Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: Daredevil

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Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-13-2003, 04:44 AM:

This film wants soooooo bad to be Spiderman, but it just isn't. There are some good sequences and special effects in the show (along with a lot of bag cgi), but in the end it's just a bland and mediocre way to kill a couple of hours. It's not a painful experience, I just didn't walk away feeling it was time well spent or wasted (I was being paid to check the print). Just in between and overwhelmingly blah. Had I seen this for the first time on tv, I would have probably watched it until the first commercial break, then changed channels.

Hey, what did you expect from the man who brought us those timeless classics "Simon Birch" and "Jack Frost"???

Posted by Will Morrow (Member # 792) on 02-13-2003, 02:28 PM:

I agree with Brad, Blah.

I might have went into this with high expectations, causing it to feel like a major let down, but it really wasn't that good. X2 should kill this flick.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 02-13-2003, 03:51 PM:

I think that I like it a little bit better than you both. I thought that it was really entertaining at parts. Ben did a good job with what he had and Jennifer did a decent job as well (she is rumored to get her own spin off)as long as they were not on the screen at the same time. With out spoiling anything, my biggest complaint was how the climax of the movie just happen. It almost felt like an entire reel of the movie was missing.

Posted by Josh Kirkhart (Member # 1046) on 02-13-2003, 04:05 PM:

I highly enjoyed it. I went in with a lot of comic baggage and left more than satisfied. I don't think the film makers wanted any of spiderman, but the big wigs did for that cashola. They got most of the facts right and those they didn't were miniscule. Obviously if you don't like slightly over the top action and tight leather its not for you. The sound mix was pretty good, and that first fight scene had a really different mix. Its great to see a comicbook movie in SCOPE, gotta love it.

I enjoyed it and anyone not seeing it, don't worry I'll see it for ya.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-13-2003, 05:47 PM:

I've got to nitpick this one line just a bit...

quote:
"slightly over the top action"

Huh??? Here we have a blind man who jumps off of the tallest skyscrapers of over 100 stories tall, does a couple of flips over poles and such and lands on the ground without even having to barely bend his knees.

You did say "slightly", right? [Razz]

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 02-14-2003, 02:22 AM:

quote:
Its great to see a comicbook movie in SCOPE, gotta love it.

For a real comic book movie in scope, try the original Superman! Nothing else compares if you ask me.

Posted by Andrew Duggan (Member # 1302) on 02-14-2003, 10:16 AM:

Yeah, I wasn't a very big fan of this one. I've been really into the recent wave of comic book movies, but this one was a total letdown. The plot was really shallow, the script was really godawful at some points, and the acting was pretty sub par. And, speaking as a total comic dork, I don't think they could have ruined some of these characters any more. I think anybody who collects/collected comics would agree with me that it takes serious work to actually make BullsEye even LAMER than he was in the comics. [Smile]

The plus side of seeing this movie was that we laced it up and watched it for a private midnight showing for "Punks Only". Watching a movie in a dark theater with 2 dozen drunk Punk Rockers can make any movie amusing! [Smile]

Posted by Mike Olpin (Member # 1115) on 02-14-2003, 03:05 PM:

I enjoyed it for the most part. The opening sequence bears many resemblences to Spderman. I hope MARVEL does not make this a habbit with the rest of their movies.

I could not get over his hair! He is wearing a tupee (sp?) throughout the film. It does not bounce, blow in the wind or even get wet! Is Aflec bald?

Also the movie exagerated the action far to much. He gets a seriouse flesh wound and is fighting 5 mins later with full use of the injured area!

On the other hand, the sound design was excellent.

Posted by Scott Norwood (Member # 30) on 02-15-2003, 06:03 PM:

This was OK for mindless entertainment value. It's forgettable, though, since it is neither great nor terrible.

Mike--I agree with you that the sound mix was excellent.

Posted by Josh Kirkhart (Member # 1046) on 02-16-2003, 04:50 AM:

I am one of the LARGEST(not is scale) fans of the original and all the Superman movies(which were all scope, even Supergirl), I was reffering to the modern restart of comic movies. Last Scope comic movies-Blade, From Hell, Judge Dredd and X-men, now Daredevil and soon X2 and LXG. Hulk will most likely be Flat as were Spiderman, all the Batmans, Punisher, Blade 2, TMNT and Crow.

Brad, some of the action movies supposedly based in the 'real' world have way over the top action which pales this movie, but hell, its a comic movie, if ya wanted realism you'd watch The Pianist or Platoon.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 02-16-2003, 12:09 PM:

Sorry about that Josh, but you're just stating the obvious fact that any superhero movie is not going to be realistic by the sheer subject material alone. Perhaps I should've said that I was expecting a super hero movie, not a stupid movie. [Razz]

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 02-16-2003, 05:18 PM:

Unfortunately for Dare Devil, this movie came after the first X-Man movie and of course Spiderman. What would some of you have been saying if this movie had came out after the last Batman movie? The bar has been raised kind of high (and I am not saying that thats a bad thing either).

Posted by David Stambaugh (Member # 1102) on 02-16-2003, 06:16 PM:

02/16/2003, Regal Cinema World 8, Eugene OR, 12:15PM, #4, DTS. Attendance about 20. I would give the presentation an "excellent" except the first 60 secs. or so of reel 3 was intermittently fogged and had some heavy black horizontal scratches. Some kind of lab screwup I assume. The DTS sound didn't drop out once though. DTS also handled the musical transitions across reel changes perfectly.

I liked it well enough for what it is. I don't read "graphic novels" and to tell the truth I'd never heard of Daredevil before this movie came along. [Big Grin]

The tone of the film is very different from Spider-Man, so it may not be fair to make direct comparisons between the two. The "look" is also different and I didn't really care much for some of it. It seemed like some bad choices were made by the colorist(s). Then there's Ben Affleck who I generally don't like, and I didn't much like him in this either. Now having said all that, I did semi-enjoy the film and it held my attention. Colin Farrell does a very good job as Bullseye. Michael Clark Duncan is good too. Overall I give this, oh, a 6.5. Thumbs up but just barely. [thumbsup]

The sound design is very good -- I'll give it that.

Did anyone think that some of the closeup head shots seemed like they were oddly framed? Tops of heads are frequently cut off unnaturally. Also some of the action sequences are almost incoherently staged.

Make that a 5.5.

[ 02-16-2003, 07:18 PM: Message edited by: David Stambaugh ]

Posted by Scott Balko (Member # 438) on 02-16-2003, 08:26 PM:

It's a little tough not to compare this film with Spiderman. The jumping from building to building with the cable shot from that thing he carried is just a little too parallel to not see the similarities. I was disappointed in it. The story really dragged in more than one area. The action scenes could have been really good, but the darkness of them combined with the flashes and such really made it confusing to look at. BTW, can anyone tell me how the billiard tables caught fire? [Confused]

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 02-16-2003, 11:23 PM:

The alcohol from their drinks maybe? [Confused]

I want to know when did he have all that time to learn martial arts? They showed him using a punching bag for a couple of seconds but thats about it.

Posted by Don Bruechert (Member # 1538) on 02-17-2003, 11:46 AM:

***** WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW *******

Watched it last night in a DTS house with 6 or 7 customers. First impression was "Batman". Kid sees father killed, grows up wanting revenge/save the world, wears red "bat/devil" costume, finds girl, gets revenge and goes on... possibly does not lose girl, but that is up to the sequel (if this one doesn't tank).

I really go a "been there, done that" feeling from the whole thing. Didn't mind watching it but didn't get very emotional from it where you root for one or the other or feel deeply sad because of things, and only a couple minor chuckles.

Thought the sound was OK overall but found the dialog lacking. Had I turned it up (to 7, but let's not go there [Smile]

) so I could hear the quiet dialog the rest would have ripped our heads off. Not one I will probably be adding to my home collection.

Posted by Michael Gonzalez (Member # 593) on 02-17-2003, 05:03 PM:

If it doesn't tank huh?

$43.5 million and counting. I am curious as to what kind of drop off in business it will have next weekend.

Posted by Zack Long (Member # 1614) on 02-23-2003, 04:18 AM:

This one had good actors but I dont like the director (Mark Steven Johnson) or much of his past work. I hope thay dont start changing up actors in the sequals.

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 02-24-2003, 04:44 PM:

I think Ben Affleck did a pretty good job of bringing everyone else's performance down to his level. [Smile]

Posted by Claude S. Ayakawa (Member # 1401) on 03-01-2003, 09:26 PM:

I finally had the opportunity to see "DAREDEVIL" at the first show of the day in Honolulu at the Ward 16 in one of the four large auditoriums with a 60 foot screen and excellent HPS-4000 sound. I saw the movie today with about two hundred people and here is my opinion. I have read the comments posted about this film here at Film Tech and checked CinemaScore and the good opinions far outweighed the bad ones so I decided to see it. I went to the showing not expecting very much but was surprised to find myself very involved in the plot from the very beginning. When this happens, I knew I was going to have a good time during the next hour and a half. It was a good thing the large Ward theatres also is set up for SRD and DTS in addition to their prefered SDDS sound format. Because the film did not have a SDDS track, I am not sure if I saw the movie in DTS or SRD but whatever it was, it was excellent. The use of split surrounds all through the movie was very well done. By the way, I did check my brain at the door so seeing a blind man jumping off a very tall building and doing other stunts was totally acceptable.

The following comment is a spoiler so do not read if you have not yet seen the movie and plan to.

The only thing that bothered me about the movie was a hint in a clip during the end credits that Bullseye will return in future DAREDEVIL" films. Despite the fact that I had checked my brain at the door, I found it hard to believe how he could have survived that nasty fall from the top of a church bell tower. Yes, I agree that if a blind man can soar through the New York skyline like Spiderman, Bullseye could have survived that fall. After all, the movie is based on a comic book, Right?

By the way, I was able to see the movie for free by using the free movie coupon that came with my copy of the "XMEN 1.5" DVD.

-Claude

Posted by William Leland III (Member # 1400) on 03-02-2003, 04:25 PM:

I rate "DareDevil" 6 beers out of a 12 pack. [beer]

I had real low expectations going into "DareDevil", I was surprised how much I liked it. The acting was not over the top, the script was not that bad, Jon Favreau had the best lines, Ben Affleck did a decent job. He's not the greatest actor but he played Daredevil good. I could feel the hatred he had for bad guys. I didn't like Micheal Duncan Clark as King Pin. He shouldn't be cast as a bad guy. He doesn't pull it off.

In a comic book movie you have to go in with an open mind. Jumping off buildings and dodging a hundred pieces of glass is total comic book. That is how it is. So I had no problem with the movie in that sense.

The bad parts where the fighting scenes. You couldn't see what was going on. The camera work was to damn close and ruined any fighting scene. I never payed any attention to the fight scenes. Couldn't make out what was happening. Also the movie was to dark. Not enough light. We need to see.

Posted by Greg Mueller (Member # 17) on 03-03-2003, 09:33 AM:

Which one was the super hero?
I guess in that city EVERYONE can jump from building to building etc
Ben Affleck did an acceptable job. Didn't care for the girl friend. And what gave Bull's eye his "superpowers"? Was it the dents on his forehead?
I'm getting SOOOO damn tired of phoney CGI. It was so cartoony. Why don't they just put Bugs Bunny in there?
Are there ANY Errol Flynn types out there that could actually do stunts. I would love to see a film like Robin Hood where they actually did physical stunts.
I think they missed a nice opportunity here.

Posted by Brad Miller (Member # 2) on 03-15-2003, 02:08 AM:

Saw this tonight on the best webpage in the universe and found it very suiting to Daredevil.

Move your rat pointer here and press it's ass