Daredevil (Geoff's Take)
01/08/2003 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 

pub: video: Regency 23789S. 99 minutes plus 30 minute Making Of. Price: £ 9.99 (UK) - prices really do vary so look around) stars: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farell.

check out website: www.fox.co.uk

In many respects, the me that is a non-cinema-goer really appreciates the turnaround of film to video release. A few years ago, you'd be waiting anything up to a year for such a release.

The shorter interval has no doubt been influenced to prevent piracy. Oddly enough, the promotion on this video is to target the home-user so if you're waiting for a rental version, it looks like you're on the starting block for this one unless they have their own copies by now.

'Daredevil' is the story of a teen-ager hit by a truck carrying radioactive materials as he saves a bystander from being hit. He gets caught in the spillage that contaminates his eyes making him blind but enhancing his remaining four senses to super-human levels.

After his boxer father fails to take a fall in a boxing bout and is killed by the underworld, the young Matt Murdock grows up to take his own vengeance at night as the red-garbed Daredevil vigilante and as a blind lawyer during the day in the notorious Hell's Kitchen in New York. That's actually the comicbook version.

The only modification to the above in the film is that Matt sees his father doing some strong-arm stuff and runs away and crossing a factory forecourt, collides with a fork-lift carrying the radioactive gunk. Other than that, the film remains reasonably faithful to the origin which is a synthesis of the Stan Lee and revised Frank Miller origin which details a little more behind the scenes details.

If I have to be critical, it's a shame that the death of the boxer Murdock didn't tie in more with his son being at college age than still being a teen-ager. Back to the plot. Matt Murdock is working well at both his professions although his lawyer partner wishes they were paid more with money and less with fish and other exchanges.

He meets and falls in love with Elecktra, whose father is an associate of the Kingpin who wants to leave the criminal business. Kingpin hires Irish assassin Bullseye to kill him and has a run in with DD. From there, the threads are brought together for several set-action pieces before the final confab left open enough to know that there will be a sequel or two.

The film certainly kept me awake throughout watching it. The display of how Matt sees the world certainly comes over well. Like others, I'm a bit critical of the way DD let a rapist die in the subway but I think it was used to make a point of how easy it is to step over the line in his vigilante profession.

What does puzzle me is why director Mark Steven Johnson seemed intent on having the action so close-up all the time like he was locked in with only a couple cameras. It seems claustrophobic watching it on the television but must have been equally startling close at the cinema.

When it invades every time DD lands from a jump so we have a close-up of his feet, this reviewer has to wonder what he's playing at cos it doesn't make great cinematography. It would be interesting to see a Making Of... book covering this subject or at least see the storyboards and see the options. The 'Making Of' featurette at the end of the film is worth an interesting look by the way with Jennifer Garner narrating and introducing various cast members and creators.

From a story logistic POV, Matt Murdock demonstrates far too often that he doesn't need eyes. Then again, 'Foggy' Nelson is no doubt to dim to note how easy Murdock pocketed a ball through a net. It's almost getting too obligatory to have the hero fight with his mask off as well. Only the Illuminatii knows what's going to happen whenever a Silver Surfer film is made.

Loosing the mask and letting the baddie know your identity is becoming a seriously over-played cliché in the super-hero films. I just wish the directors and writers remember a scene from, I think it was, Green Lantern, that when he was unmasked by the villain was considered a nobody cos he wasn't recognised as anyone special.

I have to confess I wasn't altogether sure about the leather costume when I saw earlier photographs. As DD is essentially a very good gymnast, I'd have thought it would be too restricting. So must have actor Ben Affeck, as he leaves the neck strap un-done most of the time.

Given the situation, I might have gone for something a lot lighter with padding in the right places to absorb punches and falls. Hasn't anyone thought of making a costume out of Kevlar if they feel uncomfortable with spandex? Jennifer Garner as Elecktra shows a marked contrast to her part in 'Alias' and one can easily forgive her for not having ebony hair like her comicbook counter-part.

Likewise, Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farell show interest in their parts, even more so in the featurette as closet comic-fans. Undoubtedly, with a smaller budget than either 'Spider-Man' or 'X-Men', 'Daredevil', some things are bound to be a bit different.

One can only hope that any lessons learnt from the first film will mean improvements with the second.

GF Willmetts