Daredevil (2003)

Daredevil (2003)

Release Date: February 14, 2003

Like the two Blade films, Daredevil skews towards an older audience than the bigger films like X-Men and Spider-Man. It could be described as a darker and edgier version of Spider-Man in tone, try to examine how a person’s life would be affected by being a superhero. In this respect, it’s similar in ideas and tone to the later Dark Knight Saga, though the Batman films did it better.

For this origin story, we’re going back to the protagonist’s childhood. The young Matt Murdock was coming home from school one day when he saw his father, former boxer Jack “The Devil” Murdock, working as a mob enforcer. Matt idolises his father and his very upset to see him doing something like this, so he runs away, but he doesn’t look where he is going and an accident results in Matt getting toxic waste in his eyes. As opposed to dying a horribly slow and painful death, Matt gets off relatively easily, instead only being blinded with his other four senses being boosted to superhuman levels in exchange. After being inspired by how his son copes with his new disability, (not to mention taking down the most cowardly bullies in film history. They pick a fight with a blind kid for goodness sake!) Jack goes back into boxing, but he is murdered for refusing to throw a fight, since Matt was in the audience.

In the present day, Matt Murdock is living a double life. By day, he’s an Atticus Finch-style defence attorney who accepts only innocent clients and refuses financial payment. By night, he’s the costumed vigilante Daredevil, who attacks those criminals he faces in court who get acquitted. His hobbies include freerunning that would make an Assassin jealous, leaving behind petrol arranged in the shape of his insignia that ignites when people carelessly throw away cigarette butts and dressage. One day, Matt meets Elektra, the daughter of billionaire Nikolas Natchios, and is immediately smitten. One fight in a playground later and the two are head over heels in love for each other. As the Welsh would say, “Drwy cicio a brathu, mae cariad yn magu.”

Nikolas is working with Wilson Fisk, the CEO of FiskCorp who also rules over the criminal underworld as the Kingpin, but he’s getting cold feet and wants to back out. Unfortunately for him, Kingpin doesn’t accept resignations and hires the assassin Bullseye, who is introduced playing darts, to kill him. 

No, Not that one

 

Bullseye does just that at a party Matt and Elektra were attending, and because Daredevil dodged one of Bullseye’s attacks, thus making him miss, Bullseye gets pissed and uses Daredevil’s staff as the murder weapon, implicating him in Nikolas’ murder. Elektra swears vengeance on Daredevil and tries to shoot him, though he manages to flee. It seems she wasn’t paying attention minutes earlier when Daredevil and Bullseye were fighting, as she really should have seen that Bullseye was responsible, not Daredevil.

Daredevil is tipped off that Kingpin kills his victims’ entire families when he kills them, which means Elektra is next on Bullseye’s hit list. Daredevil rushes off to find Bullseye, but Elektra finds him first and incapacitates him. She is crushed when she takes off Daredevil’s mask and finds Matt Murdock underneath, but she gets over the fact that he supposedly murdered her father as soon as Bullseye shows up draws attention to herself. Despite having trained herself to her limit, Elektra is no match for Bullseye, who promptly kicks her ass and kills her. I guess it’s better to have loved and lost…

Moving on!

Daredevil retreats to his local church, but is followed by Daredevil. After Bullseye figures out that Daredevil is weak to loud noises, he makes a racket on the pipe organ to defeat him, before taking the opportunity to reveal in his evil gloating that Wilson Fisk is the Kingpin and that he leaves a rose at the site of each of his murders, which allows Daredevil to work out that Kingpin murdered his father. This news gives Daredevil a heroic second wind, which allows him to pull Bullseye’s hands into the path of a sniper’s bullet, then throw him through a glass window onto the roof a car. He then goes to fight the Kingpin and beats him, but decides not to kill him, instead leaving him to be arrested by the police.

The film tries to show a more realistic take on being a superpowered vigilante- Matt Murdock is covered in scars and bruises, he’s addicted to painkillers, he has to sleep in a sensory deprivation tank because his powers never turn off, his law office is failing because he’s too scrupulous to accept guilty but wealthy clients and he never gets paid for his work, and his social life is a mess. At least, that’s how it starts. As soon as Elektra appears, everything else is put on hold and their relationship is pushed to the forefront, cheesy dialogue and all. Daredevil stops doing vigilante things. Elektra even stops him from doing his job to have sex with him at one point, the foul temptress! The given reason is that Twentieth Century Fox wanted an Elektra spinoff and pushed the romance angle, at the expense of other material, most notably a subplot involving Matt Murdock investigating a paper trail leading to the Kingpin. In addition, Ben Affleck was a media darling at the time, so having him romance an attractive young woman would presumably sell more tickets.

The villains are much more interesting than the protagonists are. The Kingpin, played by Michael Clarke Duncan is an intimidating presence, just as ruthless in his CEO day job as he is ruling as the Kingpin. He’s the straight man to Bullseye’s antics, which serve to make the Kingpin more of a threat, since he actually has plans, whereas Bullseye kills indiscriminately and in as show-offy a manner as possible. The Kingpin is even able to toss around Daredevil for a bit without breaking a sweat before Daredevil turns the tables. It’s a shame that he doesn’t get much screen time. The big difference is that Michael Clarke Duncan is black, whereas the Kingpin is white in the comics, but his performance is strong enough that it doesn’t matter. Interestingly, Kingpin was originally intended to be black in the comics, but he was changed to white because Marvel were concerned that a black villain in the 1960's would be considered racist. In 2006, Michael Clarke Duncan said that he would like to reprise the role of the Kingpin, with the explanation for his real life weight loss given as Kingpin working out in prison to become faster.

He never got the chance.

Bullseye is the most entertaining character. It’s true that he can’t go a scene without killing anyone or at least trying to, but his methods are so ridiculous and he’s so hammy that it’s easy to root for him despite him being a bad guy. The flipside of this however, is that he doesn’t fit the film’s tone and is a little too silly. He’s the one who should have gotten a spin-off, not Elektra. Maybe he could have picked a fight with Hawkeye to see who has better aim?

The soundtrack is a haphazard mix of rock and hip-hop, seemingly thrown together with little rhyme or reason. While there is the odd occasion where the background music works well with the scene, this isn’t usually the case. Wake Me Up Inside by Evanescence is the biggest song on the soundtrack, as well as being possibly the most goth song ever made.

If this doesn’t make you want to wear black and put on eyeshadow, nothing will.

The effects used to show Daredevil’s sonar do a good job of portraying his sensory overload. Unfortunately, this is done by overwhelming the viewer with booming noises and flickering images. I found it rather overwhelming myself. Daredevil’s costume doesn’t translate well to screen, sadly. The red leather makes the costume look like a sex outfit. Bullseye fares better, wearing a vest, jeans and a long coat instead of the black jumpsuit from the comics.

The biggest fault with the film are the action scenes. In many cases, they ruin suspension of disbelief, such as the playground fight or Daredevil fighting his way through a bad guy bar. The freerunning is even worse at this. At one point, Daredevil jumps off a building and falls several hundred feet, landing feet first on a window washer’s metal platform, before carrying on without so much as a pause. An impact like that should have shattered his legs at the very least, if not killed him outright, and it clashes with the effort made to portray Daredevil as being realistically hurt by his vigilante lifestyle.

Ben Affleck doesn’t look upon this film fondly. He said in a 2006 interview that “I have inoculated myself from playing another superhero… Wearing a costume was a source of humiliation for me and something I wouldn't want to do again soon.” It wasn’t all bad though, as he did meet his future wife Jennifer Garner while working on this film. It has since been confirmed that Ben Affleck will be the next cinematic Batman, so maybe he’s softening towards it nowadays. Then again, Ben Affleck has a better reason to dislike Daredevil than most of us, as it was one of the films that signalled his early 2000s career was in trouble.

This was the deathblow.

Ultimately, Daredevil is a disappointing film that is made more watchable whenever the focus of a particular scene is Kingpin or Bullseye.

Stan Lee Spotter: Stan Lee appears as a man reading the newspaper who isn’t paying attention to his surroundings. He is stopped from walking into the road by young Matt Murdock. A Mr Lee is mentioned as one of adult Matt’s clients who pays him with fish. Kevin Smith, who wrote the Guardian Devil comic arc, appears as a forensic assistant. Frank Miller, whose work on Daredevil in the 1980’s has had a major influence on the character’s portrayals since then, appears as a man who gets a pencil through the head courtesy of Bullseye. In addition, a number of minor characters are named after people involved with the Deadpool comics. There are boxers named after John Romita, Brian Michael Bendis, Frank Miller and Gene Colan, the forensic assistant is named after Jack Kirby, and the rapist Daredevil goes after because he was acquitted is named after Joe Quesada.

Next Time: An extra entry.

Spider-Man (2002)

Spider-Man (2002)

Release date: May 3, 2002

This was the big one. Eagerly anticipated after spending over 20 years trapped in development hell with occasional escape attempts, (a previous incarnation got far enough to keep villains Sandman and Electro out of Spider-Man: The Animated Series, in case their portrayals contradicted the movie that ultimately never happened) Spider-Man was finally on our cinema screens. After X-Men was a box office success and also proved to be not awful, expectations were high for the webslinger. At the time, those expectations were met, but does the film still hold up today?

The film begins by introducing us to Peter Parker, who is a bit of a dork. He’s an easy target for bullies, his attempts at flirting are cringeworthy (still better than mine though,) and his friend Harry Osborn doesn’t follow the creed of Bros Before Hos, being brazen enough to chat up Peter’s crush Mary Jane Watson with factoids Peter gave him seconds earlier. On a school field trip, Peter is bitten by a genetically modified spider and falls ill, going to bed as soon as he gets home from school.

Meanwhile, times are tough for Harry’s dad Norman Osborn, as his company is about to lose funding for a serum that grants the user super strength and enhanced senses, with side effects of insanity. Norman decides to test the formula on himself and, would you believe it, he goes insane. He’s probably the kind of guy who operates heavy machinery while intoxicated.

The next day, Peter wakes up a changed man, having gone through puberty in record time. His vision is improved, he has enhanced senses, sleep-working-out has made him buff, and his room is coated in a sticky white substance… web, of course. I do so enjoy making things sound dirty. Peter uses his new powers for personal gain at first, making a fool of school bully Flash Thompson and becoming a wrestler for money. After being conned out of his wrestling money, Peter refuses to act when the promoter is robbed. We all know what happens next. Peter’s inaction leads to the death of his Uncle Ben, who was shot by the burglar for his car. Peter decides to use his powers for good because (does dramatic voice) “With great power comes great responsibility.”

Peter gets a job as a photographer at the Daily Bugle where he takes pictures, pictures of Spider-Man! The webslinger becomes a beloved icon of the citizens of New York, despite the Daily Bugle’s best attempts at sland… I mean, libel. Slander is spoken, as J Jonah Jameson points out. Peter is taking pictures at the World Unity Fair when it is attacked by the Green Goblin, who kills the Oscorp board of directors and threatens Mary Jane’s safety. Spidey saves her, only for Mary Jane to get herself into trouble again a short time later. After the second rescue, famous upside-down kissing ensues. 

                                                        Yeah, I could totally do that.

The Parkers, Osborns and Mary Jane have thanksgiving together, but Norman spoils the occasion by leaving upon figuring out that Peter Parker, whom he greatly admired and had been grooming as an heir at Harry’s expense, was Spider-Man, before going on to berate Harry for dating a supposed gold digger loudly enough for everyone else to hear. The Green Goblin decides to attack Spider-Man’s loved ones instead, scaring Aunt May into a hospital bed in a rather over the top scene (“Deliver us FROM EEEEEEEEVILLLLLLLL!”) In the hospital, Peter finally tells Mary Jane how he feels about her, while bragging that he knows Spider-Man. “You know what Spider-Man told me? That Peter Parker guy is really handsome, you should date him!” Harry walks in on the two bonding and runs off to tell Daddy that Peter also failed to respect the creed of Bros Before Hos.

The Green Goblin kidnaps Mary Jane and a box full of children, then dangles them from a bridge and taunts Spider-Man to choose which to save. Spidey chooses to take a third option and save both, which is happily more successful than the last time Green Goblin dangled one of Spidey’s love interests from a bridge. The Green Goblin is defeated, but Peter finds out that Norman Osborn was the Goblin, before Norman accidentally kills himself with his own glider.

Tobey Maguire is very good at the nerdy side of Peter Parker. He is portrayed as a big dork, but a likeable one who is quite easy to cheer for. The dorkiness doesn’t quite go away when he’s in costume as Spider-Man either, reminding us that he’s still the same person behind the mask, and his personality hasn’t changed from the spider bite. It is a shame however that Spidey doesn’t get to do much wisecracking, as Spider-Man is a character notorious for taunting his opponents and making jokes about them during battle. What little he does get to do is pretty funny at least. Disappointingly, Mary Jane doesn’t get a whole lot to do besides have men fawn over her and be the damsel in distress. She needs to be saved three times just in this film, poor girl.

The Green Goblin is a villain of two halves. As the Green Goblin, he’s a rather weak villain. He’s not intimidating or particularly cool, his bombs are inconsistent, being able to disintegrate people in one scene, but only ruining Spidey’s mask in another, and his costume makes him look like a member of the Power Rangers’ rogue’s gallery. At least his hammy overacting keeps him entertaining. As Norman Osborn however, he’s much more interesting. In Peter he sees a lot of what he would like from a son, which ends up pushing Harry away, as well as making it ironic that Norman and Peter should fight behind masks. The addition of Peter as an idealised son for Norman is a good one, as it helps build on the character of Harry and his estrangement from the people he previously called friends. The scene in which the Green Goblin is created is an effective entrance for him, so it is a shame that this early potential isn’t sustained. The film’s director, Sam Raimi, is a veteran of horror films, and this scene reflects that experience.

                                           Maybe the filmmakers thought this looked silly...

But this isn't really better.

The supporting cast are good as well. It’s clear from Peter’s interactions with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben that they all love each other very much, which makes the death of Uncle Ben upsetting to watch, especially since the last time they spoke, Peter shouted at him. The scene of Peter bursting into tears after his graduation because Uncle Ben wasn’t there to see it is even sadder. As for J.K. Simmons as J Jonah Jameson, he is the definitive JJJ, effortlessly stealing the show whenever he appears on screen.

                                  This picture is an accurate representation of how awesome JJJ is.

This film is the one that established the stock superhero origin story that has been used countless times since: hero is a loser, becomes hero, villain is created, hero fights them. For this reason, the film doesn’t hold up quite as well as it used to, because the story beats have become so familiar from so many other films taking notes. That doesn’t mean that the film is bad, though. It is still worth watching.

Stan Lee Spotter: Stan Lee can be seen briefly in the crowd at the World Unity Fair when Spidey saves a couple from some falling debris. A deleted scene gave him a bit more screen time, trying to sell Cyclops’ visor at the fair. Frequent Sam Raimi collaborator Bruce Campbell appears as the wrestling announcer, while Peter’s opponent Bonesaw is played by the late Macho Man Randy Savage.

Next Time: I am vengeance. I am the night. I! Am! Ben Affleck!

Bonus: Promotional materials for the film released in 2001 were withdrawn after 9/11 for featuring the Twin Towers. An early poster had the towers reflected in Spider-Man’s eyes, while an early trailer had a short story involving some bank robbers having their escape attempt thwarted when their helicopter was caught in a giant web between the towers.

The withdrawn poster...

And the withdrawn trailer.

Following Spider-Man’s release in the UK, the film was given a 12 rating. Given that a significant chunk of the film’s audience was made up of children who wanted to see their favourite hero on screen but were (does Lemongrab impression) “Too Young! Too young to watch the movie!” this decision went down about as well as you would expect. Several councils and independent cinemas even rerated the film PG in protest. The controversy caused the introduction of the 12A rating a few months later, which allowed children below 12 to watch at the cinema if accompanied by an adult, and the film was rereleased to take advantage of this.

Blade II (2002)

Blade II (2002)

Release Date: March 22, 2002

Today, we will be looking at our first sequel, Blade II. “But wait!” I hear you say, “Haven’t you only just done Blade 1?” That is true, but that is because I am covering these films in release order, and there happens to be only one film between Blade 1 and Blade II. There will be a bit more of a gap between this one and Blade 3. After the success of the original Blade film in 1998, a sequel soon became expected. The first film’s director, Stephen Norrington, declined to return for the sequel, so the position was filled by Guillermo del Toro, he of Pan’s Labyrinth and Pacific Rim fame.

Two years have passed since the events of the first film, and in that time, Blade has learned that Whistler did not die when he shot himself in the first film, instead turning into a vampire. Blade finds him and cures him of his vampirism. The next day, Whistler is introduced to Blade’s new sidekick, an obnoxious stoner named Scud who smokes marijuana and watches the Powerpuff Girls while he works. At least he makes up for it by being a funny obnoxious stoner and having good taste in cartoons. Whistler gets along with his replacement about as well as you’d expect, but before things come to blows, a pair of ninja vampires break into the hideout to announce a truce with Eli Damaskinos, current leader of the vampires, who is not at all secretly evil in any way, no siree bob.

I mean, just look at how not evil he is!

Blade and co. visit Damaskinos, who tells them that a new breed of vampire has risen: the Reapers, vampires who feed on other vampires, turning them into Reapers. Damaskinos has been training a group of vampire assassins called the Blood Pack to defeat Blade, but the Reaper crisis has led him to propose a truce, asking Blade to be the leader of the Blood Pack and defeat the Reapers. Blade reluctantly accepts, and decides to stick a bomb to the head of one of the members, Rheinhardt, as leverage. Life lesson for any readers out there, sticking bombs to peoples’ heads is not a good way of making friends, unless you’re a terrorist.

The team go to look for the Reapers at a vampire rave. (What is it with vampires and raves? It’s a wonder that they get around to threatening the fate of the world when they spend so much time being party animals.) There, they meet several Reapers and the original Reaper, Jared Nomak. The Reapers wipe the floor with the Blood Pack, thanks to their superior evolution making them immune to silver and garlic. Not even Blade’s exploding blood needles work, since that power-up is so last season, darling. In the battle, two members of the Blood Pack are bitten, but they do manage to defeat a few Reapers, since their weakness to bright light remains. Whistler wandered off instead of helping, but he is able to find the Reapers’ hideout, complete with Reaper who got stuck in the tunnel and starved to death, so he is forgiven.

The gang go back to base to prepare for their next mission, which will take place the next day. One of the Blood Pack members, Nyssa, performs an autopsy on the dead Reaper and discovers that their hearts are encased in bone, meaning that it can only be pierced from the side. Whistler and Scud bond over the creation of UV light grenades, while everyone else tools up. In the tunnels, the rest of the Blood Pack are all killed, with the exception of Nyssa and Rheinhardt, but Blade is able to detonate a box full of UV grenades, wiping out all of the Reapers, except for Novak, who was able to escape. Their success is short-lived however, as an army of soldiers with tasers, led by Damaskinos’ slimy lawyer, are waiting for our heroes, ready to capture them.

When Blade and pals come to, Damaskinos reveals that he and the Blood Pack really were evil after all! He explains that he wanted to make super vampires that had none of the traditional vampire weaknesses, so he experimented on his son Novak, giving him immunity to silver and garlic. Crucially, bright light still affects him. As Meatloaf once sang, two out of three ain’t bad, but that wasn’t good enough for Damaskinos, so he decided to get Blade’s blood and figure out a way to get his immunity to sunlight from that. Novak is naturally a bit miffed to find out that his dad considers him a failed experiment, while Damaskinos’ daughter Nyssa is alienated by his evil monologue and defects to Blade’s side, for realsies this time, not just as the token good teammate of the Blood Pack. She stops Damaskinos’ escape, giving Novak the chance to chow down on him, but Novak is hungry for seconds and bites her too. Meanwhile, Scud reveals that he was a mole for Damaskinos all along, so Blade blows him up with the bomb on Rheinhardt’s head, and cuts Rheinhardt in half vertically. Poor Whistler is saddened at the betrayal of his new friend, so he takes out his grief on the lawyer, shooting him dead. Blade then catches up with Novak and is able to stab Novak in the side. A depressed Novak decides that he’s sick of life and pushes the blade in further, piercing his heart. After Novak’s death, Nyssa asks Blade to kill her before she turns into a Reaper, so he carries her outside as the sun rises. Whistler lets the two have some alone time, since it gives him time to do his own grieving- lighting a joint and settling down to a Powerpuff Girls marathon.

The action scenes in Blade II have improved since the original. The characters are more acrobatic while fighting, and the action seems to be slightly faster paced. Blade also takes regular opportunities to strike a cool pose, particularly when he tosses something. This film having a different director from the original provides a slightly different tone from the original, but it is still recognisable as a follow up. Del Toro commented at the time that Japanese animation was an inspiration for him, so it is likely that the faster-paced action and greater use of movement in combat can be attributed to achieving this feel, which works pretty well.

The Reapers are quite different to the vampires from the first film. The reapers are anorexic, agile creatures, who can climb on walls and jump large distances. Whereas the scenes of vampires feeding in the first film seemed to have a sexual connotation, this time vampirism is portrayed as like a drug addiction. The drug connotation is made more explicit than the sexual connotations of the first film, with the Reapers even being described as like crack addicts at one point.

There is a cut along the Reapers’ chins which allows their mouths to split open along the sides while another mouth comes out and gives their victim a faceful of disgusting vampire mouthface, a design feature reminiscent of the monsters in the Alien franchise and The Thing. The scene in the Reaper Lair also pays homage to Aliens in the tone and atmosphere it creates, which makes it quite an effective scene. The special effects have also improved since the first film. The vampire disintegration effects have been touched up slightly so that they look more like the vampires are burning, and the horrible Reaper mouths look nauseating, as they should.

“Give us a kiss, love!”

In all, Blade II is better than the original. It’s faster paced in both action and storyline, the fight scenes are more exciting to watch and the villains pose more of a threat this time. This one is recommended for those with a strong stomach.

Next Time: Marvel’s most iconic hero swings into action.

Bonus: The opening sequence for The Simpsons’ Treehouse of Horror XXIV was directed by Guillermo del Toro and featured references to a number of his films, with Blade II being no exception. Look out for Reaper Homer and Carl dressed as Blade.