Film Reviews

Daredevil

• Rating:
• Director: Mark Steven Johnson.
• Starring: Ben Affleck, Jennifer Garner, Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Jon Favreau, Joe Pantoliano, David Keith, Scott Terra, Erick Avari, Coolio, Ellen Pompeo.
• Details: US / 97 mins / (15PG).

Another comic book hero gets a dusting off for the big screen with the slickly-made but utterly vapid Daredevil. Affleck stars as Matt Murdock, who as a child, we are informed in a lengthy flashback sequence, was blinded after an accident involving radioactive waste. Although he lost the power of sight, somehow his other senses were accelerated and Murdock honed these fast developing superhuman abilities. When his father (Keith) is murdered by a gangland associate, Murdock becomes obsessed with vengeance and providing justice for the downtrodden. So by day he's Matt Murdock, conscientious, honest lawyer (there's a novel concept) and by night, he becomes Daredevil, the guardian of the streets. Picking holes in a screenplay adapted from an adolescent's comic book is like shooting fish in a barrel, but even keeping the parameters of the source material in mind, Daredevil is still a very limited enterprise, a movie apparently targeted at a strict demographic of 12-year-old boys. It's a fantastic looking, all gothic imagery, rain splattered streets and Jennifer Garner, but the script is little more than a couple of standout action sequences cobbled around an obvious and predictable story, notable only for its excesses of melodrama and idiotic narrative coincidences. It's not all bad news, the action sequences, although heavily influenced by The Matrix are frantic and well executed. Sadly, the same can't be said for the performances. Playing a cartoon character even seems beyond Ben Affleck's range at this stage and Irish actor Colin Farrell is pretty feeble as his nemesis, Bullseye.

Review by Garreth Murphy