Ebert liked it. My sister and I both like Daredevil (she read the Kevin Smith run since she’s a Smithaholic) so I’ll go with her. If it sucks it sucks. Fortunately I’ve managed to miss all the Affleck/Lopez media hype so I don’t hate Benny.
I’m not sure what all the sour grapes are over X-Men and Batman, both were pretty good movies in their own right and while they didn’t slavishly follow all of the original or what people consider canon, material, they reinterpreted the material in plausible ways. Besides, the nature of comic books is that stories get reinvented over time, different authors have different visions.
I saw Daredevil last night and really enjoyed it. Jennifer Garner, was gorgeous and while her Electra varied quite a bit, imho, from the comic book Electra, she was great fun to watch, even if she wasn’t on-screen enough for me.
Kingpin, similarly, was slightly altered, but I think the essential ‘force of nature’ that was characterized in the comic books was held true. He is quite the raging bull, incredibly strong and a force to be reckoned with in the movie. Some of scenes where he is raging out of control are great and really give a good sense of this beserk and totally amoral person.
What I really liked about Daredevil and hope that it does well, in order to have more movies done similarly, was the change in focus from ‘saving the world’ to more of a ‘only Hell’s Kitchen’ issue. It’s refreshing to see a movie where the main characters aren’t saving the world from a madman, but that is still a ‘superhero’ genre.
It was mildly entertaining. In a bland sort of way. Affleck was his usual charisma-free self. Also, the movie suffered from Batman disease in that there were too many protagonists and antagonists amd, as a result, character development was kept at a minimum. The style of the movie was a grab-bag of previous genre flicks from the dark gothic stylings of Batman and Dark City to the increasingly tedious Matrix style kung-fu and maybe even a nod to Tomb Raider.
My biggest fear was that Affleck would be capering around in red leather bondage gear but, thankfully, the fetish quotient was kept to a minimum.
I saw it Wednesday night. It was okay. I didn’t hate it, although I thought the fight scenes were too copied from recent fight scenes in other movies. But, it was a mild bit of entertainment.
I haven’t seen Daredevil yet, maybe tomorrow. But, seeing the Trailer, Film / Promo Stills, and Advertisements, I’m really thrilled with Jennifer Garner as Electra. I have read the Electra Comics, she should have looked like Tia Carrera, Black Hair, not Brunette, Darker Skinned, not Pale, and Red Outfit with Head Gear, not Black Outfit.
I like Kingpin as played by Michael Clarke Duncan. Not sure about Ben Affleck as Daredevil/Matt Murdock, or Bullseye.
I’ve only seen the commercials, but they make me wonder why they didn’t just call the movie “Elektra.” They make it look like the film is all Jennifer Garner with just an occasional appearance by Ben Affleck.
Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you.
I saw it at noon today, and really enjoyed it. It looked like a moving comic book.
As good as X-Men and Spider-Man were (and I think X-Men will be better once the next movie or two come out to help extend the storyline), I think that it’d be even better if the 100 million dollar budgets went not into live-action but animation. True, there is definitely a perceptional handicap on the part of John Q. Public that animation is for kiddies, but then I sit here and remember Fox’s broadcasts of Batman: The Animated Series and X-Men in the early 90s and even Batman Beyond not too long ago. Those are dang good shows and a massive budget coupled with the producers and directors of the TV shows would make a great movie.
I’ don’t know if I want to see it. The stunt double editing I saw in the preview looked as clunky as was done in Batman and Robin. The clip they showed on The Daily Show of Daredevil getting ready showed another stunt double spinning the sticks. To top it off, a review I read said that Ben Affleck was in less than half of the movie. The rest of it was all stunt doubles.
I think I’ll wait and rent it.
I went into it expecting a predictable and cliche plot, with some decent special effects and a few good fight sequences. In those respects I got exactly what I paid for.
I’ll continue to pay to see these kinds of movies, despite the casting of schmoes like Ben Affleck and their lame plots, purely in the hope that it’ll encourage continuation and improvement of the genre.
Oh, and Garner more than makes up for Affleck’s dry performance.
Just saw the movie; liked it quite well. I don’t mind if a movie works things a little differently from its source material, as long as it stands as a decent picture. I’m glad Daredevil’s outfit is leather instead of rubber or spandex; reminded me of a motorcycle racer’s gear. I also liked the fact that Matt shows a lot of wear and tear from his crime-fighting, such as scars, missing teeth and a pain-killer habit.
The court scene was confusing, though. Murdock and his partner are defense attorneys, right? But in this case, they seem to be acting as prosecuting attorneys in a rape case. Perhaps I missed something, or perhaps the rapist has already been acquitted in a criminal trial, and they’re representing the woman as plaintiff in a civil lawsuit.
I also saw the first trailer for the upcoming movie based on “The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen”. Looks rather different from the graphic novel, but that might not be an altogether bad thing. Also saw trailers for X2 and the Hulk movie, which looks (potentially) awesome.
All right, I just saw it. Some spoilers ahead.
Affleck was not so good. Farrell’s character, Bullseye, rocked. He cracked me up.
There were plot holes, though. For example, Elektra knew he had a cane and what it looked like. So why didn’t she recognize her boyfriend’s cane when she pulled it out of her dad’s body? And how did Matt change to the Daredevil costume so fast in that scene?
And I think the movie should have ended on the scene with Daredevil dropping the rose down to the theater’s entrance. None of what happened after that was very essential, and the audience could’ve figured it out anyway.
I think it was just cruel to release it on Valentine’s Day. I can just see some smarmy Hollywood marketing guy saying, “Hey, you’re a comic book geek who can’t get a date. You’re not going to be doing anything on V-Day anyway, why not come see our comic book movie!” As a single comic book geek myself, I chose to spend the evening playing a computer RPG and reading an internet message board, albeit in the privacy of my own home.
I’ll see it eventually and pretend it’s not Ben Affleck. Everybody else in the cast is a bad-ass.
And X-Men was most excellent, by the way. Best comic book movie ever.
I meant, I am not thrlled with Jennifer Garner as Electra.
Saw it. Wasn’t overly impressed; almost everything could have been done so much better.
Affleck was Affleck.
Garner was talentless and ugly - so business as usual for her.
Colin Farrell was a hoot. The scene on the plane where he’s getting more and more wound up is priceless.
The main credits were pretty. It’s a pity they couldn’t be bothered getting the braille cast names correct, though - the letter E is written incorrectly about half the time. Still, I don’t suppose any blind people are liable to complain.
Graeme Revell was kind enough to give us all the bits of score he didn’t think were quite good enough for The Crow.
The movie manages to look inferior to Batman - which is nigh on fifteen years old and was made for far less money even accounting for inflation. The Murdock POV shots are excellent, but the rest of the film is either too dark or has too many flickering lights to see properly.
[SPOILER]The plot is 100% stolen from Burton’s Batman, even down to the showdown in the cathedral. I know Daredevil has always been Marvel’s version of Batman, but this is ridiculous. If I were the owner of the Batman movie, I’d be tempted to sue for plagiarism.
Daredevil appears to have no fear of anyone discovering his secret identity, as he continually fails to act like a blind man.
Murdock sleeping in a sensory deprivation tank is a nice touch.[/Spoiler]
So, it’s only half as bad as it would have been if Affleck (AFLAC!) had been in the whole movie? 
I think how much a person would like the movie is dependent on whether or not you’re a fan of the comic book. I saw it with my GF and we both liked it, but I got a lot more out of the movie than she did, but that’s because I caught a lot of comic book references (the rapist is Quesada snort). My girlfriend, OTOH, said that she enjoyed it, but otherwise it was forgettable, and if I wasn’t a fan of the comic I’d agree. IMO, ultimately it was worth the price of admission and not much more.
Evil Death,
[spoiler]How’d you get that the plot was stolen from Batman? I suppose there are parallels in that both DD’s and Batman’s parents were killed by criminals, but after that you lost me.
The whole bit with the cathedral at the end came out of the comic. DD’s a Catholic in the comic (and his Mom’s a nun) and he runs around with a lot of Catholic guilt. References to the church have been running high in the comic for a couple of decades, and years before the Batman movie ever came out. And just about all of the other major plot points came out of the DD comic as well.
You’re also off the mark in DD being a rip off of Batman. When DD first came out he was treated as a very witty and comedic character. He was more of a poor man’s Spider-Man than Batman. He did get darker as the years went by, but Batman far from holds the rights to dark brooding characters (remember The Shadow?). I’ve heard a lot of people compare the two, but after you get past the fact that they’re both powerless super-heroes the comparisons fall apart IMO.
Seriously, how are you comparing DD to Batman? I see two different plots and stories with only superficial parallels.[/spoiler]
Evil death you really need to read the Daredevil visionaries’ graphic novel, it contains the Frank Miller run of Daredevil that the movie was based on.
BTW I think that Daredevil got a better movie than Spider-man did (IMO).
I don’t I’ll ever get over the organic web shooters, such a stupid change, I can’t understand it all.
The changes in Daredevil I can understand because you do need to save time. The one change that did piss me off was no Stick, I mean stick was cool you can’t beat a blind Ninja pool shark.
Fun movie. I don’t care for Affleck much, but if you ignore him it’s fine. 
Bullseye is hilarious, IMHO. And he has a really neat coat.
I’d reccomend it for those who don’t take movies like this seriously.