Caltrops - Peter Molyneux's The Movies - Re: Daredevil (spoilerz)

Forum Overview :: Peter Molyneux's The Movies

by Ice Cream Jonsey 03/02/2003, 7:27pm PST

Bill Dungsroman wrote:

I didn't hate the film, either. Affleck can't act well, but guess what: neither do a whole lot of pretty faces in Hollywood. Y-chromosome-enabled (and worse, comic book fans) going in with a preternatural hatred for him will, of course, hate the film. I went with a female friend, one who is, for all intents and purposes, normal. She liked it. She's no slobbering fangrrl of Affleck either, so I took her opinion of him as a more objective one. I LERV Jennifer Garner, I can look at her pouty dimples all day. And Colin "I just made 20 films over the past year, and they're all coming out NOW" Farrell's Bullseye was the best villian in ANY comic book film, IMO.

Well, Daredevil is my favorite comic character, and Affleck played the lead in my favorite movie, so if there were anybody who ought to be able to say that they dug this movie, it's me, I guess. I thought it was really poorly directed. I couldn't find anything wrong with any of the performances: Farrell was fucking great (as was Pantoliano and Kevin Smith), Affleck I thought was solid, and Favreau didn't bug me for the first movie in a long, long time. Garner and Clarke aren't going to win any awards, but they certainly didn't take anything from the table. The story was basically taken from the Daredevil books of old, so I had no problem with the plot. The things that bugged me were the use of wire -- I haven't seen a whole lot of kung-fu (or whatever) movies, but where I could buy it in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, it just seemed weak and really out of place in Daredevil.

(Should say that they absolutely nailed Jack Murdock. I don't know where they found that guy, but you couldn't CG someone who looked more like the old man that I remembered in the Daredevil origin story.)

There really weren't any outstanding bits that came from the character of Daredevil making the leap to a movie. (For instance, the bit in Spider-Man where Dunst pulls Maguire's mask down a bit and starts going to town on him was a nice scene that a comic couldn't capture.) The rain on the face thing was okay, but I guess I like a Daredevil that has no idea what his girl's face looks like a bit better. Most of the new dialogue for the thingl was hokey -- exceptions being the "I swear I've never seen that man before in my life bit" and the Sanford & Son line. A guy can give a good reading to "That's the C Train!" (which Affleck did) and it doesn't matter, because if it's stupid, it's going to come off stupid.

Anyway, I have two theories on why I wasn't as pumped about this flick as I could be. The first is that they had to cut a lot of it out in order to get the PG-13 rating. The director has stated that there is going to be 40 minutes of additional content on the DVD, and I am really hoping that there's a seamless branching feature available. All of Coolio's stuff was removed, for instance. The second is that it may have something to do with me. I knew how the Spider-Man movie was going to end because I'd read the story with the Green Goblin's death a hundred times. As soon as I saw the wide shot, I knew what was coming next. Stan Lee gets a fair amount of shit, but that's a pretty good ending that he put together 25 years ago. The same with Daredevil: the scene where Bullseye puts the sai through Elektra was ripped right from Daredevil #181. It's a great moment. But it lacked a bit of surprise and shock in my case because I'd seen it before. But that's the thing -- as a fanboy for this shit, you can't have it both ways. If they are not true to the comic then they get shit on for it, and if they aren't they get crap for that as well. This kind of means that the comic movie I'm most looking forward to is the Hulk, because I haven't ever really followed that book closely and I really don't know how they will end that one.

I do hope they make a second flick with the same cast, though.

the dark and gritty...Ice Cream Jonsey!