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superintelligentone
Reviews
Daredevil (2003)
Critics be Damned! A Rebuttal
Many Spoilers present.
It's hard to believe what the negative reviews have to say about this masterpiece. Most open minded people would accept the fantastic nature of the movie. You wouldn't go to a Terminator movie and say that there will never be robots like that. You wouldn't say that The Wizard of Oz had unbelievable characters and then complain that everything turned out to be a dream. Some people complain that the characters can jump too far and fight too well. You could say that about Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon too. In these martial arts / super hero / action movies this sort of thing is EXPECTED!
So what that the plot was a derivation of the classic 'boy wants grow up and avenge his father, but learns that justice and revenge is not the same' idea. Many great works of fiction used that. Would you complain that the Star Wars saga can be summarized as `person with good intentions gets turned bad and who eventually is redeemed'? Many stories work on established themes like that.
Some complain about the concept of a blind man who can fight. Geez, the story is about a superhero who's given remarkable senses thanks to the chemicals that blinded him as a kid. It never implied that any blind person could do what he does. Someone else complained that Affleck doesn't know how to act like he was blind. Affleck said in interviews that he wore opaque contact lenses and had blind actor Tom Sullivan advise him on how a blind person would handle situations as Matt Murdock. Having scenes where his eyes mis-align show that they understood how the blind would act.
Some people took issue with the casting of Jennifer Garner as Electra. Of all of the actresses who are capable of fight scenes, only Garner has the physicality to be able to do most of her own stunts. Plus she can really act - she can convey a wide range of emotion. You can't say that about Gellar, Dushku, Alba, Liu, or Hu. As for her not looking like what people expect, Frank Miller who created the Electra character was very happy with her casting. She was what HE wanted and what everyone involved with the casting wanted. Everyone at Marvel was happy with all of the casting too.
There were people who complained about the fighting looked fake. I've seen clips of the Making of Daredevil that shows how fast and close the combat scenes were. They weren't short cutaways like a Seagall or Norris fight scene would have. Garner said that they had Hong Kong martial arts/wire action people hired to insure that the scenes were done right. She's the 'real deal' if a fight really happened. The actors have said that they hurt each other when they got their fight sequences wrong. There was the added problem of the ratings board giving this movie a R rating rather than the PG13 rating that was wanted. They were forced to cut more and more of the movie in order to get the needed PG13.
The complaints about Daredevil killed a lot of people? The rapist had enough time to climb out of the subway himself. And the people in the bar fight were knocked unconscious, not killed. Several reviewers complained about what happened to Electra. The original comic had the same thing happened, so no complaints here. Having found a braille necklace at the rooftop that was similar to Electra's necklace indicated what must have happened. That's why Murdock smiled when he read the inscription and said `Hope'. How could the injured Daredevil fight Bullseye and Kingpin? Bullseye got his hands shot by the police marksman and became helpless. Kingpin got his kneecaps broken. Pay attention to the scene during the closing credits.
Someone complained that Murdock went up to Electra intending to see if she would fall for his charms. Well, he's blind, not a eunuch! Just look at all of the beautiful women you see with Verne `Mini Me' Troyer. Handicapped people know that some people are fascinated by their uniqueness.
I went to see this movie with an open mind and was extremely pleased with what was onscreen. The negative reviewers either weren't paying attention to what was onscreen or else they had a negative agenda to fullfill. Being in the 'I hate Ben Affleck club' doesn't make you a good judge of movies.