MOVIE REVIEW: Real heroism would be keeping ‘Daredevil’ off the streets–Grade: D
“Daredevil” is the movie that doesn’t take a single dare.
For a comic book flick fashioned after “Batman” or “Spider-man,” “Daredevil” is as lackluster as they come. The problem is just this, it was not dark enough to be “Batman,” and the story and computer animation was too poor to be “Spider-man.” And the main star couldn’t do either.
Ben Affleck doesn’t have the force and presence to hold the screen, not to mention drive a movie as its star. His performance is flat and uninspired. Even dressing him up in red leather does nothing to help his performance in this second-rate movie.
His failure to keep your attention is not helped by the fact he is playing a blind man. He just does not have the emotional strength to convincingly play this character.
He has no expression on his face at any given moment in this show, and that makes for a long movie. It is unfortunate that he’s not as good at this type of acting as, say, Tobey Maguire.
Now just because he was so bad, it doesn’t mean that there were not strong performances. Colin Farrell and Jennifer Garner both turn in solid acting in the course of the film.
Garner plays the “love interest,” which no self-respecting comic book movie can be without. A lot of the story surrounding her is weak, making it hard to know why and where she really is coming from, but she is still good with what she is given and gives the movie a small piece of humanity — something it really needed.
Farrell plays the hired Irish assassin Bullseye. He was probably the best part about this movie because he was having fun, which you could tell every time he came on screen. Too bad he was the only one, and too bad his best line was “I want my own bloody costume.”
The relationship between Farrell and Garner keeps this movie from falling flat on the pavement. At least they have the emotional range to portray actual well … emotions. Thank goodness for actors who actually practiced their craft in this movie, even if they were relegated to small, supporting roles with bad material.
With that said, there was not a lot of great material to be had. Writer and director Mark Steven Johnson gave the cast nothing to work with. His script is slow and clunky, almost daring the audience not to sleep. His direction also is clunky. The action and pace felt choppy and unmotivated.
In reality, this was the perfect example of the winter slump movies go through each year. It is not worth the time or money you would spend to see it. Too bad no one at the studio realized they could have saved themselves a lot of money and kept this project off the streets. Now that would have been real heroism.
Justin Berry is working toward his second bachelor’s degree in theater performance. Comments can be sent to justinsb26@hotmail.com.