Here at CraveOnline‘s Trolling, it’s our job to make sure you get pissed off. It is here that we defend to the death the things you hate, and rip to shreds the things you hold the most dear. Last week, I talked about how much The Dark Knight sucks. Today, we’ll be talking about a great underrated classic: Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil. A great, great movie.
For some reason, many superhero fans seem to hate Daredevil, and I don’t understand why. Based on a character created in 1964, the maligned film came out 39 years later, when the superhero genre was still taking off in earnest (Spider-Man was probably the first of the truly modern superhero trend). Teenaged male audiences (and older male audiences who behaved like teenagers) were hungry for more and more superhero material (and, boy howdy would they get it in years to come), so Daredevil was highly anticipated by a growing segment of the population.
It came, but people reacted with a toxicity usually reserved for the accidental consumption of sour milk. Well I’m here to put the record straight. Daredevil rules. Let’s examine why.
Why do you hate Daredevil so much, internet? This is actually a fun and light and complex superhero film with a cool outfit, cool powers, a cool story, and a good actor at the center. It’s a strong and good movie.
Until next week, let the hate mail flow.
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast and co-star of The Trailer Hitch. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
Daredevil RULES
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Ben Affleck is Good
Ben Affleck is playing Batman. Get over it. Ben Affleck is actually a very energetic, capable, not to mention handsome actor who will – I am convinced – make a fine Bruce Wayne. I feel no outrage about his casting. Indeed, the internet outcry about Ben Affleck in general has always baffled me a little bit. Why so much hate? Was it Gigli? The J.Lo romance? Did that many people see Reindeer Games? What Affleck brings to the role of Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer who moonlights as a vigilante, is a lot of charm, convincing physicality, and the right amount of dark self-examination that the character warrants. He looks good in that outfit, and makes Daredevil into a full and interesting character.
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The Tone is Just Right
Daredevil is based on a comic book. When filmmakers move to adapt a comic book to film, they have several tonal choices to make. Do they want their movie to feel dark? Do they want it to feel bright and fun? And, most importantly, how realistic do they want it to be? Comic book movies can't be too realistic, because it would undercut the power fantasy element vital to the genre, and cast too sharp a juxtaposition onto the (admittedly unrealistic) superpowers and costumes on display. The tone of Daredevil is perfect in the way it balances the fantasy superhero elements with actual reality. It's stylized approach makes it feel like a comic book. It's not as slick as some of its followers (it did, after all, have a lower budget), but it still got the feeling right.
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The Story is Nice and Complicated
Too many superhero films (I'm looking at you, Avengers) have oversimplified stories that feel perfunctory and automatic. True, most of the hero movies are adapting light comic book material, but it's possible to make a comic book movie that has a good story with interesting twists, actual surprises, and actual stakes. Daredevil – at least the longer director's cut – has all of those things. There are two crime plots that eventually tie together in an unexpected way. There are scenes of investigation. Other characters lurk about with their own agendas. It's not exactly L.A. Confidential, but Daredevil was ambitious.
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It's Actually About Something
Another complaint about too many superhero films is that they don't tend to be about much in terms of their ultimate theme. What is the theme of Thor, for instance? What does he stand for? What does he learn? The small lessons about humility barely play in that film. Daredevil is a richer and more complex film in that it actually deals with justice, guilt, the ability to do good when it takes a toll, and the cracks in a criminal justice system that is imperfect, but still the best we have. That Matt Murdock is a lawyer speaks volumes as to what this film is about. It's not about a weirdo in tights beating people for fun (that's Batman). This is about how American justice operates. And the guilt one experiences when one cannot mete out justice enough.
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The Villain is Awesome
Colin Farrell plays an Irish assassin nicknamed Bullseye who seems to have the supernatural ability to throw just about any object with deadly accuracy. He wears a badass alligator-skin coat and has a bullseye scarred into his forehead. He can kill a man by throwing a straightened paper clip. These are all cool things already, but Bullseye is given a great deal of life and energy from Farrell, who snarls, chews scenery, and infuses a stock badass with a crazy edge that makes the character a delight to watch. Is Bullseye complex? Not at all. Indeed, he seems to operate only on pride, feeling ashamed when he misses a target. Is Bullseye fun? Heck yes. I'll take Bullseye over Venom, The Green Goblin, Loki, The Red Skull, Ra's Al Ghul, or whatever Wes Bentley played in Ghost Rider any day.
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The Depiction of Superpowers Was Really Cool
The film did a good job in displaying how Daredevil's powers work, which seems hard to do in any visual medium, seeing as the man is blind. Daredevil lost his sight in a chemical truck accident, but his other senses were enhanced to the point of superpowers. He can hear individual raindrops, hear heartbeats, and scan where people are in a room by how the sound waves bounce off of walls. He can balance on anything. Daredevil depicted this specifically non-visual superpower in the best visual way possible. It let the audience sort of “see” soundwaves. As such, we really understand the hero and his mechanics perfectly well. That can't be said of many superhero films.
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Kind to the Blind
Indeed, Daredevil is very good about making sure blind people are empowered. The accoutrements of blind living are all in display. Braille is used openly. Murdock's apartment is appropriately arranged for a modern blind man. He's a superbeing to be sure, but Daredevil assures us that he is also actually a blind man who still has his visual limitations. Also, the scene where a young Matt Murdock beats up bullies with his white cane is pretty badass.
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The Costume is Cool
That's all. The costume looks awesome.
