Super Hero Maybe, but Not Super Fun

I don't remember the Daredevil comics from my childhood, but if the original comic-book stories were anything like the new film, I'm indebted to my brain for dispensing of the memories. Sitting through Daredevil was like strapping into a rollercoaster ride at Disneyland only to have the coaster travel the entire track at 1 mph; the ride should have been fun & exciting, but it just wasn't.

Ben Affleck is Matt Murdock/Daredevil. During the day he is a blind Hells-Kitchen lawyer who only takes cases of those who are innocent - it is fiction after all. At night Murdock becomes Daredevil, a vigilante crime fighter dressed head-to-toe in crimson leather, complete with stubby devil horns on top of his mask. I agree a super hero needs a punchy stand-out look, but stubby devil horns? He looks more like a stylish dominatrix than a defender of justice. Daredevil suits-up each night and flies (well, actually throws himself) around the city, ready to pounce on unsuspecting criminals who escape the justice system. You have to believe any lawyer today would love to have Murdock's dual-strike capabilities.

Daredevil's "super hero" talent comes from a biochemical accident in his youth, which left him without sight, but cranked up his remaining sense to super-human levels. His hearing is so hyper-sensitive that he can see detail by using his hearing as clever radar. This, along with a nifty pair of Chinese-style num-chucks that double as a blind man's walking stick, and Daredevil is ready to take on scum of all shapes, sizes, and political affiliations.

Affleck, I'm afraid, only fits half of this role. I like him during the day as the blind lawyer, playing jokes on his buddy and chasing after the girl, but at night he's the wrong guy to play the brooding vigilante in leather. Affleck was born to play the fun-loving yuppie. His boyish good-looks and perpetual smirk make it hard to buy his tortured soul performance. It's as if laughter is lurking just below the thin veil of his serious exterior, like a hyena behind cheese cloth. The mismatch of actor to character, however, is not Affleck's fault. Like Travolta in the 90's, Hollywood has crowned Ben the new golden boy and is bent on attaching his name to anything and everything regardless of character fit.

Daredevil's chief nemesis is Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan); a ruthless businessman who believes killing those who stand in his way is, "just business." Sort of like Saddam Hussein with a smaller territory. Michael Clarke Duncan is what they had in mind physically when they coined the term "heavies." However, the persona that goes with the term "heavies" is lost on Duncan. He plays the role more like Gary Colman stuck in the body of a black Incredible Hulk. You're more likely to pinch his cheeks and say, "you're so cute," than run in fear.

Lucky for the audience, Kingpin hires well. His preferred disseminator-of-evil-deeds is Bullseye, played by Colin Farrell. Bullseye is an Irish marksman whose weaponry includes everyday items like paperclips, pencils, peanuts, and broken glass shards. I wondered, at first, if this was commentary on the sorry state of the Irish thug economy, but decided it was just a creative way to dispatch people to the spirit world. Bullseye's a villain's villain who loves his work. You get the sense he has as much fun killing as he does drinking a pint of Guinness on a soggy Irish day. This is one of the few rolls where Farrell is able to use his native Irish accent and it enhances the character immensely. I found Bullseye so ruthlessly entertaining I began to wish he were the lead instead of Daredevil.

It seems no movie in today's Hollywood is complete without a love story. For those of us with a Y-chromosome, this is a double-edged sword. On the one side, guys don't like sappy love scenes disrupting the action, but on the other, guys love watching ripped young actresses, with bunker-size dimples, wearing skin-tight leather and wielding knives. Enter Jennifer Garner.

Garner plays Electra Natchios, the daughter of a corrupt billionaire and Matt Murdock's love interest. She is a martial-arts expert and quick to use her skills when threatened - even on a smiling blind guy who just wants to know her name. I'm OK with that, but it's why she's a martial-arts expert that has me shaking my head; her dad didn't want her to become a victim. I mean, come on. I've read deeper back-story in a classified ad. Anyway, Murdock and Natchios fall for each other in what has to be a speed record for going from dueling combatants to bed buddies. I applaud the writer for going against the formula of stringing-out relationship tension before letting sparks fly, but this transition was so fast I thought I'd missed something. Garner plays her character well, but Electra Natchios is so thinly drawn it's as if, like Murdock, we didn't get time to know her before she asked us to go to bed. Take away her beauty and the cool-factor of a woman whipping knives around like an out-of-control sushi chef and you have a character who doesn't add what she should to the story.

In the end, none of Daredevil's talents or his super human abilities could overcome the one adversary that ultimately decided his fate - the writer/director. Like a southern prison inmate trying to escape across a swamp, Daredevil was caught in a morass of thinly-drawn story, regurgitated themes, underdeveloped characters, and uninspired visual effects. He was doomed before he even donned his mask - with stubby devil horns.