Daredevil

Matt Murdock [Ben Affleck] is blind lawyer by day, tortured crime fighting vigilante super hero Daredevil by night. "I'm not the bad guy." One day he meets Elektra Natchios [Jennifer Garner], daughter of a billionaire criminal, and they fall in love. When Elektra's father tries to go straight, he and his family are slated for death by crime lord Kingpin [Michael Clarke Duncan], who calls in the psychotic assassin Bullseye [Colin Farrell] to do the deed. Elektra's father is killed in front of her eyes, and she believes Daredevil is responsible. Out for revenge, she tracks him down and injures him, only to discover who he really is. Bullseye appears and kills Elektra [although she doesn't stay dead in the spin off !], then in the finale fight Daredevil kills Bullseye, and exposes the Kingpin, who he realises also killed his father.

This is all a bit slow and turgid, with too much wordy backstory, portentous voice-over, and angst, and not enough comic-book-style slug-festing. However, after a brief trawl on the Web, I've discovered that there is a Director's Cut, which seems to have more of that kind of stuff in -- so maybe try that version instead?

Rating: 4.5

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

reviewed 7 July 2007