Daredevil

Starring Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Colin Farrell, Joe Pantoliano, Jon Favreau and Michael-Clarke Duncan

Directed by Mark Steven Johnson

When reviewing these comic book movies, it always seems to come back to, “How well did they live up to the original?” After all, we (those of us that were geeks) all read these characters as kids, and have a formative and often emotional attachment to them. If they had screwed up Spider-Man, made him into soemthing onscreen vastly different from what he was in the comics, I’d have been upset.

So of course, with Daredevil, somebody finally took that risk. They re-invented the character. I wasn’t all that into him when I was young, but I got the idea. Matt Murdock was the uber-liberal superhero, a blind man defending the week, taking great care never to take another human life, defending the downtrodden as an attorney by day. A man of action with a heart of gold. Fine.

Thankfully, the guys at Marvel, who have been knocking these comic book movies out of the park lately, decided not to pander to the fans of the comic only, but to write a good story. To depart, and grow the character in a new way. Here, Affleck’s Daredevil is a tortured soul, and not particularly a good guy. He’s a vengeful killer, and taking the guise of the devil doesn’t seem all that inappropriate for a hero who throws a rapist onto a train track to be sliced in half, and taunts him with his own impending death as he does it. This is not your father’s Daredevil, true believers, but a man with deep issues to wook out. Just hope he isn’t working them out on you.

He does, of course, work them out, after losing a woman he falls for (and God, let me be a guy for a second and tell ya that Jennifer Garner in leather pants is worth the price of admission right there, fellas. Ouch!) and killing a pretty dull evil henchman with a wicked fastball (Farell, in the first role ever where he at least gets to BE IRISH!) It’s all set up for building a franchise, the effects are cool, Affleck doesn’t annoy me too much since he has at least the hints of emotional depth written into the script. So lets call it 3 cell phones, find a good matinee and use it as a warm up for all the summer movie blockbusters on the way. After all, its good to stretch before you workout.