Hey, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab.
I think Harry’s finally seeing DAREDEVIL tonight, and I’m very curious to see what he thinks of it. So far, I’ve talked to a lot of people who liked it, and a few who haven’t, and I’m still not sure why people don’t like it. No one’s been able to explain their disappointment with the film to me in terms that make sense, but those who like it seem to be quite verbose on the subject. Check out today’s spies for an example.
First up, there’s this guy who seems pleased:
Harry,
just wanted to drop in a few lines about the new "Dare Devil" movie. In an effort to be spoiler-free, I'll set this up with my perceptions going in, and my feelings throughout the viewing, and my thoughts upon "digesting" the film.
Like many that use your site, I've always been a fan-boy. I collected many comics over the years, but never as heavy as I did throughout my teens. It was at this time I discovered Frank Miller, and purchased everything the man touched. For me, the only truly great Dare Devil storylines came about during Miller's different tenures with the comic. The best may have actually been the storyline he wrote accompanied by the beautiful-gritty artwork of David Mazzechelli (sp?) which focused on the tragic fall of Matt at the hands of the Kingpin. Just great stuff. Nuff said!
I've tried to stay away from too much gossip on this movie, but like everyone else, I just couldn't help myself. Let's start tearing into this. For starters, I didn't understand the casting of Ben Affleck. Unless they felt he is a marketable name, he's not an action star, nor does he really look like Matt Murdoch. Jennifer Garner - I kind of got this. She's beautiful, athletic, and looks like she could kick your ass! Alias is her resume to prove she's ready for a movie like this. Micheal Clarke Duncan - seemed like a pretty good choice to me. Bullseye - I didn't really have a strong attachement to this villian....not like I did Matt Murdoch....
.....which may be the most interesting thing about this character. To me, Dare Devil is a character of pure tragedy. He's lost everyone he ever loved. He's blind and in the comics, he always seems....sad. By casting Affleck, he looks like a Bruce Wayne type of hero. More on that in a minute.
As I'm watching this movie, I'm not feeling much of anything. I'm just munching on popcorn. We get the standard intro into a character (voiceover narration) as he procedes to tell us how he became who he is. There's some fighting...blah blah blah. But about 1/2 hour into this movie....it comes alive.
Jennifer Garner appears, and something just happens. I know some are thinking "babe alert" and, yes that works, but it's something else. Her presence is felt in this movie. She is really, truly magical in this movie. My wife felt the same way. Here's a truly great movie heroine. She's beautiful to men and women. Not fake, natural-----sweet and tough. But then, as the movie rapidly moves along (it's only 90 minutes long) we began to feel the super-hero movie curse. You know what I'm talking about. Years of comic book storylines strung together in a film is a tough thing to do. X-Men almost fell into this trap a few years ago. Thank God they decided to make Wolverine a focal point.
In Dare Devil, I never really cared about Matt Murdoch. And I think that's the real core problem with this movie. In the comic, when Matt's not in the costume, you feel completely saddened by his life. Here, he's listening to one-liners tossed out by Jon Favreau and it brings out a more flamboyant Matt than what I expected. In all, this movie couldn't decide what it wanted to be. At times, I and the audience giggled with glee (the Elektra playground love-tussle is pure joy), but other times, I just couldn't buy into what I was watching. Mainly, the fight sequences. I'm not a fan of "strobe-light" fight sequences. IMO, this was done to cover-up the in-ability for Ben Affleck to kick ass. Everyone here seemed to have gained Superman-like abilities (true DD fans know that Matt only gained heightened senses -- not the ability to do a Neo-Matrix kick on his high school bullies -- along with martial arts training.
This is going on WAYYYY too long, and the reviews on this movie will be pouring in all week. To wrap this up, here' s my final thoughts. If you were a fan of Miller's Dare Devil, you will have much to appreciate here. Elektra is handled wonderfully by Jennifer Garner. She fares much better here than Ben Affleck in this movie. I like Ben. I think he's a solid actor, but this was not a good vehicle for him. He's best when he's playing a smug, smarmy, cool guy. I picture him as a young Bruce Wayne. Good looking, rich, can get the ladies. On a more personal note, what happened to his chin! This man has an ass on his chin. In Dare Devil, we get a hero that almost becomes parody. Thanks to some good work by Jennifer Garner, and good supporting work by a Sid-Vicous villian played by Colin Farrell and a tabloid reporter played by Joey Pants, we still walk away from the theater...entertained. Fear not, Marvel Fans, The Hulk and X-Men 2 should make up for this film's shortcomings.
Travis Bickle, signing out.
Okay... let’s call that one “mixed.” Things he liked, things he didn’t. This next guy isn’t mixed about his opinion at all:
Hey harry,
Im not sure if your intrested in posting this but here goes. Saw DD tonight and i was really less then impressed. Ive been a fanboy like everyone reading this of comics sinse 1984 so i know DD,spidey,the punisher and all marvel pretty well. Well the movie for the 1st 15 mins was halfway decent.Great origin and a cool intro.Then came the worst part=the next 1:30 mins.Affleck as DD is just that,he isnt half bad but he's no guy pierce "who most of us agree with is DD",bullseye is the most annoying villian in the HISTORY of movies.His costume is wrong,his one liners are stupid and colin ferell is a good actor but if i were him id hide in shame,he's that bad.The kingpin is nothing more then a pimp in a pinsuit.His intro is some cheesy rap song,enough said.The best part of the film is indeed elektra.Now elektra looks absolutly nothing like the comic but jennifer gardner is good and sexy and can play elektra anytime she wants.
As for the story,its pretty much the story we all know except worse.Theres no real character development and if you like limp biscuit cranked up everytime some actions about to take place,then this is your movie. On a grade scale id give it a D+,on a scale of 1-10 id give it a 4.Nice try but id rather read the comic.Theres no contemporary music.
Oh one last thing.the best part out of DD was catching the
new X2 Trailor....OOOOOOOOOOOOOOH my god is it awesome.You
see nightcrawler speak briefly,you see colossus star transforming,you see bobby kiss rogue and her blow out ice.It goes by so fast and looks so incredible its F**ing amazing.
I’d take that review more seriously if I wasn’t still trying to figure out exactly what he said. Our last spy this morning seems to have had the most fun with the film:
May be redundant now, but I saw Daredevil on Friday.
I saw it with an individual who had been slagging off the ads, the costume, the poster, the trailer since any promotion had begun. He loved it.
My own bugbear was going to be Affleck. And I loved it.
It's almost like he movie industry woke up, shook the sleep out of its eyes and saw what I saw when I was a teenager, reading the comics. I would place below Spider-man, but above X-Men. Suffice to say that means it is pretty great - a more focused, intimate film than Spidey, and yet darker and more tragic than the children of the atom.
From the SFX, shrouded in darkness as the man without fear himself, to the throbbing scoring by Graeme Revell, very facet screams care and attention. Any bum notes? Kingpin, MAYBE...dunno, not enough sense of his criminal omnipotence beyond DD's Hell's Kitchen turf. And maybe Elektra was a tad wishy-washy, often ushering Dawnson's Creek usage of soft rock tracks that ALMOST undermines the crackerjack stylings.
Exciting, revealing, involving and emotive. Terrific.
Rich
Thanks, everybody. I appreciate it, and I can’t wait to put up a TalkBack on Friday just so you can all finally have your say on this latest Marvel effort...
"Moriarty" out.
