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Daredevil: The Director's Cut (directed by Mark Stephen Johnson)
4 out of 5 stars
The version of Daredevil that hit theaters back in 2003 was a truly flawed film, it traded plot and character for action, it seemed to be shoe-horning a much darker story into the PG-13 "Spider-Man" mold. In short, it deserved it's failure. It was a victim of marketing. The director was told to edit what he had filmed into a 90 minute summer movie that kids can see, and he did, but that wasn't the film he made.
The director's cut follows the same basic story of Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck), a blind lawyer who takes the law in his own hands as Daredevil when the system fails. He meets and falls in love with Elektra Natchios(Jennifer Garner), the daughter of a billionaire with ties to a shadowy organized crime boss, Wilson Fisk, A.K.A. "The Kingpin." (Michael Clarke Duncan). When Fisk has Elektra's father killed, she swears revenge, not on Bullseye (Collin Farrel), the sociopathic hitman who killed him, but on Daredevil, whom she thinks is responsible. That was basically all there was to the first version. a few poorly edited fight scenes, some obnoxious music video style montages, and no real plot.
In the director's cut, there is a LOT of story put back in. Matt Murdock and his law partner Franklin Nelson are asked to defend a gang member (Coolio) who allegedly killed a prostitute with ties to the Kingpin, but was framed. The film becomes not just a "you killed my girlfriend" revenge tale, like it was before, it adds a mystery, some brutal realism, and a sense of brooding that was missing in the theatrical cut. Its a more mature film, closer in tone to The Crow. It skews a LOT closer to its source material, the heavy Catholic subtext of the comics is put back in place. Daredevil is a character who is driven by anger, emotion, and yes, quite a bit of Catholic guilt, and the new version plays on this. I guess I understand why this was taken out of the film by executives looking for the next Spider-Man, but, you know? Daredevil was NEVER going to be it. They should have let the film establish it's own identity. Also new to the film are more scenes of Jon Favreau, who adds a little comic relief to the proceedings, as well as more of Joe Pantoliano's reporter, Ben Urich, who is roughly in the same basic mold as Robert Wuhl's character in the original Batman, but wisely doesn't play it for laughs. We get more of Colin Farrel, too, although he still remains a personality-less bad@ss. The best addition is more Michael Clarke Duncan. For once, the film actually shows why we should be afraid of him. He's a brutal killer in a business suit, casually bashing the skulls and snapping the necks of people who cross him, and his final fight with Daredevil is painful looking. Throw in about a gallon of fake blood and it would have fit into Kill Bill fairly well. All the fight scenes get re-edited to their original length, and all the choppiness of the editing has been fixed, we can actually tell what's going on now. (That is my one major complaint about action movies today, nobody, except maybe Tarantino, can direct fight scenes. they look like they threw the footage in a salad shooter then taped it back together, ruining the flow of the fight and making it impossible to follow.)
Daredevil is still a flawed film. Ben Affleck was NOT ideal casting (Matt Damon or Guy Pierce would have been), there's too much CGI, and let's face it, Daredevil's costume makes him look kind of like an S&M loving biker or something, but the director's cut version makes it better, and worth another look, even for people who didn't like the original.
4 out of 5 stars
The version of Daredevil that hit theaters back in 2003 was a truly flawed film, it traded plot and character for action, it seemed to be shoe-horning a much darker story into the PG-13 "Spider-Man" mold. In short, it deserved it's failure. It was a victim of marketing. The director was told to edit what he had filmed into a 90 minute summer movie that kids can see, and he did, but that wasn't the film he made.
The director's cut follows the same basic story of Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck), a blind lawyer who takes the law in his own hands as Daredevil when the system fails. He meets and falls in love with Elektra Natchios(Jennifer Garner), the daughter of a billionaire with ties to a shadowy organized crime boss, Wilson Fisk, A.K.A. "The Kingpin." (Michael Clarke Duncan). When Fisk has Elektra's father killed, she swears revenge, not on Bullseye (Collin Farrel), the sociopathic hitman who killed him, but on Daredevil, whom she thinks is responsible. That was basically all there was to the first version. a few poorly edited fight scenes, some obnoxious music video style montages, and no real plot.
In the director's cut, there is a LOT of story put back in. Matt Murdock and his law partner Franklin Nelson are asked to defend a gang member (Coolio) who allegedly killed a prostitute with ties to the Kingpin, but was framed. The film becomes not just a "you killed my girlfriend" revenge tale, like it was before, it adds a mystery, some brutal realism, and a sense of brooding that was missing in the theatrical cut. Its a more mature film, closer in tone to The Crow. It skews a LOT closer to its source material, the heavy Catholic subtext of the comics is put back in place. Daredevil is a character who is driven by anger, emotion, and yes, quite a bit of Catholic guilt, and the new version plays on this. I guess I understand why this was taken out of the film by executives looking for the next Spider-Man, but, you know? Daredevil was NEVER going to be it. They should have let the film establish it's own identity. Also new to the film are more scenes of Jon Favreau, who adds a little comic relief to the proceedings, as well as more of Joe Pantoliano's reporter, Ben Urich, who is roughly in the same basic mold as Robert Wuhl's character in the original Batman, but wisely doesn't play it for laughs. We get more of Colin Farrel, too, although he still remains a personality-less bad@ss. The best addition is more Michael Clarke Duncan. For once, the film actually shows why we should be afraid of him. He's a brutal killer in a business suit, casually bashing the skulls and snapping the necks of people who cross him, and his final fight with Daredevil is painful looking. Throw in about a gallon of fake blood and it would have fit into Kill Bill fairly well. All the fight scenes get re-edited to their original length, and all the choppiness of the editing has been fixed, we can actually tell what's going on now. (That is my one major complaint about action movies today, nobody, except maybe Tarantino, can direct fight scenes. they look like they threw the footage in a salad shooter then taped it back together, ruining the flow of the fight and making it impossible to follow.)
Daredevil is still a flawed film. Ben Affleck was NOT ideal casting (Matt Damon or Guy Pierce would have been), there's too much CGI, and let's face it, Daredevil's costume makes him look kind of like an S&M loving biker or something, but the director's cut version makes it better, and worth another look, even for people who didn't like the original.