Seems like comic book heroes are all the rage in pictures these days and I guess we will have to go through all of them before the producers and the studios figure out what's good on pulp is not necessarily good on celluloid.  It's one thing to drop a dollar (a dime in my day) on a comic and read about your favorite character battling evil and saving the world.  It's another thing when they try to bring that same character to the big screen.  How much of the story do you tell?  How close do you follow the writer's vision?  And the biggest question, WHO do you get to play the hero?  These are things that must be addressed in order to successfully make the transition from comic to screenplay to the theatre. 

I went to see this picture with absolutely no idea who Daredevil was so the first two questions were unimportant.  The third question, however, jumped right out at me when Ben (I REALLY must know somebody) Affleck as Daredevil entered the picture.  Ben seems like a nice guy but he couldn't act the first time I saw him and he has gotten progressively mediocre.  That was no problem though because the script was about the same.  Perfect match! 

The premise is somewhat unique in the fact that the hero is blinded as a young boy by toxic waste.  The by-product of this tragedy is that the other four senses of young Matt Murdock are enhanced to the point of being super-human.  He uses these new "powers" to do what? You guessed it, battle evil and save the world!  He is up against a villain named The Kingpin (Oh God!) played extremely flat by Michael Clarke Duncan who hasn't had a decent performance since The Green Mile (1999).  This guy can't act either!  The horrible acting trio is rounded out with Colin Farrell playing a henchman of The Kingpin's named, are you ready for this, BULLSEYE!  This performance is so overacted that I wanted to laugh out loud every time he delivered one of the ridiculous lines written for him.  Maybe if I had been a fan of this comic book, I would have been more in tune to enjoy this trash but I wasn't so I didn't.  Not only was the script bad and the acting horrible, but the special effects that were relied on too heavily were very computerish in places and looked very fake and not up to industry standards. 

Bad writing, bad acting, bad special effects and horrible characters made me wonder why I didn't wear a watch so I could look at it every ten minutes hoping this picture would end.  The one positive?  Matinee price! 

RECOMMENDATION:  I didn't like it and my conscience dictates that I offer this review in an endeavor to help you not waste your movie going dollars.  In other words, SAVE THEM ENDS!!! 

TWO BADLY "AFFLECKED" THUMBS DOWN! 

© 2003 Terry Anderson