Sometimes you can tell when long sequences of a movie have been left on the cutting room floor, and that's the case with Daredevil. The trade-off for a short running length (a little over hour and a half) is a herky-jerky narrative that rarely advances smoothly. There are times when important nuggets of information are missing -- not because they've been intentionally withheld, but because the scene(s) in which they should be revealed are not in the final cut. Coherent exposition in not Daredevil's strong suit.
Cinematically, the inspiration for Daredevil is Batman. Hell's Kitchen in the The Big Apple is a dark and dreary place, and, although it's not as architecturally bizarre as Gotham City, there are stone gargoyles and harpies everywhere. Few scenes transpire during the day; nearly all the action is either indoors or at night. And the title character is a vigilante wearing a mask and tight leather suit who spends his nights up on the city's rooftops stalking the bad guys. Although Daredevil's alter-ego, Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) isn't as rich or suave as Bruce Wayne, he certainly has a way with the ladies.
After being blinded in an accident with toxic waste, Matt (played as a boy by Scott Terra) discovers that his other four senses have been exponentially enhanced. In fact, he now has a radar-like sixth sense that allows him to "see." Following the death of his father at the hands of a mobster, Matt decides to devote his life to bringing criminals to justice -- one way or another. As an adult, Matt is a lawyer by day, vigilante by night. He eventually becomes a thorn in the side of New York's biggest crime boss, Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan), who recruits an Irish villian named Bullseye (Colin Farrell) to eliminate Daredevil. Meanwhile, Matt enters into whirlwind relationship with Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner), who also happens to be on Kingpin's target list.
As befits a comic book-turned-motion picture, there are plenty of action scenes featuring moves that defy logic, gravity and the laws of physics. The best of the fights, however, isn't the duel between Daredevil and Bullseye, not is it the anticlimatic showdown between our hero and Kingpin. Instead, it's what passes for foreplay between Daredevil and Elektra. Instead of kissing and cuddling like most normal couples, they do their best to knock each other on their butts.
As hard as he tries Ben Affleck will probably never be better than a mediocre action hero. Affleck isn't bad as Matt/Daredevil, but he's not good either. More impressive is Jennifer Garner, who radiates spunk and spirit as Elektra. Michael Clarke Duncan seems to be enjoying himself in the larger-than-life role of the biggest crime boss in the city. And, for a change, the ubiquitous Colin Ferrell gets to play someone who's bad-to-the-bone. The phrase "over-the-top" doesn't do this performance justice.
Fans of the comic book will probably have some nits to pick, but, overall Daredevil does about what one would expect adapting comics to film - present about 90 minutes of disposable, action-oriented entertainment. It's not as good as either Spider-Man or The X-Men, in a large part because it loses far too much momentum in the last act, trying to set up a sequel. It's an adequate superhero yarn, but, hopefully, it's not the best of the genre due out in 2003.