As excited as I am to hear of the new Daredevil movie that’s in the works (though I’m not really expecting anything before 2013 or so), I can’t help feeling a little nervous about it. A movie is a big deal. It will be seen by millions of people who don’t read the comic. Because it is such a big deal, we’re naturally desperate for the movie makers to get it right, and treat the character and his universe with the respect they deserve. To get the conversation going, here’s my list of what I would tell the people whose job it is to bring the Man Without Fear back on the silver screen, if I had their ear.
Don’t be afraid to cast an unknown in the lead
I honestly don’t feel that Ben Affleck was horrible in the title role in the 2003 movie, but his performance was crippled by cheesy lines, an uneven script, and the fact that he really didn’t look the part. He was also a huge Hollywood star at the time, and you don’t ever want that to get in the way. Many interesting names are being tossed around on people’s personal lists of who they’d like to see play Matt Murdock, and while most of them have solid acting careers, no one seems to want to see any Hollywood A-listers in the lead. I wouldn’t mind a new face myself.
Do remember who your audience is
Daredevil is not Spider-Man. There’s nothing wrong with Spidey (ironically, Spider-Man 3 is on TV and playing in the background as I’m writing this), but kids are not going to rest their little heads on Daredevil pillow cases. While I don’t see a specific need to have Daredevil be an R-rated movie, it needs to be targeted to adults and older teens. It needs to feel free to break every superhero cliche in the book. I’d love to see Fox approach this as a tense, character-driven movie that just happens to be about a superhero, not as just another superhero movie.
Don’t be a slave to the comic
This may be a little controversial, but I don’t particularly need to see an adaptation of something we’ve already read in the comic, I just want a good Daredevil story that feels true to the character. One of the problems with the 2003 movie was that it was a jumble of elements and scenes taken straight out of canon, but assembled in a way that was new but not improved. Having said that…
Do know your canon
Maybe it sounds like I’m contradicting myself here, but a solid knowledge of canon is vital. Don’t fudge around with the characters, the origin or anything else that you don’t need to. Like I mentioned, I’d love something new, using established characters, but that requires that the writer and director know their stuff.
Don’t feel like you have to do the Elektra saga
I guess I sort of covered this already, but I’d go as far as to say that Elektra doesn’t need to be in a Daredevil movie at all, especially considering the Elektra movie that is already out there and how doing something too similar to the first movie would make it hard to sell it to audiences as something new and different.
Do try the low tech approach
One of the things that bothered me about the first movie was the excessive use of CGI. At the risk of repeating myself, Daredevil is not Spider-Man, and he shouldn’t move like Spider-Man. Keep it down to Earth, keep it physical, and use great stuntmen. Make it look real.
Don’t do an origin film (necessarily)
It seems that the first installment of any superhero movie franchise always needs to include the origin story. This makes sense, of course, but it eats up a lot of story time. I happened to love the scenes between Matt and his father in the original movie and would love to revisit that, but the events that created the hero don’t need to be told in a linear fashion at the beginning of the movie. It could be done through flashbacks or in some other way that breaks the traditional mold. I would like to see Stick mentioned in some way though.
Do your research
The details matter, and it seems a shame to spend millions of dollars on making a movie and not taking the time to check out the small matter of what lawyers do, and what they don’t (like prosecute cases). While you’re at it, spend an hour or two checking out blindness-related paraphernalia. Or, let me just save you some time: White canes? Yeah, they’re supposed to be long enough to touch the ground when the person using it is walking!
Don’t put something in your movie just because it “looks cool”
I think they’ve probably learned their lesson this time around, and I hope we won’t be seeing any flaming ‘D’s in the subway, sensory deprivation tanks or playground scenes. While I still find plenty to actually like about the Daredevil Director’s Cut, there’s no denying that both versions of the movie were flawed, and that Mark Steven Johnson would have been well-advised to kill his darlings, as the expression goes. Not every brilliant, or not-so-brilliant, idea needs to go in the movie. Keep it clean, and make every scene count and make sense, and we’ll be fine.
Well, that was my list of things that came to mind. What do you want to see and what can you do without? Let everyone know in the comments!
The news of an upcoming Daredevil movie broke Friday, and I certainly would have commented on it sooner if I didn’t have to work all day yesterday (ah, how I hate when real life gets in the way of blogging…). Discussing this piece of news also bumps my intended first look at the history of the Hand back a day or two, but I’m sure you’ll forgive me. Because this is big. There have been rumors of a Daredevil reboot for some time now, but we now have the studio moving ahead with the intention of making a new movie. There is even a screenwriter attached to the project.
Image from the Daredevil (2003) movie
So, what do we know at this point? Actually, very little. Sources report that David Scarpa has been hired to write a script for Fox/Regency, and The Hollywood reporter names Peter Chernin as one of the producers. David Scarpa’s claims to fame are The Last Castle and the new adaptation of the 1950’s sci-fi flick The Day the World Stood Still. I haven’t seen either of these movies, but it seems that reviews of The Day the World Stood Still, at least, have been lukewarm at best. I have no opinion on the choice of screenwriter, but it should be pointed out that whether David Scarpa will remain the person attached to the final project is contingent on his being able to come up with something the studio will want to go ahead with. The fact that he’s been chosen obviously means that the right people think he’s got what it takes, but it seems a little early to try to guess what the end product will look like and whether it will be any good.
As you can see, I’m putting this post in the news category, and I’ll return later this afternoon with a more personal post of Dos and Don’ts about what I’d like to see and what I think needs to be avoided. Save your comments for that one or fire away below!
Off-topic, but I also wanted to let you know that I’ve posted my first entry on the Weekly Crisis, a review of Siege: Embedded #2.
When talking about movie reboots and “do-overs,” Daredevil tends to come up frequently, especially now that we’re seeing The Incredible Hulk leap onto the big screen once more. I’d love to see a Daredevil reboot, so the more people talking about this, the better. I’m pretty sure it won’t happen this decade though. Anyway, Newsarama’s Michael Avila shared some of his thoughts on which superheroes deserve a second chance on the big screen, and Daredevil is at the top of his list as well. Here’s what he had to say:
“We’re talking about one of Marvel’s Old Guard, one of its most grounded-in-reality characters, with a history of rich storylines. The 2003 film wasn’t terrible, but writer-director Mark Steven Johnson’s fanboy-ish determination to squeeze in too many plot threads and an absurd number of in-jokes ultimately ruined it.
Marvel Studios’ brain-trust should ditch the S&M dungeon red leather jumpsuit, get an actor to play Matt Murdock who’s not dating a paparazzi fave and hand the franchise over to a director like Peter Berg or Joe Carnahan. Jon Favreau could ace this project but a clean break is needed for any reboot and since he played Foggy in the first one, he’s out. And leave Elektra out, too. The ill-conceived spinoff with Jennifer Garner ruined that character.
But the first Daredevil made $102 million despite awful reviews. Imagine if the film would have been any good?”
This is one review – or post – I’ve been putting off writing. It still seems like the mere mention of the Daredevil movie, which came out in 2003, tends to incite quite a bit of controversy and even my own feelings about it are mixed. On the one hand, I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for this movie (specifically the Director’s Cut) and will forever be grateful for that. On the other hand, being deeply entrenched in the “comicverse” at this point, my feelings about the movie have changed. I still feel that the strong points barely balance out the weak, and I still like the movie okay. Just not as much as I used to.
Before going on, I should also mention that when I say “movie,” I mean the Director’s Cut. While the original theatrical release wasn’t, in my opinion, quite as bad as a lot of people make it out to be, there’s no doubt that it was a butchered and much weaker version of what could have been a pretty big hit. I would even go as far as to say that the “before and after” versions of the editing process should be shown to film students as a lesson in the dangers of poor editing. The real movie, the longer version, is the one I will be talking about here. Let’s start with the bad, shall we?
Mistake #1 – Scenes whose only purpose is to look cool or be fun
It starts with the scene in the subway when Ben Urich throws his cigarette on the ground and the Daredevil logo comes alive in flames. This was apparently a tribute to The Crow, according to director Mark Steven Johnson. Is it cool? Not really. Does it belong in this movie? Definitely not. Not only is it completely out of character for Daredevil, the reasoning behind leaving that kind of calling card is better suited to a megalomaniacal villain than to a superhero who likes to operate below the radar.
Which brings us to the infamous playground scene. This is the scene that prevents me from recommending this movie to friends who are not as sold on the superhero concept as I am. That is, people who would not be as forgiving of the cheese factor that is so common in this type of flick. I must admit that I cringe every time I see this scene. It’s illogical, completely goes against the feel of the movie thus far and is not well executed.
Oh, and while I’m at it. The sensory deprivation tank? No, not doing it for me. I think it was included to communicate to the audience how much he’s negatively affected by his heightened senses, but it just looked goofy to me.
Mistake #2 – Lazy errors
By this I mean things like Matt and Foggy acting as prosecutors in the case against José Quesada (or at least appearing to). They are defense attorneys, plain and simple. This would have worked if the case in question had been a civil case, but there is nothing here to indicate that. This kind of mistake is sloppy and counter-intuitive. More importantly, it is 100% avoidable. Check your facts people!
Mistake #3 – Gratuitous use of CGI
It feels like they were going for a Spidey feel here, and decided to pour a ton of money on the CGI team for no good reason at all. Yes, Daredevil is capable of daring feats that at times strike us as somewhat gravity-defying. However, not even in the comic is he ever seen making jumps quite as wide as the ones in the movie, and he shouldn’t be able to land from those kinds of heights without breaking his legs. Daredevil is not Spider-man. This is one area where a little more realism would have been a good thing and would have actually made the movie more faithful to the source material.
Mistake #4 – Trying to do everything at the same time
There are plenty of nods to the comics in this movie, and many scenes are extremely faithful to the source material. But, it also seems like Mark Steven Johnson tried to cram too many elements into one storyline to the point where many of them are only superficially explored. If you want to do the Elektra saga, then do it. Don’t take Elektra, rework her whole origin and history and attach her to a storyline that doesn’t quite do her justice. I would have rather left Elektra out of this movie and then done the Elektra saga in a sequel. Then again, I’m not a hardcore Elektra fan. I like Miller’s work as much as everyone else, but I feel that more attention could have been given to fleshing out the main character (the inclusion of Stick would have also seemed appropriate). The Elektra saga was the core of his first groundbreaking run on the book, but since the movie didn’t really follow that particular storyline anyway… Well, you get my point.
Mistake #5 – Dialogue
Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of good dialogue in this movie. There are also plenty of cheesy oneliners and scenes that just seem forced. “Justice is blind, but it can be heard.” It’s one of those lines that sound good, but it don’t actually mean anything when you think about it. “Justice is served” is another one that just sounds cheesy, along with most other instances of the word “justice” being spoken in a hiss through the main character’s gritted teeth.
Mistake #6 – The death in the subway
This didn’t bother me when I first saw the movie, since I had no prior knowledge of the character. But it does bother me as a fan of the comic. Daredevil has always been portrayed as a non-killer. This is an important aspect of the character since he so frequently engages in fairly brutal violence. He draws the line at taking another’s life and even goes so far as to save the lives of his worst enemies. That is not to say that he’s not theoretically capable of killing someone, and that he hasn’t been close to crossing the line, but leaving a rapist to die the way he did in the movie was clearly out of character.
Considering everything that’s “wrong” with this movie, I’m surprised that I still like it. So what are some of the movie’s saving graces?
Good point #1 – The origin (well, most of it anyway)
The origin is lacking in many respects. The accident no longer being the result of an act of heroism doesn’t bother me at all, but the very early death of Jack Murdock and the absence of Stick leaves a pretty big hole. What happened to Matt between Jack’s death and college and how exactly did he learn to fight like that just playing by himself? Nevertheless, I like most of the scenes from Matt’s youth, and the interaction between him and Jack really works. The movie manages to really sell the bond between father and son and Jack is exactly as he should be.
Good point #2 – Foggy
Yeah, I know he comes across as a little more crass and “lawyer-like” than he does in the comic, but Jon Favreau has great comedic timing and all of his scenes are very entertaining. However, if they ever make another Daredevil movie, I would prefer that it’s set after Foggy knows about Matt secretly being Daredevil since that makes their relationship much more believable. Still, Foggy works well here in his role as concerned friend/comic relief.
Good point #3 – Bullseye
Some people though Colin Farrell’s Bullseye was downright ridiculous while others felt he was the only good thing about this movie. Personally, I think he really nailed the character and I’m a big fan of his introductory scene. Funny and viciously cold at the same time.
Good point #4 – Costumes and the lack thereof
Costumes always look good in comic books, but are notoriously difficult to recreate for a live action film. I’m not too sure about the mask, but I really like the rest of Daredevil’s costume in this movie. I also like the fact that he’s the only one in costume. This movie seems to strive for a real world feel (though see my complaints about the CGI above), and in that respect it’s a good idea to use costumes sparingly. If you can’t make Bullseye’s costume look less than laughable, then it’s a good thing to leave it be completely.
Good point #5 – Being a superhero hurts
The Matt of the comics is more likely to meditate than take prescription pain killers, but this movie is pretty good at communicating that he is very much a regular person when it comes to being injured. If you cut him, he bleeds, and it’s bound to hurt too. Too bad this kind of realism couldn’t have spilled over into a better use of CGI. Did I just complain about the CGI again? Yes, I did.
Good point #6 – The score
I’m okay with the soundtrack to this movie. Lots of people aren’t and I agree that there are some songs that don’t feel like they really belong. However, the score by Graeme Revell is perfect all the way and beautifully complements some of the more touching scenes.
Good point #7 – He’s a superhero and he’s blind
This is one of those points that the comic book creators don’t have to worry much about. They could if they wanted to, but since comics are told in stills, artists don’t have to think too hard about how the characters move from one little panel to the next. When making a movie, you have to capture all of that. So how does someone who navigates by non-traditional means actually move? Well, I think this movie nails that part pretty well. And Affleck isn’t half bad a playing blind either. Too bad his cane is too short to even reach the ground in some scenes, but that’s nitpicking, I suppose. Or not.
Good point #8 – Overall plot and pacing
This is a point that, more than any other, is only true of the Director’s Cut. The longer version actually has a plot in which all the dots connect, which can’t be said for the version that was released in theaters.
After all is said and done, I find more things to like than dislike about this movie, while still being understanding of those who feel that it was utter garbage. There are plenty of things that don’t work. For many people, even one of these things might be enough to sink the whole film. I suppose there is much more I could say about the Daredevil movie, but I think I’ll stop here. I might revisit it again in the future.
Okay… I try not to be one of those negative people you hear about, but this is not very good. What you see below is a video someone posted on YouTube featuring images from Daredevil’s guest appearance in the Spider-man animated series, set to the tunes of the theme song from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air (no offense to the guy who made the video, it’s the people who made the original cartoon that fail tro impress me). Note the enormous amount of attention they must have given to imagining the radar sense, which apparently consists of seeing normally – but through a red filter. Hahahaha, pretty funny actually…
The motion picture Daredevil (2003) was not the first Daredevil movie. With the amount of screen time devoted to Matt Murdock and his alter ego, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk (1989) can rightly be called a Daredevil movie as well.
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk was (I believe) the second of the three Reunion movies based on the television series The Incredible Hulk from 1978 (based in turn on the movie by the same name from 1977). I remember watching this show on TV as a kid and I liked it quite a bit as I recall. While I will never understand why David Banner’s pants turn purple during a “Hulk out,” only to return to the color they were before when it’s all over, the show wasn’t all that bad.
The Trial of the Incredible Hulk is obviously a made for TV movie, and has many of the flaws that one might expect. It’s low-budget, very family friendly (not that that is necessarily a bad thing), and – let’s be fair here – quite cheesy.
In this movie, we find David Banner wandering aimlessly, trying to run away from his past and his dark side. He ends up in the big city where he finds himself in a bit of legal trouble after hulking out on the subway while defending a woman from being harassed by a couple of the Kingpin’s men on their way home from robbing a jewelery store. David is found lost and confused in a tunnel and is arrested for the assault on the woman, as well as the murder of an innocent man killed in the cross-fire.
Meanwhile we have been introduced to blind attorney Matt Murdock who now apparently lives in Vancouver (!). He’s not surrounded by any member of his supporting cast from the comic, but instead has a female partner in Christa Klein. The two of them are ably assisted by their secretary Al, an ex-army guy. Of course, Matt Murdock ends up taking David Banner’s case, in part because of the link to the Kingpin. That’s about all I’m going to say, in case anyone is looking to dig up this flick and watch it.
This is actually a rather enjoyable movie, if one goes into it knowing what to expect. It is not a cinematic masterpiece. Daredevil’s costume is an unrecognizable black spandex suit, (which doesn’t have horns but comes with a nice pair of suspenders…), and as a fan of the comic I not only miss the classic Daredevil look, but the wonderful Matt-Foggy interaction as well. Still, it is worth watching for the eighties nostalgia and the feel-good ending. Another thing to know about this movie is that the case never goes to trial. Yes, despite the name of the movie, there is no “trial of the Incredible Hulk.” Another spoiler perhaps, but let’s just say that the two heroes find justice in other ways.
Select images from past issues are used without permission, for commentary purposes. Daredevil and associated characters are the property of Marvel Entertainment.
Christine is a thirty something Daredevil fan from Sweden who spends way too much of her free time writing posts for this blog. Check the
The new Daredevil movie – Dos and Don’ts
by Christine on February 7, 2010 in Commentary
As excited as I am to hear of the new Daredevil movie that’s in the works (though I’m not really expecting anything before 2013 or so), I can’t help feeling a little nervous about it. A movie is a big deal. It will be seen by millions of people who don’t read the comic. Because it is such a big deal, we’re naturally desperate for the movie makers to get it right, and treat the character and his universe with the respect they deserve. To get the conversation going, here’s my list of what I would tell the people whose job it is to bring the Man Without Fear back on the silver screen, if I had their ear.
Don’t be afraid to cast an unknown in the lead
I honestly don’t feel that Ben Affleck was horrible in the title role in the 2003 movie, but his performance was crippled by cheesy lines, an uneven script, and the fact that he really didn’t look the part. He was also a huge Hollywood star at the time, and you don’t ever want that to get in the way. Many interesting names are being tossed around on people’s personal lists of who they’d like to see play Matt Murdock, and while most of them have solid acting careers, no one seems to want to see any Hollywood A-listers in the lead. I wouldn’t mind a new face myself.
Do remember who your audience is
Daredevil is not Spider-Man. There’s nothing wrong with Spidey (ironically, Spider-Man 3 is on TV and playing in the background as I’m writing this), but kids are not going to rest their little heads on Daredevil pillow cases. While I don’t see a specific need to have Daredevil be an R-rated movie, it needs to be targeted to adults and older teens. It needs to feel free to break every superhero cliche in the book. I’d love to see Fox approach this as a tense, character-driven movie that just happens to be about a superhero, not as just another superhero movie.
Don’t be a slave to the comic
This may be a little controversial, but I don’t particularly need to see an adaptation of something we’ve already read in the comic, I just want a good Daredevil story that feels true to the character. One of the problems with the 2003 movie was that it was a jumble of elements and scenes taken straight out of canon, but assembled in a way that was new but not improved. Having said that…
Do know your canon
Maybe it sounds like I’m contradicting myself here, but a solid knowledge of canon is vital. Don’t fudge around with the characters, the origin or anything else that you don’t need to. Like I mentioned, I’d love something new, using established characters, but that requires that the writer and director know their stuff.
Don’t feel like you have to do the Elektra saga
I guess I sort of covered this already, but I’d go as far as to say that Elektra doesn’t need to be in a Daredevil movie at all, especially considering the Elektra movie that is already out there and how doing something too similar to the first movie would make it hard to sell it to audiences as something new and different.
Do try the low tech approach
One of the things that bothered me about the first movie was the excessive use of CGI. At the risk of repeating myself, Daredevil is not Spider-Man, and he shouldn’t move like Spider-Man. Keep it down to Earth, keep it physical, and use great stuntmen. Make it look real.
Don’t do an origin film (necessarily)
It seems that the first installment of any superhero movie franchise always needs to include the origin story. This makes sense, of course, but it eats up a lot of story time. I happened to love the scenes between Matt and his father in the original movie and would love to revisit that, but the events that created the hero don’t need to be told in a linear fashion at the beginning of the movie. It could be done through flashbacks or in some other way that breaks the traditional mold. I would like to see Stick mentioned in some way though.
Do your research
The details matter, and it seems a shame to spend millions of dollars on making a movie and not taking the time to check out the small matter of what lawyers do, and what they don’t (like prosecute cases). While you’re at it, spend an hour or two checking out blindness-related paraphernalia. Or, let me just save you some time: White canes? Yeah, they’re supposed to be long enough to touch the ground when the person using it is walking!
Don’t put something in your movie just because it “looks cool”
I think they’ve probably learned their lesson this time around, and I hope we won’t be seeing any flaming ‘D’s in the subway, sensory deprivation tanks or playground scenes. While I still find plenty to actually like about the Daredevil Director’s Cut, there’s no denying that both versions of the movie were flawed, and that Mark Steven Johnson would have been well-advised to kill his darlings, as the expression goes. Not every brilliant, or not-so-brilliant, idea needs to go in the movie. Keep it clean, and make every scene count and make sense, and we’ll be fine.
Well, that was my list of things that came to mind. What do you want to see and what can you do without? Let everyone know in the comments!
Tagged as: Commentary, Meandering musings, The movie(s)
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