Daredevil

[Digital Drift 2015]

Returning to the welcoming bosom of Marvel, Sharon and I take a good hard look at the 2003 attempt at bringing The Man Without Fear to our screens.

Fox rather unwisely competed with Spider-Man at the time, leading to a rather troubled production, hence the hastily cobbled-together millennial rubber bouncy jumping action and the vast disparity between the somewhat nonsensical theatrical edition and the little-seen but more naratively-sound director’s cut.

And then of course there’s Ben Affleck as Matt Murdoch, slaloming between gravely-grim and smirking sex-pest. The costumes which range from the outlandish to party-wear, Michael Clarke Duncan’s show-stealing turn as the Kingpin and yes, that playground fight. We always rather liked this movie.

It was made with comic book geeks in mind and filled with references, winks and nods. The soundtrack is very much of its time and punctuates this podcast and the film has become very dated when held up against modern superhero fare. BUT we don’t think it deserves the scorn heaped upon it. Certainly not enough of a reason to dismiss Affleck as Batman, when this is actually pretty accurate to Frank Miller’s Daredevil.