Looking To The Stars: The Devil Digested Redeux

Some of you might remember that six months ago back in “The Devil Digested”, I wrote a review of the Daredevil Movie that was, at parts, less than flattering. I apologized for most of my harsher comments a week later, after realizing that I was watching the movie as a fanboy who was seeing his favorite character messed with and not the film critic judging the film on its own merits.

With Daredevil’s release out on DVD this past week, I thought this as good a time to take a look back at the film and examine some of the much ballyhooed (at least in the DVD advertisements) extra features.

After watching the movie again, very little of my opinion of it changed. Visually, the film is gorgeous, but lacks much of the heart and soul of the original characters due to time constraints. Only two characters really get developed to the mythic heights they hold in comicdom; Daredevil and Bullseye. Affleck and Farrell BECOME their characters and you honestly do forget that you are watching J-Lo’s and Britney’s boyfriends duking it out in front of a camera.

Jennifer Garner and Michael Clarke Duncan do the best with what they have, which is not much. Duncan’s Kingpin isn’t given nearly enough screen time and Garner isn’t able to convincingly harden Elektra in the few days movie-time she goes from rich girl with some fighting skills to hardened ass-kicker that was developed over years in the comic.

Technically, the film is proficient. More on all this in a moment, but the costumes, sets and lights truly do create the feel of a world as drawn by Frank Miller. And let’s not forget the revolutionary “Shadow World” effects that let us “see like a blind man”.

In the end, I still think the movie was flawed in several respects. Most of the characters weren’t fully developed. Everything felt far too rushed and way too short. And the fanboy in me screams to be heard… one moment…

DAREDEVIL DOESN’T KILL! THIS IS THE WORST MOVIE EVER! EXCEPT FOR SPIDER-MAN! WHY COULDN’T HE MAKE HIS OWN WEBSHOOTERS! AUUUUGH! AND BATMAN? WHAT ABOUT BATMAN?!? BATMAN DOESN’T HAVE NIPPLES ON HIS-

Sorry…. I feel better now. Anyway, now we know the movie. So what extra goodies does the DVD have to offer us? Well, going down the list of features…

Director’s Commentary

It’s the director/writer and producer talking about the movie. Pretty standard as far as DVD’s go.

Enhanced Viewing Mode- Takes You Behind The Scenes As You Watch The Film

Probably the biggest disappointment of the extras, you don’t really go behind the scenes; i.e. backstage. A symbol flashes, you push a button and you can see the stop-figure animation that was used to create the special effects shots. This feature would have been better on the second disc instead of the Multi-Angle Scene Studies. (more on this later)

Still, this does have one cool feature- we get to see one scene in animation that they never had a chance to film due to time constraints, where Daredevil chases a limo from car to car and eventually rides an ambulance. (Insert your own lawyer joke here)

On-Screen Trivia Track

One of the more enjoyable parts of the Spider-Man DVD, this Trivia Track for Daredevil is actually an improvement upon the smaller trivia boxes that appeared at random points on the screen. In the Daredevil Trivia Track, full text runs unobtrusively along the bottom of the screen, making note of actor and creator’s past presence, telling what visual elements of the story are inspired by what comics (ie: the very first view of Daredevil in the movie was inspired by a cover from “Guardian Devil”) and even noting all the moments when a Daredevil writer or artist’s name was slipped into the movie. There were a few that even I missed, like how Matt’s priest is named Father Everret- a tribute to Bill Everett, the artist who co-created the original look for Daredevil.

Audio Description Track For The Visually Impaired

An absolute must for a movie about a blind superhero. Among all the other options for languages and the hearing impaired, there is a special track where, during the action scenes and during transitions, a narrator describes the visual action. The narration never intrudes on the dialogue, though I do wonder about some of the descriptions… such as Daredevil “seeing a blue light” as he jumps off a roof ledge. It’s a good description of the effect used to show Matt’s super-senses, but probably not the most useful imagery for an actual blind person.

DVD ROM

Not having access to a DVD ROM drive, I can’t review this part. But the DVD book says it comes with a history of the comic, a quiz, web links and “More!”

Documentaries

The second DVD boasts three documentaries: one on the making of Daredevil, one on the comic book itself and one done by HBO.

The HBO documentary… is an HBO documentary, more concerned with promoting the movie and actors and comic than the technical elements of the movie. Probably useful when the movie came out in attracting all those who knew nothing of the comics, but not so interesting now.

The “Beyond Hell’s Kitchen” documentary is vivid, showing details of the costume design, stunt work and computer effects among others. Sadly, the documentary is hampered by the inclusion of an “extra hunting” feature; look for the sai, hit enter and watch another track about the movie. I don’t know anyone who actually enjoys these little “hunts”; even theatrical types like me who will watch and enjoy a documentary about how they had to put Ben Affleck into a full body mold in order to create a sculpture to build his costume around.

The real treat though, is “The Art of Daredevil” where darn near everyone who has a major influence on Daredevil in the last 40 years (except for the conspicuously absent Ann Nocenti) is interviewed and talks about their work on the book. From Stan Lee to Brian Michael Bendis, the whole thing is a treat. It even manages some genuinely touching moments (John Romita Sr. talking about plotting Daredevil stories with his son on their way to go fishing), funny moments (Romita Jr.’s recovery while talking about the need to meet deadlines and how most artists “work on speed”) and unintentionally funny moments ( Kevin Smith discussing his chronic lateness and how he hopes to have “The Target” done “before you all see this on the DVD.”)

Multi-Angle Scene Studies

More suitable as the “hunt” feature on the first DVD, this lets you view several of the fight scenes from different camera angles. Sadly limited to two cameras on some of the scenes, you still get a good idea of what things might have looked at and this feature does put the Elektra/Bullseye fight in a whole new light.

Jennifer Garner Screen Test

Why Jennifer and nobody else? I can only assume it is for the cheesecake potential, much like her presence through most of the movie. That, and I don’t think Michael Clark Duncan showed up to audition in a low cut top. At least, I hope not… Still, there’s not much point to show her reading through the lines here.

Shadow World Comic Book-To-Film Comparison

Scenes from the comic are shown before we see the scenes in the movie that they inspired and the use of the “Shadow World” effects. For example, we read the text from a Frank Miller story (I can’t tell which one, but I know it was Frank) where Matt recognizes his girlfriend from the smell of her perfume and thinks “I can tell match any smell after having it one; I can identify a woman by her perfume and a man by his hair tonic!” Then we see the scene where Matt navigates a staircase, working his way past a plate of hot food and a smoker before getting to the top and “seeing” a cloud around Elektra.

Too short, but enjoyable. I wish they had not limited this to the Shadow World effects and, much like the Trivia Track, shown us the pictures that inspired key scenes… right down to showing how the Elektra/Bullseye fight of 181 stacks up to the filmed fight. (I should note that having read the story as I watched it… it does stack up. Very well. Right down to the dialogue.)

A Day With Tom Sullivan

A quick look at the life of Tom Sullivan, a very active man despite being blind, who acted as an advisor to the film on how blind people live and helped train Ben Affleck in tricks like folding different denomination bills in order to tell money apart. Nice and inspiring, proving it is not unimpossible for someone to train like Matt Murdock.

3 Music Videoes

In case you don’t, like me, live in an area where Clear Channel owns all the rock stations and the song “Bring Me To Life” by Evanescence ISN’T being played once every four hours by the pop rock, Top 40 and alternative stations, now you can see their video and hear “the wake me up” song over and over until your heart is content.

Watching the video though, I can’t help but wonder about how accurate my comment in my review of the movie was about Elektra’s training scene looks like a music video… and how that was a much better music video than this one.

Ah, but I’m a film critic and not a music critic… so let them play on. And on. And on. And on…

Character Bios, Trailers & More!

Not sure about the “& More”, but the trailers and biographies taken from The Marvel Encyclopedia are here.

Overall, it’s not that bad but it isn’t great either. The fault lies not what with what is there, but with what isn’t. I really would have liked to have seen some outtakes and cut scenes. We know that a half-hour was cut from the movie to get it down to an hour and a half. Maybe it’s being saved for a “Daredevil 1.5” to be released when the inevitable Daredevil 2 or Elektra movies come out. I don’t know for sure. But in the end, there’s only one thing that can be said about this DVD.

“It’s good. But me? Heh. I’m magic, baby.”

Tune in next week. Same Matt Time. Same Matt Website.

Looking To The Stars: Once In A While...

Okay. Let’s just get it over with… you may want to sit down. Even though the little teaser link leading here may have suggested what I’m about to do, it still may not prepare you for the shock.

(sighs)

I might have been a little harsh on the Daredevil movie last week.

Okay, okay. No need to rub it in.

I got some letters over the last week from various readers who said that they enjoyed the movie. Some of them had no familiarity with Daredevil at all and some knew the basics of the characters. In short, none of them had my geeky level of experience with Daredevil. But all of them said they liked reading the perspective of someone who was a fan who would nitpick over the little details. Well, thank you all for that.

But over the last week, as I talked with people about the movie, I came to a conclusion. I was so shocked and jarred by the idea of Daredevil killing that it colored my opinions of everything that came after that scene. So I thought… what if? What if…

(Insert Pretty Artistic Parody of “What If” Cover Graphic Here)

(What? What do you mean we don’t have an artist who could… *sighs* )

What if Matt had gone to the bathroom and missed that scene?

On reflection, if I ignore that scene, the movie did get most everything right. And reading Ben Morse’s review of the movie, I find that we both agreed on most of the points I made. Good (all the performances are good for what they are given) and bad (weak script, tries to do too much, go read the article for the rest…). And while the man at the beginning is most assuredly not the Daredevil from the comics, he is by the end of the movie.

So all in all, let’s give it a 7 out of 10 stars now that my Fanboy Rage has calmed itself.

Now hold on to your seats a while longer folks, because it’s about to happen again.

You see, I got another letter two weeks ago from a reader who wondered why I thought Judd Winnick was doing a good job on Green Lantern. Well, I explained how I thought he had brought life into the book after what was quickly becoming a stagnant run for Ron Marz. I explained how I felt he had developed Kyle Rayner into a more confident and competent hero, while fixing some of the more complicated subplots that were left unresolved when Ron Marz left the book. I also mentioned how I liked how the book was returning to the more Silver Age/Space action roots and how the Guardians and the concept of a Corps of Green Lanterns was slowly being phased into the book.

Well, this reader responded back with his own list of the problems he (a big fan of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner) had with Winnick’s run on Green Lantern. And you know what? I agreed with every single complaint and every point he had about the book. I still like Winnick’s writing, but I admit that his (the reader’s) complaints were valid.

Well, never one to shy away from admitting mistakes (especially if I can get a column out it) I’ve been thinking about the problems, from the view of a nitpicky fan, with some of the stories Winnick has written for Green Lantern. There are so many nitpicks, in fact, that it would take a whole other column to review all of them.

Good thing I didn’t have any plans for next week’s column yet, eh?

So check in next week for The Nit-Picker’s Guide To Green Lantern..

Finally, I’d like to give a shout out to the good people at Kenzer and Company ( www.kenzerco.com ), publishers of comics and many fine role-playing games. If you’re into gaming, high fantasy comics or high fantasy comic satire, I highly recommend their entire book line which includes the officially sanctioned Dungeons and Dragons comic book as well as the acclaimed Knights of the Dinner Table books.

And I’m not doing this shameless promotion because you’ll find kindly old Unca Star’s name in the front among the names of other winners of a recent contest the company was holding in the front Knights of the Dinner Table Illustrated #19. I’m doing it because they make good comics… and because I always feel bad getting things for free, even in a contest.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.

Looking To The Stars: The Devil Digested

How could this happen? I mean, they had the talent behind it. They had the backing of the company. They even had a public willing to give the movie a chance after they all saw and believed that a man can spin a web. So how on earth could they have screwed it up this badly?

You guessed it. Starman saw Daredevil… and like most of the fans and nearly every respected critic out there, I found it… lacking. Okay, nobody is going to be sweeping the Razzies’ in a years time but this movie could have been so much better… but the bad dragged down the good. And just to show that Unca Stars isn’t all dark and gloomy, we’ll talk about what was done right first…

1. Ben Affleck

In my own little circle of geeks, I know I am one of the few who actually thought Ben Affleck could pull off this role. And I think he did. Granted, Ben has done some stinkers in the past (Reindeer Games, anyone?) but he’s a good actor for the most part. And more than that, he is one of us: a comic fan. And Daredevil was his favorite book as a teen. In fact, Ben wrote the introduction to the trade paperback collection of Kevin Smith’s “Guardian Devil” story and his love for the characters is very evident as he talks about Daredevil. And that love and devotion to the character of Matt Murdock shows in his performance.

2. The Bad Guys.

He’s Bald, He’s a Brit and he kicks a lot of ass. No, Not Grant Morrison!

The one actor’s whose casting DID bother me. Well, I apologize. I was proven wrong. True, the purist in me is a little put off by an Irish Bullseye, he does have the gist of the character down: pure psychotic menace with a dark sense of humor. I was willing to admit I was wrong when he pulled out the paper clips. I was sold during the scene on the airplane. (You’ll have to see the movie to get what I mean. I can’t spoil it.)

Michael Clarke Duncan also does a worthy job as Wilson Fisk. Anyone worried about an African American Kingpin should put all worries aside. He does Daredevil’s archenemy total justice. No bones about it.

3. The Radar Effects

While not nearly as high tech or impressive as one might be lead to believe by the movie’s press, the effects do a good job of conveying what the world must look like through Matt Murdock’s ears.

4. The Visual Look

In terms of style, the movie is gorgeous and looks like it was ripped right out off the pages. Everything is dark, somber, moody and gothic. Even the redesigned Daredevil Suit looks good.

Sadly, that cannot save us from the bad….

1. The Devil Destroyed

Daredevil does not murder. He may beat people senseless, but Matt Murdock has never intentionally killed a soul in the comics, through action or inaction.

In the movie, Matt kills a rapist after he manages to buck the system in court. He then agonizes the rest of the movie, wondering how he can call himself a good guy in light of the fact that he is doing this. In fact, he declares at the end when he has the chance to kill Wilson Fisk and doesn’t take it that he “is not a bad guy”.

There isn’t enough dung in all the stockyards of Fort Worth, to equal the amount of bulltish I need to call on that argument.

Of course someone argued with me this morning that by the end of the movie, Matt has changed into his traditional heroic self and the examination of his changing is more interesting than his original represent the law/fight for just duality conflict.

Well, maybe so. But why show that change in the first place? I heard people in the theater grumbling about how hard it was for them to sympathize with a hero who is, technically, no more different than the bad guy’s he is fighting against.

And the typical heroic nature is sucked out of Matt in another way. The blind man he was pushing out of traffic is cut out of the accident that blinded him in the movie. Aside from being a shocking bit of dramatic irony (Matt gets the condition of the man he was trying to save), it eliminates the tragedy inherit to Matt’s heroic nature. IE: his desire to help people, always seems to come back to hurt him later.

2. Rushed

In general, the movie feels very rushed, as if there was an effort to try and put so much in. As it is, we don’t get much in the way of character development or characters talking to one another. We don’t get any background into Matt and Foggy’s meeting in high school, or any indication that they are law partners and not just friends until a meeting at the office (where we get our one and only look at Karen Page). Ben Urich is in very few scenes and there’s nothing to show the friendship that he and Matt share in the comics being built.

For that matter, there is not anything that would give Urich any reason to destroy his article on Matt being Daredevil other than pure “the city needs a hero” civic-mindness, which Urich never seems to show the movie. Even Wilson Fisk, the bad guy of the piece, is given very little scene time and we are shown little evidence of his being a bad guy, except that he is having one of his disobedient hirelings killed and is willing to employ a sociopath like Bullseye.

The movie also violates the classic rule of “Show, Don’t Tell”. For one thing, how do we know Wilson Fisk is a criminal? Because Matt says so and Fisk admits as much while reading the paper. We never actually SEE him do anything evil directly, though. How do we know Daredevil is called “The Man Without Fear”? Because Fisk tells us so.

This movie could have really used a Daily Bugle headline (or whatever paper Urich works for) or a scene of people in the streets talking abut the latest news about Daredevil with a headline “Man Without Fear”. Cliched? Yes. But then again, some things are cliches because they work.

3. The (Not So) Special Effects

In the words of my friend Gillian, whom I saw the film with “he’s not Spider-Man”. It’s true. Some of Matt’s jumps and flips (the scene where he rebounds upward between two walls in an alley comes to mind) seem to improbably defy physics. Improved agility and dexterity granted… but not THAT improved.

4. The direction

The fight scenes are shot too close in and give very little idea of the scope of their locals. While the city background shots are epic in their sprawling over the urban landscape, it all falls apart when we do extreme close-ups on Ben Affleck as he is punching a guy.

Also, some scenes in the movie (Elektra’s training scene in particular) seem to have been pulled out of a music video as opposed to a film. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good bit of background music as much as anyone. But whereas Spider-Man and Superman depended upon deep instrumentals by John Williams and Danny Elfman to convey character emotions, this movie has Bullseye doing stunts on a motorcycle to Rob Zombie and Drowning Pool screaming “You can’t stop me!”

5. Too many in-jokes and asides.

Okay, I know I may take a beating for this one… but this movie had way too many asides and in-jokes for the die-hard Daredevil fans. Case in point: the quick-eared will catch mentions of the most recent Daredevil writers and artists of note (Miller, Mack and Bendis are fighters Jack Murdock beats on his way to a fight with John Romita…). Kevin Smith and Stan Lee both do cameos and there are characters named Jack Kirby and Jose Quesada as well as references to a Lee case.

It feels, at times, if the movie was written as a gigantic scavenger hunt for the fans and that any thought of plot or characterization fell toward going down a checklist of “Things The Fans Want The Movie To Have”. Speaking of which…

6. The script.

The movie seems to have been written by going down a list of the best moments the entire series and trying to find some way to connect the dots. I can just see the writers now…

Bullseye killing Elektra. Check. Daredevil fighting Bullseye in a church? Check. Ben Urich destroying his article on Daredevil? Check.

The dialogue in this movie is just… horrible. As wonderful as the visuals are, the internal monologue and dialogue just grates on the nerves like adamantium claws on organic steel. (What, am I the only one sick of the fingernails on chalkboard analogy?) The romantic talk between Matt and Elektra, for example, is as hokey and groan inducing as anything since Episode Two. Speaking of which…

7. The romance and lack thereof.

I’ll be blunt: the “romance” in this movie sucks. As I said, the romantic scenes are unconvincing. The “first love”, year-long college relationship of Matt and Eletkra in the comics is condensed into a one night stand, brought about through a butt-kicking contest and the amazing love that changes Matt Murdock happens over a course of about (as best I can tell) three days.

8. Jennifer Garner and Elektra in general.

She isn’t really given much to do besides be pretty. I mean, Elektra has never been a very well developed character to begin with. And her fight scenes are a joke. I don’t believe for a second that she could beat up Carol Channing, much less Ben Affleck.

Then again, there’s some difference between training to fight and actually doing it. I’ve never been formally trained in any martial arts, but I’ve never lost any fight I’ve been in.

Speaking of which, if I may make a technical note about Elektra’s training? From what little I know of the Martial Arts, isn’t it a bad thing to train with a different sensei every year? I mean, it takes years to master ONE martial art. I can’t imagine that getting a basic education in several is going to help much against a Master of one. For that matter, it is never said if she trained in more than one... just that she had several different teachers. What if it was a different akido instructor ever year?

Either way, we’re supposed to believe that these rich girl with little practical experience fighting can beat a guy like Matt who has been training himself to become a vigilante and fighting bullies since he was 12. Even allowing for the fact that he is likely holding back a bit while trying to talk reason to her? As the eskimo said to the fridge salesman, I ain’t buying it!

9. The Costume

Bullseye says it best. “I want a bloody costume.” He needs a bloody costume.

Overall, the spirit is there but the flesh is weak. There’s a lot of talent here, but the writing doesn’t give it much to work with. The plot is weak and all over the place, trying to do too much and cover too much of the Daredevil mythos in too little time.

And, oh yeah. Daredevil doesn’t kill. Ever.

Final Ranking (emphasis on the rank) :3-4 Stars out of 10.

Tune in next week. Same Matt time. Same Matt website.