifer Garner as Elektra, even if the comic book character is Asian. That would have been interesting to see just because I’m Chinese but oh well, they made a good choice to go with the Alias star. Jennifer is strong and beautiful; she portrays women very well in the film. With her weapon of choice, Sais she is just as dangerous and powerful as Daredevil is. Her sex appeal is shown throughout the entire movie and it made me go gaga more than once. Michael Clarke Duncan is fine as the Kingpin; he does an okay job portraying a ruthless businessman. Now the scene-stealer and real star in this movie would have to be the Irishman. Colin Farrell is absolutely fantastic as the psychotic assassin known as Bullseye; he actually provides a few laughs throughout the film. It is just so much fun to watch the actor portray this villain, Colin Farrell is simply great in this role. He’s very cool as Bullseye with his ninja stars and paper clips, he can basically use anything he wants to as a weapon. Now throughout the film, a few songs play which are of course on the official soundtrack. The songs are quite good and are well put together with the scenes in which they are played. They made it more entertaining with the rock music, which has lyrics, rather than the music that they play in the background sometimes. There’s some nice direction from director Mark Steven Johnson, he creates some nice scenes for us to watch whether they are romantic or action-oriented.
Now on to the negative things, which are only a few but they do make a difference The film while bringing some good things to the table has its fair share of bad things as well. First of all, the most important thing is that I honestly did not really like the character of Daredevil very much. I mean I like Ben Affleck, who is a good-looking and charming guy (I wish I had his hair!); he did a fine job portraying his two characters. Daredevil though seriously has some moral issues within himself even saying “I’m not the bad guy" in the film and repeating this to himself once more just to reassure himself. It’s just that our superhero is not so much a hero unfortunately; you’ll have to watch the film to see what I mean. Now this could be a positive since its unique and different from most superheroes such as Spider-Man or Superman but I personally didn’t like it. Also the film is darker so usually that means not as much fun because it has to be more serious or an unhappy story. Thank goodness there are some light moments provided by Matt Murdock’s partner Franklin “Foggy" Nelson (Jon Favreau) and Bullseye. Oh another thing that I didn’t like was the violence; I just don’t like too much violence in my movies and this one had a lot. Seriously this film is very violent and is not for kids at all. When I went to the theatre (Silvercity) to watch it, it even said that this film is not recommended for children so do not let your kids or kids you know watch it. Oh when I said that the special effects are fine, I mean fine. The only real effect that is good is Daredevil’s radar-like ability. The FX shots could be better, the characters look a little bit like cartoons when they are gliding or flying through the air. This takes away from the action sequences because it makes them look a little bit silly. One last thing that I have to pick on is that the story is kind of underdeveloped; you could make it much longer and add more scenes into it. It needs more epic action scenes to make it really entertaining and worthwhile for people to go see it. It felt kind of rushed in the end but that’s okay because the actual ending was good and I enjoyed it.
To conclude, the movie is quite good and I enjoyed it a lot even if the movie received more negative reviews than positive ones. I was so afraid that this film was going to be bad, I always kept it in the back of my mind that it may be really bad. But when I was watching it, it turned out that it was good. It just shows you that you don’t always have to trust reviews; it all depends on you and the pictures that you like to watch. Once again it is no Spider-Man because they didn’t spend the same amount of time, effort, or money on the movie but it still provides a fun time at the theatres. The again, I do not believe there will ever be a better superhero movie than Spider-Man, at least not for me he is one of my all time favourites. I wish that more money was spent on the film because then the makers could have done more with it and made it even better. Overall I truly enjoyed this movie and it was quite a bit of fun to watch. With its sad story, neat action sequences, a cool special effect, well-written dialogue, a well-chosen cast, a rocking soundtrack, and nice direction, it is definitely worth checking out. Go out and do yourself a favour if you want to see a good movie, take the dare and watch Daredevil.
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