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Ben
Affleck, Michael Clarke Duncan, Jennifer Garner, Colin
Farrell, Jon Favreau |
Directed
by: Mark Steven Johnson
Written by: Brian Helgeland, Mark Steven Johnson, Carlo
Carlei, Chris Columbus
Produced by: Gary Foster, Avi Arad
Distributor: 20th Century Fox/New Regency |
US:
14/02/03 UK: 13/02/03 |
Popular
Marvel Comics character Matt Murdock, son of a boxer
who gets killed by petty criminals for refusing to take
a dive. This drives young Matt to fight crime, despite
a childhood accident that blinded him. That same accident,
however, also granted him exceptionally advanced senses
of hearing, touch, taste and smell, as well as providing
him with a strange sort of mental radar that helps to
compensate for his lack of vision. After training hard
in the martial arts, as well as excelling in law school,
Murdock becomes a lawyer by day and a vigilante calling
himself Daredevil by night. |
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The
big question about Affleck. Is it a rug or not? We should
be told. And as for Farrell, the guy is only 5 foot
five inches for crying out loud. What sort of hero is
is? |
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Ben
Affleck gets all hot and sweaty in his skin tight
suit.
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The
Marvel Comics stamp is hard to miss, as it features more orphaned
(or single-parent) characters driven by a deep desire for
vengeance to put their superhuman abilities to use and take
the law into their own hands. Matt Murdock (Affleck) was blinded
as a young child and developed highly tuned senses that let
him "see" better than most people. But when his father (Keith)
is killed he becomes a vigilante recluse by night, pro bono
lawyer by day. After years alone, he meets his love match
in Elektra (Garner), a billionaire's daughter who's more than
Matt's equal in street fighting abilities. But she and her
father are now targeted by New York's crime Kingpin (Duncan)
and his psychotic Irish henchman Bullseye (Farrell).
Despite the standard superhero plotline, the film has a nicely
original look and feel to it. Writer-director Johnson (Simon
Birch) injects a grainy earthiness to both the cinematography
and dialog. The characters are all darkly shaded and quite
interesting, much more rounded than most comic-book movies,
although we never really identify with anyone. Affleck plays
the blind-lawyer scenes very well, bouncing nicely off Garner,
Favreau (as his hilarious legal partner) and Pantoliano (as
a nosey newspaper hack). As usual, he's a bit overwhelmed
by the Daredevil suit, but at least it's not the usual lycra/rubber
job (maroon leather anyone?). Farrell, meanwhile, steals the
film as the vicious killer who's simultaneously the comic
relief--his rabid, murderous nuttiness is both gruesomely
over-the-top and hilarious. Technically, the film looks excellent.
The effects ingeniously allow us to see what Matt hears; although
there are a few computer animated sequences that don't look
remotely real, and you have to get yourself into the mood
to accept a Crouching Tiger/Matrix bend of gravity-defying
action sequences. If Spider-Man was from the sunny and bright
Superman school of comic book films, this is much more in
the Batman mould--shadowy, tormented, sexy and very violent.
It's also surprisingly good. |
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