DareDevil (2003)

DareDevil: the Motion Picture, a film released in 2003. Will Marvel release a 20^th anniversary 4K/Blue Ray Edition to commemorate the movie?  I feel the answer would be no, that’s not to say there would not be any interests in such a venture, it’s just not their way of thinking, that has become an old model.  Disney has been leading a charge to do away with physical media, by pushing its streaming platform; offering a catalogue at your fingertips. Disney has been known to provide a special features portal on their service for select movies, so maybe Daredevil 20 will perhaps introduce extra content.

In the meantime, let’s look back:              Written and Directed by        Mark Steven Johnson who has championed the project for a number of years before getting 

the green-light to go with his auteur vision.  Johnson was given a set number of days of principle photography; that would had to include  the challenges of stunts, green screen, CGI along with the time to blend them all into a great deal of balance and believability on a final product of a movie; in which in my opinion was generally outstanding, but there was a trout in the milk.

After critics and audiences did not give favorable reviews of the movie in its initial theatrical run, It's Star Ben Affleck refused to reprise the role; even though it was a mildly successful, it turned a profit of a near $40 Million after marketing, budget and paying a percentage to its exhibitors had been doled out. 

 On a featurette, reveals the wire work in the playground sequence took a considerable amount of training and attention, but alas did not sell the right tone of believability in spite of its intention of showcasing their supernatural levels of athleticism.  Conversely, the look of radar sense – moving sound is a hard sell;  luckily it was done sparingly and the scene at the subway tracks was where the application had the chance to shine the brightest, to illustrate its functionality when trying to pin point his target.   It was the film's producer Gary Foster who picked the parts to cut out to make time for a suitable theatrical release, so the explanation on how the authorities came to know Fisk was the Kingpin and arrest him only becomes clear in the director’s cut; Leland’s betrayal was never shown in the theatrical release.

Shooting in Vancouver over Los Angeles could have made a difference.  The financial incentives would offer the means  to give Mark Steven Johnson an opportunity to take some more chances  and have more room to provide digital touch ups that could be afforded and improve upon. If Affleck hadn’t made it a clear he did not want to shoot in Canada after his experience with the film ‘The Sum of All Fears’.

Michael Clark Duncan was the best man for the job; he really embodied a physical and imposing presence of the Kingpin.  Colin Farrell played a character who spoke in an Irish accent, his natural dialect, a first for the actor; and his character had the right level of sinister and threat, but some critics would argue that he leaned too much into an over the top clown.  Jennifer Garner’s blue contacts was not as creepy as Jessica Alba’s Invisible Woman’s Rise of the Silver Surfer, but knowing it detracts on close ups for all the wrong reasons, something that was evident and should have been addressed at the first test audience.  Lenses aside. Garner gave a solid performance, and her role on Alias brought credibility going in, Stunt coordinator Jeff Imada had less work and supervision as she put in the work before coming to the set on day one, with handling the Sai and grasping the fight choreography quickly.   

There were some things a stunt man or a human could not do, and a CGI daredevil was used, for the most part it was pretty seamless when providing the right digital shading, but there were a few cityscape jumping and cathedral maneuvers that could not be escaped. They were an eye sore, but a forgivable couple of seconds, what’s not forgivable is the character getting unmasked 3 times by 3 different people, and was figured out by a reporter, within the course of a single movie. With the exception of Foggy, the Coroner, and maybe Bullseye, his identity is destined to be common knowledge by the second film if it got to that point.  In Spiderman 2, Mcquire unmasked himself in a subway car and no one took a cell phone photo as the people of New York helped him, Sandman smashed his mask to bits, venom took a pole and smacked his mask clean off, but the environments were contained and part of one set piece.  The problem was DareDevil had multiple reveals in one movie which lessens the stakes and significance of a character regarding his secret identity.

On the positive you got the Stan Lee Cameo, it was also the first film to use that rapid pages flipping for its opening.  The director’s cut offered a more comprehensive and expansive story, and the film paid homage to the comic book history of writers and illustrators who developed the character and carried on its mythology since it was first created by Stan Lee and Bill Everett.