Mark Steven Johnson’s 2003 superhero film “Daredevil” is much better than its reputation. Really, it’s okay. It has a fun, if typical, superhero tone that one might call “Diet Batman”, and it represents a beloved Marvel character quite well. Daredevil,” as Marvel fans can tell you, lost his sight in a chemical accident, but mysteriously developed superhuman hearing, touch, and balance in return. His sense of hearing was so acute that Daredevil could hear people’s heartbeats speed up when they lied. It was a handy power to have when working as a lawyer, which Daredevil did during the day.
Additionally, the filmmakers were able to imagine Daredevil’s superpowers in an interesting way. They found a way to visually represent sound waves resonating in a room, easily communicating to the audience that Daredevil was performing echolocation. Plus, the costume was true to page, with Ben Affleck sporting an all-red leather bodysuit. There was more than a little fetishization about the costume. And, of course, there was the inclusion of a scenery-chewing Colin Farrell as Bullseye, a supervillain assassin with supernatural aims; he could kill you with a well-thrown paperclip. Kevin Smith played a small role, giving “Daredevil” some comic book credit.
There was a lot of backlash against the film at the time, mostly related to the title star, Ben Affleck. Affleck was very much in the news thanks to his highly publicized relationship with Jennifer Lopez, and people started to hate how overexposed he was. Plus, it was very 2003, with an instantly dated soundtrack and a brooding tone very de rigeur at the time.
Roger Ebert gave “Daredevil” a pass, however. In his three-star reviewEbert said it was more fun than it had any right to be.
Ebert thought Daredevil was doing just fine
The rest of the film’s cast was also remarkable. Jennifer Ganer played Elektra, a trained fighter who – as her namesake might imply – will lose her father, setting her on a path of revenge. The film’s central villain, a crime boss known simply as the Kingpin, is played by the imposing Michael Clark Duncan. Jon Favreau plays Franklin “Foggy” Nelson, a friend of Daredevil’s daytime alter ego, Matt Murdock. Favreau’s character is not to be confused with Harold “Happy” Hogan, the role he has played several times in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. “Daredevil” predates the MCU. Joe Pantoliano plays the upset New York cop, frustrated that there is a vigilante on the job.
Ebert’s laid-back approach to “Daredevil” might be because he wasn’t a comic book enthusiast. He did not consider the character sacred and did not think filmmakers should be beholden to a specific tone. Indeed, Ebert amusingly rejects all notions of comics, noting that “There is an explanation to [Daredevil’s hyper-balance] capacity, but I tend to ignore such explanations because, after all, what do they really explain? I don’t care what you say, it’s Superman’s cape that makes him fly. »
Instead, he looked at the characters and the story and found them perfectly adequate. He wrote:
“The movie is actually quite good. Affleck and Garner look for the believable aspects of their characters, don’t overdo it, get some semi-idiosyncratic dialogue, and are in a very nice movie. Most of the tension is between the characters, not between the props. There is, of course, a formal, fancy ball to which everyone is invited (Commissioner Gordon must have been present at the rival affair across town).”
He’s right. This all works pretty well.
Seriously, why did everyone hate Daredevil?
It should be noted, however, that Ebert wasn’t thrilled with “Daredevil”, he just loved it. “In short, the film is worth your money,” he wrote, “better than we expected, more fun than we deserve.” He added at the end of his review that he, even in 2003, was already pretty tired of superheroes, writing that “I’m a little tired of depicting the origin stories and powers of superheroes, and their relationships with archvillains, grinding henchmen, and spunky, muscular girlfriends.” He finished by saying, “Some of their films, like this one, are better than others.”
It’s worth remembering that Ebert’s superhero weariness was in full effect when the Marvel Cinematic Universe began to gain momentum. He loved “Iron Man” by Jon Favreau but hated Kenneth Branagh’s “Thor”, giving it four stars and the latter one and a half. His review of “Thor” was so negative that it spawned a months-long conversation with Marvel fans who complained that Ebert was out of touch. When the super-crossover event “The Avengers” came out in 2012, he thought that too was just okay, giving it three stars and finding superheroes barely funny. Ebert didn’t care about interconnectivity and wasn’t thrilled to see the Avengers interact. Evert died in 2013, and one can only imagine what he would have thought of the glossy ultra-climax of “Avengers: Endgame,” or the horribly crude commercial act of onanism. it was “Deadpool & Wolverine.”
Elsewhere, Jennifer Garner reprized her role as Elektra in “Deadpool & Wolverine,” making the 2003 film “Daredevil” an official part of the MCU. Ebert, I can assure you, would not have cared.
