With
Daredevil back in the Marvel fold, let me take you back to a time before the dark clouds cast over the superhero genre by films like The Dark Knight, Watchmen etc. It was a brave new world for the superhero movie, although one that still kept the Dark Age material safely at the door, superheroes were cool again and things looked great. Then in 2003, we hit a major speed bump. This happened after a semi-obscure hero from the Marvel universe got the big screen treatment after the success of the Spider-Man and X-Men franchise. That hero was Daredevil: The Man Without Fear. For the first time a big question was posed to non-comic fan: who was Daredevil? Who knew about Daredevil amongst the wider-cinema going public? Few, very few. I was familiar with the character through the 90's Animated Series like Spider-Man etc, the Marvel videogames and of course the comics to a lesser extent. So, I was interested to see the final product even in my early teens. When the film came out, I seemed to be alone in my opinion that it was good. From the start, Daredevil was hammered by critics and shredded by others. It was, and still is, placed on many "worst of" lists for 2003. Never has such an obvious case of bandwagon hatred existed, outside of the unfounded attacks on Kevin Smith and Grant Morrison in the past. The theatrical cut of the film had its holes and was overall disappointing, but it wasn't by any means bad. The plot was disjointed and focused too much on the forced love side story rather than DD's origins or his motivation for being a vigilante. That said, I could never really hate on it. I knew that there was a better film in there, as this was often hinted in the theatrical cut itself. My gut feeling was confirmed with the 2004 release of Daredevil: Director's Cut. (By the way, look out for the best Kevin Smith cameo ever in this film. And Smith's stint with DD makes for a great read, it is worth your time.)
Daredevil: Director's Cut gifts us with one of the best early superhero films of this generation, one that most will sadly still avoid at all costs. Let me assure you, this cut is the film that fans wanted in the first place. It is a nearly perfect way to handle a dark hero on screen without going too far. It is also better than both the Blade and Punisher films. Yes, I know that is a bold statement but it's true. It does still have its issues like everything else. The one that really grates me is the various tangents that the film takes at points, namely the park fight scene between Murdock and Electra. That aside, this cut fleshes out many aspects that were lost in the 90 minute theatrical release. The themes from Frank Miller's run and from the Daredevil canon as a whole are rediscovered here: such as Matt
Murdock's struggle with his Catholicism, the haunting visuals that Catholic iconography allows and a truly touching expansion upon Matt Murdock's past. This cut even touches on the back-story of Matt's mother (who becomes a Catholic nun in the comics) she is shown at Matt's bedside early in the film. These expanded bits of fan service are all wrapped in the new hyper-gritty veil of Murdock's world. Speaking of hyper-grit, the fights in the 2003 cut lack any real investment and are just too short. While in the Director's Cut they not only make sense but are both visceral and very emotive. This is nice change of pace from the clichéd "boss battle" that you'd expect in a Hollywood action film, see Batman's battles with Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.
The emotional lynchpin of the story is the father/son arc and it always was, even in the comics. The fleshing out of this element makes this cut worth the price of admission alone. Instead of the rushed story as we got before, we now see much more of the relationship between Matt and his father. This allows us to emphasise with Matt and his mission. With this new investment, the dark tone bedrock is firmly set. For example, imagine a Batman origin without the double murder in Crime Alley. Or if those murders was given the incorrect amount of gravitas, it just doesn't work. The tone of that world would always be corrupted and a disconnect with the audience would result. Again, Batman is a crazy person who beats up criminals at night. Why do we support him? Because we understand why he does it; we feel pathos towards Bruce Wayne and his personal pain. Daredevil requires the same investment, maybe even more, as he actually kills criminals. Daredevil and the Bat are very similar in both style and substance and so require the same understanding. Ben Affleck, I felt was perfect for the role. I believe that his performance was hammered due to the whole Gigli mess of the same year. But anything that he did around this time would have been panned. The truth is that Affleck fully got the character and played it note perfect. The Director's Cut allows Affleck to shine with the additions of the courtroom scenes and the longer chamber scenes. These show him battling crime by day as Matt Murdock and trying to cope with the psychological after-effects of his super-senses. These small additions give the character depth and poignancy.
The issue with this film was never bad acting, bad directing or any of the other of the negative nonsense that was hurled at this film in the 2003 reviews. The problem was simply that the world was not ready for Daredevil as it was meant to be. It was birthed in a world of Spider-Man; a world of kid friendly superheroes and Daredevil can never be that. Daredevil needs the darkness, the violence and the grit. With these elements removed from this film, all that was left was a hollow shell that hinted at a great film. The Director's Cut is everything you could want from the DD franchise. There was a lot of buzz around
Joe Carnahan's "sizzle reel" trailer pitch for a new "dark Daredevil" film that made the rounds last year. There is already a "dark Daredevil" film. This is the little gem hidden under a pile of more successful Marvel films. Ignore the negative press and reviews and discover the great superhero film that you've been missing for some time now, Daredevil: Director's Cut.