Tongue out of cheek, "Daredevil" isn't a reluctant superhero, but he should be. From his origin sequence on, our hero spends a good amount of his initial cinematic undertaking getting beaten up, at one point even pulling out his own loose teeth.
Ben Affleck plays the grown up Matt Murdock, a blind attorney for the downtrodden. Due to a chemical accident as a child, he has lost his sight, but his remaining senses are so incredibly enhanced, he needs to rest in an isolation tank to get away from the noises, smells, and presumably tastes of modern society. It's hard to believe that anyone really believes that Murdock is blind, because his blind eyes seem to follow everyone around the room. Affleck's blind mode consists of opaque contact lenses and a perpetually dazed expression, which makes us thankful that he spends a significant amount of time getting beaten up in the red suit.
Even picking up women is tough for superheroes. He inexplicably falls in love with Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner) at first sound. Garner (one of ABC-TV's best-kept secrets on its nifty spy series "Alias") spurns Affleck until he wins her heart by fighting with her in a playground. I don't know which one's worse, fighting with a girl, or fighting with a blind guy, but they both enjoy themselves in the most interesting action sequence in the film.
Michael Clarke Duncan and Colin Farrell are on hand to do battle with DD as Kingpin and Bullseye, respectively, continuing the proud tradition of overstacking the deck with larger than life supervillains to disguise the fact that the hero himself isn't all that interesting (see "Batman Returns," "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin" for further elaboration). Garner, Duncan and Farrell are the ONLY reasons to see the film, as they each steal each scene that they're on. In fact, there's talk (intelligent talk) of an "Elektra" spin-off.
Murdock can't come clean with his comic relief law partner (Jon Favreau) about his night job, so his "Alfred" is his priest, played with respectful reverence by John S. Bakas. After Daredevil beats up the bad guys, and in one scene, even pretty much executes one, the unnamed parish matriarch hears his confession and never so much as asks for him to stop bleeding on the hymnals.
I came away from "Daredevil" devastated over one plot point that I won't belabor here, because it is a major plot spoiler. You'll know it when you see it. I also have a serious problem with one particular major wound that the character receives and then shrugs off. I mean, no fear is one thing, but either you're hurt or you're not.
I still find the "Daredevil" character a fascinating one, so I'm glad that it scored big on its opening weekend. Maybe this will inspire the studio to make another, better film. They can start by re-casting its lead. Of course, knowing my luck, they'll pick Eddie Murphy.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2003/3/182285