DVD Reviews

Daredevil

When Daredevil hit theaters earlier this year there was little publicity about its release. Big superhero movies like this tend to be released on the two biggest movie times Christmas and summer. This one was released in February.
I guess Fox decided that this being the weakest of their big superhero movies (the other being X-men 2) it was safer to release it during the slow movie season without any competition, and it did relatively well at the box office.

Ben Affleck stars as Matt Murdock who gets blinded as a kid by radioactive waste in a freak accident after witnessing his father death. This heightens his remaining senses and turns him into the Daredevil, a masked vigilante.

The movie has big production values, but really poor character development. I am not sure if Affleck was the right choice to play the lead. There's something about his demeanor that doesn't quite fit the role.

Jennifer Garner, as his girlfriend Elektra, seems like she could have been a bit more interesting. There was really no explanation given about her past and how she has come to be Daredevil's superhero match. I hope they fix that in the planned movie spin off of her character.

Colin Farrell as the hitman, Bullseye, just seems to have been wasted in the role and thrown into the story for the sake of having a high profile star play a bad guy. The main villain, Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan), should have been the main focus and was given very little screen time.

Some really creative fight scenes save the movie where Daredevil uses his other senses to know when to duck bullets and avoid getting punched by the bad guy. These scenes are uniquely filmed.

The DVD itself is simply amazing. The widescreen transfer is very impressive and you really get the sense that this is based on a comic book. Pastels are bright and the different camera angles really add to the overall fantasy look of the movie.

The DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks are both included and make good use of all the speakers. The surround channels are used effectively to really get us into Daredevil's head and we hear what he hears from a first hand perspective.

There is also a second disc full of extras, which includes features about the comic book and the making of the movie.

What Daredevil lacks in plot and character development is almost forgivable with this fully loaded DVD set. Let's hope Fox sees fit to release a director's cut of the movie, but we'll probably have to wait for the sequel to come out before that happens.

Review By Harley Solomon