Since 2015, Charlie Cox has undoubtedly been the definitive on-screen version of Marvel’s Daredevil, which has been one of the stronger offerings of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s small-screen output. There have been other live-action incarnations of the gritty, visually-impaired superhero though, which includes a less-celebrated big-screen version in 2003, when Ben Affleck donned the red cowl, alongside Jennifer Garner in the first of her two relatively poorly-received outings as Elektra.
Back in 2003, we were still five years away from the MCU and even Christopher Nolan’s groundbreaking Dark Knight trilogy was still two years from making its debut, and there was the perception that perhaps the superhero genre had run it’s course. Certainly Daredevil did very little to counteract this view, and is a distinctly average movie.
It is perfectly watchable though. I always thought Ben Affleck was quite a good version of Batman in some quite bad movies when he played the role in the DC Extended Universe and I think his version of Daredevil is equally a reasonable performance in a not-great movie. Indeed the same can be said of all the key performances – Garner as Elektra, Michael Clark Duncan as Wilson Fisk and a committed over-the-top Colin Farrell as Bullseye all deserved better material to work with.
It’s unlikely, with the plethora of superhero movies and TV shows available ‘on-demand’ these days that many would opt to revisit this but if you have a spare 100 minutes to fill, it’s an undemanding and entertaining enough way to pass the time.
Score for Christmasishness
If it’s not a great superhero movie, it’s certainly not a Christmas movie and has no business featuring on my annual Christmas countdown. However, an ill-fated old lady (who barely features in the story other than to briefly annoy Farrell’s Bullseye on a transatlantic flight before he creatively and cruelly dispatches her with a peanut) does briefly mention Christmas before her demise. It’s no reason at all to consider this a Christmas movie, but I’ve included movies with equally tenuous links to the season in the past and with that precedent already set, I feel ok about introducing Daredevil into the mix.
James Proclaims! 