Marvel Movie Project #19: Daredevil

By the time the Daredevil movie hit the big screen we were far enough past the awe of having major motion pictures with super-heroes that there was no excuse for this film to be this shoddy.  Poor cinematography, abysmal storytelling, and a complete misunderstanding of the character plague what could have been an excellent character study.

The film starts off on the wrong foot and goes downhill from there.  Daredevil is a lot like Batman.  Both have their family killed by crime and then swear to do what the law cannot.  Neither have super powers, DD's radar sense is more of an extra sense than a power, but both take action where the police cannot to bring scofflaws to justice.  Yet neither of them take their specific brand of justice too the ultimate conclusion.  Neither hero kills.  They both bring the criminal to the proper authorities so that justice can be served.  Unless, of course, you watch this movie, in which, during the first scene with Daredevil, he pushes a criminal in front of a subway train and watches as the train runs him over.  That's right, according to the makers of this film, Daredevil is a cold-blooded murderer.  As you can see, right from the beginning, it is obvious that the filmmakers have no idea who Daredevil is.  If this is how we start, what chance do we have for the duration?

Not much.  From there, the story is all over the place just like the characterization.  In the span of 90 minutes we are introduced to Daredevil, Foggy Nelson, Elektra, the Kingpin of Crime, and Bullseye and we are expected to know and care about the fates of all of them.  It's just not possible.  The film only lasts 103 minutes, but the producers try to cram about 30 years worth of storytelling into that time and it just isn't possible.  All of the characters are flat, with the exception of Matt Murdock who has more character than he needs (see the apropos of nothing sensory deprivation tank) and Foggy Nelson who is excellently portrayed by John Favreau, who also kills it as Happy Hogan in the Iron Man movies.  The rest of the characters are just cardboard cut outs.  Michael Clarke Duncan would make an excellent Kingpin, but he is given nothing to do with it.  Same for Colin Farrel whose Bullseye is almost likeable for an assassin. If you've read our Elektra review then you know how I feel about Garner's portrayal of that character which is a shame because there is real potential for fireworks between Elektra and Daredevil in this movie.  Don't get me wrong, the director tries really, really hard to force a romance down our throat, but much like in those reprehensible "Star Wars" prequels, it feels forced and doesn't work.

Which can also be said for much of the storytelling.  At the crux of the film there is a big showdown in the street between Daredevil, Elektra and Bullseye.  During this fight Bullseye kills Elektra's father in cold blood in the middle of the street.  Elektra is present when this happens, she is pretty much next to father.  She sees everything that happens and yet for some reason she blames her father's death on DD instead of Bullseye.  The only thing I can figure is that she was also witness to the earlier scene where DD killed that thug in the subway.  Anyway, the rest of the film plays out based on this blatantly wrong assumption as Elektra tries to kill Daredevil, Daredevil tries to hunt down Bullseye and ends up confronting the Kingpin in a big showdown that is unspectacular because there is no real established reason why Daredevil would go up against the Kingpin anyway--apart from Fisk being the head of organized crime in the city.  The plot is cracker thin and loosely held together by convenient associations.

Finally, the cinematography in this film is distracting at best and confusing at worst.  Symptomatic of this problem is the bar fight scene where Daredevil roughs up a pool hall full of criminals for no apparent reason (I think he is looking for someone or something, probably to kill them).  The entire scene is pieced together with choppy action sequences shot in dim lighting (even for a bar scene the place is dark).  It is nearly impossible to tell what is happening or follow any of the action. I get the feeling the director was trying to convey the sense of disorientation that Daredevil experiences in a battle such as this, even with his radar sense.  The repeated use of the ceiling fan blades as contrast over emphasizes this fact, but does not make the stylistic choice any more effective.  This is also apparent in the use of (very convenient) rain in the rooftop scenes with Elektra.  The director tries so hard to make a style piece, but undermines it at every turn with cheap devices and poor choices.  The scene between Elektra and Matt Murdock in the park means to be fun and lighthearted, but comes across as a goofy, unrealistic action scene that is nearly a parody.

Like most of these movies at the bottom of the list, the character and subject matter are capable of being conveyed in a powerful and meaningful way, but the choices made by the filmmakers take that potential and grind it into the dirt.  Daredevil is saved almost entirely on the back of some sound performances by Michael Clarke Duncan, John Favreau, and Colin Farrell despite the fact that they are given little to work with in this film.  Sadly, the main character is pretty unlikable and uncharacteristic of the comic book hero he is meant to depict.  The movie comes across like a made-for-TV special, not a major motion picture.

Aimee's Take:

We're moving up the list now and things are getting tricky. Unlike the last few tankers, these movies are starting to have things about them that are actually pretty good. But, exactly like the last few tankers, they also have things that make me want mind bleach, so that I can deny I've ever seen them. 

Daredevil is just such a film. It gets most everything terribly wrong. I think making Daredevil into a cold-blooded murderer was a bold choice. Doesn't anyone wonder why every time Matt Murdoch loses a case, the defendant turns up on the third rail or splattered on the sidewalk? Look, Daredevil was introduced to me first through reading Spider-Man back issues (reprints of course) and he was more like the wise guardian, compelling Spider-Man into ethical behavior. Not trying to kill people. That's how I met the Punisher. Is this the Punisher movie we always wanted? There's not much to cling to here; choppy, migraine-inducing editing, painfully bad characterization of pretty much every character, a muddled plot--I thank Jesus every day that this movie is only an hour and a half long.

"Don't talk to me, Mom! I'm a murderer!"

 But, and, believe me, it pains me to say it, there are things about this movie that are enjoyable.

• Bullseye, my least favorite "super villain" of all time, is actually pretty enjoyable in this movie. I'm not going to assassinate the character here, because he's one of the only things that is remotely interesting about the entire movie.
• Foggy Nelson is perfect. Don't change a damn thing--unless it's to pluck him right out of this film and into a better Daredevil movie.
• I think I may have laughed at a joke or something in this film. Not sure. It was probably a Foggy scene.

But then, there's a lot of stuff that's just painful. They work in an absurd amount of comic book references--references to writers, artists, etc. That's really awesome. I like that. But stop overdoing it, please? Specifically, stop saying "Quesada" over and over and over. It's probably innocuous to people who don't know who that is, but references should be subtle. Otherwise, it feels... dirty.

If you read my Elektra take, you already know how I feel about ol' Man-Hands. But she's not the worst offender here, it's the plot. It's really just the plot. Ok, and the script. And the cast--most of it. But that's where the problems stop. Unless you count the cinematography, of course... but who does?

The only reason Daredevil isn't on the bottom of the list is that, believe us, there are worse movies out there. But so many could make a compelling run for last. So many.

Marvel Movie Project #20: Elektra

Jennifer Garner was a really hot property at the time the Daredevil movie was made, I get that.  She was doing gangbusters over on that show Alias.  It was a show that featured some action scenes, so I guess someone assumed that Garner was an action star and that she would be a perfect fit for an action role in an action movie like Daredevil.  That didn't quite pan out like everyone hoped, and while it wasn't so much Garner's fault, it was her star power alone that deluded Hollywood into thinking she could carry an action film of her own.  Deluded.

When handling a character like Elektra, you have an opportunity to tell a myriad of interesting stories.  You can tell a ninja story, an assassin story, a psychological drama about someone returning from the dead, and so on.  The story doesn't have to be overly complex, but it does want some depth.  Elektra may not be the most involved Marvel character, but there is substance there.  Whatever angle you decide to take will dictate the tenor of the film.  Is it a mystery?  Is it all out action?  Is it a character profile?  Do we care about Elektra?  Can we relate to her?  Should we?

All important questions that no one in the production of the Elektra movie bothered to ask.  Instead, what we get is a paper thin plot strung along by cheesy dialogue and weakly navigated by cardboard characters.  The first indication that this was going to be a clunker comes in the first 5 minutes of the film when the person Elektra comes to kill tells the audience, via direct address no less, that he is an "evil man."  You have to be one of two things to self-identify as the "bad guy:" you have to be mentally deranged or so morally bankrupt that you are criminally insane.  The person in the movie does not come across as either.  He comes across as corrupted person, maybe a dirty businessman or some such, but he does not come across as unhinged.  As a matter of fact his composure in the face of death suggests a metered, controlled approach to his emotions and a deep existential understanding of his situation.  Yet he sits there in his chair and tells me that an assassin is coming to kill him because he is a villain.  A true villain never sees themselves as such.  For one fictional and one non-fictional case study consider Magneto, and ironically, Adolf Hitler.

Even with that shaky start I was willing to give the movie a chance to recover.  Perhaps that was just a poorly scripted scene (see also Elektra's flatly delivered "I've been dead once" groaner that immediately undermines anything else she might do for the rest of the film).  With that in mind, I settled back in hoping for a dazzling recovery in the second act.  But I knew the film was doomed the minute the guy and his daughter moved into the house next to where Elektra was staying and my brain said "that's the guys she's going to have to kill."  If I can see your plot coming this far down the road, then you are in trouble.  Sure, I didn't guess the part about the daughter, or the ensuing attempt at a parallel between Elektra and the child, but those bits were icing on the already rotten cake anyway.  When that guy moved in, there were only two ways they were taking this: love interest or mark.  I am wrong; I left out the third: love interest AND mark.  So I guess in that way Elektra did exceed a slight expectation.  Or perhaps it overfilled an already meager expectation.  It is hard to decide.

Either way, if you are going to make your plot that transparent, then you had damn well better make the ride to the end one hell of a trip or you are just serving me some plain white toast.  Sadly, Elektra opts to order off the Jake and Elwood menu.  Once the predictable plot gets going we meander through some fairly decent, if a bit borrowed, action scenes and then amble our way toward an obvious conclusion, despite some head-scratching side roads like Elektra decision to take the girl to her mentor and train her to fight.  Sadly, Elektra does very little assassinating, apart from the self-proclaimed "villain" at the start, and she has very few moral dilemmas to face despite her anti-hero status.  Her purpose is clear very early on and she recognizes it, then she drags us along to the inevitable conclusion.

By the time the movie is over, nothing has really been gained and despite what the film tries to assert, no characters have really been significantly changed or developed.  Wait, I take that back.  At the beginning of the film, for no apparent reason, we are led to believe that Elektra has pretty a strong OCD.  At the end of the film, and really in pretty much every scene after the OCD scene, Elektra seems to be well cured of her disorder.  So maybe something is gained.  What is lost is 97 minutes of my time.  A shame too, because an Elektra story is very wide open and has a lot of potential for coolness.  You know, like when Frank Miller did this:

Do not confuse with what happens in the terrible Daredevil movie.  NOT the same at all.

Aimee's Take:

Elektra is a soulless movie filled with cardboard cut-out characters. It is fortunate that Elektra is the title of the movie, because if it were not, I would have no reason to know the main character's name. It is predictable and wooden, plodding stylishly through a nonsensical plot. 

There is a reason that, for the most part, Elektra sucks up the bottom rung of every ranking and movie list. It is intolerably bad. But--as you've seen, not as intolerably bad as others. Elektra represents, on our list, the demarcation line between miserably awful and almost watchable. Elektra and below = no likeable characters. Above it? There's at least one character that makes the movie interesting--even if it is only for the duration of their screen presence. 

There's nothing in Elektra to make me even remotely interested in the character. I hate every character--from Elektra to who ever that little girl was. They were all aggravating bitches when they weren't being completely stilted.

But, it is a stylish movie. You can follow the plot, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense. And the costuming was nice. I have no real complaints about the soundtrack. Simply put, it's just not a good movie--but it's not offensive. I will never watch it again, but I guess I wouldn't blame someone for throwing it on in the background while they ate a Lean Cuisine on a Tuesday night. Plus, some people find Jennifer Garner's pouty man-jaw, goblin ears and Hulkish hands to be attractive. I am not one of them, but I guess I can make a case for someone enjoying the (dubious) eye-candy.