Daredevil

PLOT:

The film begins in medias res with Daredevil clutching a cross at the top of a church, wounded. Daredevil clambers into the church and collapses as a priest who knows his identity approaches him in concern. The events that led to this scene are shown.

As a child, Matt lived in Hell’s Kitchen with his washed-up boxer father, Jack Murdock. Matt’s father constantly reminds Matt to get an education and make something of himself, and not wind up like him. One fateful day, when young Matt takes a shortcut home, he stumbles across his father beating up a man at the behest of local mob boss Fallon. Horrified, Matt runs blindly away from the scene, and runs afoul of a forklift which swerves to avoid him and accidentally pierces a barrel of toxic fluid, drenching Matt’s face in the substance.

An unspecified amount of time later, Matt awakens to find that he is blind. However, despite his loss of sight, his other four senses functioned with super-human accuracy, hearing and touch in particular. While Matt uses his radar-like hearing to train his body, his redeemed father decides to fight again in the ring. One night, Fallon approaches his father and orders him to throw the fight; when he does not, he is brutally murdered by a shadowy figure later revealed to be the Kingpin. Matt is heartbroken by his father’s death.

Many years later, Matt Murdock is operating as the vigilante Daredevil at night, and lawyer during the day, protecting Hell’s Kitchen in particular. The Kingpin’s numerous criminal activities have finally been picked by the press, and he decides to implicate his former partner Nicolas Natchios and make it appear that he was the Kingpin. Matt is intrigued when he meets Elektra Natchios, and despite her initial distrust of him, the two soon begin a relationship. While travelling with her father one night, they are attacked by the lethal and unstable assassin Bullseye, who was dispatched by the Kingpin. Despite Daredevil’s best efforts, Bullseye is able to kill Natchios and implicate Daredevil, enraging Elektra, who swears revenge.

Later, when Daredevil goes in search of Bullseye, he runs into Elektra, and reluctantly fights her. When Elektra impales Daredevil through the shoulder with one of her sai blades, she unmasks him and gazes at Matt in horror. Bullseye suddenly turns up, and Daredevil can only watch helplessly as he kills Elektra. The first scene of the film is shown again, as Daredevil enters the church, intending to recuperate and recover his strength. Unfortunately, Bullseye tracks him down, and the two battle ferociously across the church. After Bullseye manages to knock the air out of Daredevil, he raises a jagged metal pipe to kill him. Using his prodigious hearing, Daredevil hears a S.W.A.T. officer cock his rifle and times it so that his bullet fires horizontally through both of Bullseye’s hands, incapacitating him. Daredevil then violently throws the assassin through a church window, and watches him plummet to the ground with grim satisfaction.

Daredevil then goes to the Kingpin’s Headquarters for a climatic battle. Despite his appearance, the Kingpin turns out to be a powerful fighter; he overpowers Daredevil throughout most of the fight and eventually unmasks him. Daredevil loses sight of Kingpin, and bursts a pipe so that the rushing water would allow his radar hearing to see his enemy, and bring the tyrant to his knees. When Daredevil is about to deal the final blow, he contemplates what it means to be a hero, and offers the Kingpin a sardonic smile as he awards him his life. He informs the Kingpin that he is aware that he wont be imprisoned indefinitely, and as he leaves, tells him that he will always be waiting for him. He offers one final thought before departing, and orders the Kingpin to stay out of Hell’s Kitchen. When Kingpin threatens to reveal Daredevil’s identity, Daredevil taunts him in return with the fact that Kingpin got beaten by a blind man, which would make him the laughing-stock of the underworld.

A final post-credits scene features Bullseye in full body traction on a hospital bed killing a pesky fly despite being largely immobilized.

REVIEW:

Of all the comic movies until Iron Man was released, Daredevil is one that keeps extremely close to the source material. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very well received by the fans. I personally don’t think it’s that bad, myself.

Ben Affleck normally gives good performances on screen, but for some reason he appears to be uncomfortable. The best scenes are his interaction with Jennifer Garner, Jon Favreau, or Joe Pantoliano. The rest of the time he seems like the walking dead. I hate to say that, but its true.

Jennifer Garner normally is radiant on screen, but as Elektra it appears as if someone reached in and snubbed her light out. Having said that, she doesn’t seem to be walking dead like Affleck, but she’s still a bit cold, but from what I know about the character part of that is expected.

Michael Clarke Duncan may not be the first name that comes to mind when you think of the Kingpin, but after seeing him on screen portraying the big boss, he makes you forget about the fat man in the comics.

Colin Ferrell take on Bullseye isn’t a favorite of the fans, or myself. He doesn’t do a bad job, but something about it doesn’t sit right with me. Maybe it’s the fact the he just doesn’t seem to fit the role, but I’m not sure.

I’m not too crazy with the way the film opens. No matter how many times I watch this, the fact that it starts near the end, then has a flashback that takes up half the film until it catches up to itself doesn’t quite make sense, at least to me.

Affleck’s eyes also seemed a bit wonky. I know that they were damaged because of the chemicals, but they just look fake. Normally that wouldn’t phase me, but it looks as if this film was going for more realism than comic fantasy.

This is not as bad a film as some would have you believe, there are just aspects that aren’t as good as they could be, and when they all add up it makes the film not as enjoyable as it could be. Still, it is worth watching, so give it a shot.

4 out of 5 stars

Elektra

PLOT:

The film continues the storyline of the film Daredevilwherein Elektra was killed by Bullseye. The story is introduced by a man’s voice (later revealed to be the sensei Stick) explaining that there is an ancient war being fought between good and evil. The evil is introduced as a group called The Hand, whilst the good follow Kimagure, a martial art that supposedly makes its practitioners able to foresee the future and control life and death.

The next scene portrays the death of a character named DeMarco, whom Elektra kills by throwing one of her Sai behind DeMarco while he is sitting behind a chair, introducing her as an assassin. It is later revealed that the dead Elektra was revived by Stick. For a while she was trained as his student, but soon she is asked to leave; thus beginning her life as an assassin.

Elektra receives an assignment to assassinate Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic), and his 13-year-old daughter, Abby. As part of the contract, she is required to stay for some days on their island refuge before the targets are revealed. In this time she unknowingly meets and befriends the two people she has been hired to kill. When told Mark and Abby are the targets, she is unable to kill them and goes to leave the island, in the process noticing two new assassins. Instead of leaving the island, Elektra returns to Mark and Abby’s house and kills the two newcomers, in the process discovering they have been sent by The Hand.

Under the misapprehension it is Mark that The Hand wish dead, she leads the pair to Stick (Stamp), as he is apparently leading the fight against The Hand. In a pool club, she confronts Stick by trying to grab his throat, but he grabs hers and slams her onto a pool table. He then tells her she has not changed since she left his tutorship. Elektra also discovers Mark knows why The Hand is following them, although viewers do not learn the reason at this point.

Meanwhile after the failure of the two Hand assassins, the leader of the group gives the task of capturing the “Treasure” (hinted to be Abby) to his son Kirigi and his fellow warriors, each of whom has unique ability: Stone, who has the ability of superhuman strength and is physically invulnerable to anything that is brought to him; Tattoo, who has the ability to summon immortal animals from the endless tattoos on his body; Kinkou, who has incredible speed and agility through perfect balance, and Typhoid, who can poison anything in her path as she wishes.

Elektra leaves the pool club in anger and is followed by Abby and Mark. Noticing an eagle appearing out of graffiti art on a wall, she realises The Hand has found them and decides to help the pair again. She drives them to the house of McCabe, her negotiating agent. Kirigi follows them to the house and, after killing McCabe, hunts down the trio in the forest. Elektra kills Stone by having him break down a large tree and making sure it crushes him, whilst Abby and Mark kill Kinkou with one of his own daggers. In the process, Elektra discovers Abby has martial arts skills. Distracted by this knowledge, Elektra is attacked by Typhoid, who kisses her in an attempt to kill her. Abby attempts to intervene, but is stopped by Kirigi.

At this point Stick and his pupils intervene, rescuing Abby, Mark and Elektra from the Hand warriors. They all return to Stick’s training camp. Here Stick confirms that Abby is the ‘Treasure’, a prodigy whom the Hand want for their own purposes. He tells Elektra, who has been cured of Typhoid’s attack, that Abby must remain under his protection as long as Kirigi is alive. She also realises it was Stick who originally hired her to kill Mark and Abby, apparently as a psychological trick. She questions whether everything that has happened since Stick had expelled her from the camp has been a test, to which Stick replies that some lessons have to be lived to be understood; possibly hinting that this is the case.

Abby tells Elektra she doesn’t want to have to stay in the camp forever. In an effort to let Abby lead a normal life, Elektra makes a deal with Kirigi: a fight between the two which will decide Abby’s fate. If Elektra is defeated, Abby is given to Kirigi. If Kirigi is defeated, then Abby is free forever.

Elektra returns to the house where her mother was killed (by Kirigi, as she soon discovers), and battles Hand warriors and Kirigi himself. Kirigi quickly beats her and is about to kill her when Abby appears, having followed Elektra. They escape Kirigi and hide in a maze. After they are separated in the maze, Elektra kills Tattoo, who has summoned snakes to capture Abby, by breaking his neck. Elektra then searches for Abby. In the centre of the maze, Elektra once again encounters and fights Kirigi, this time killing him by impaling him with one of her Sai and dropping his body in a well, where he turns to dust. Meanwhile Abby has been attacked and killed by Typhoid who says she is jealous of Abby for being the new “Treasure,” because Typhoid was once the Treasure herself. Elektra senses this and throws one of her Sai, killing Typhoid.

Elektra carries Abby’s body back to the house, where she successfully revives her, completing her journey to becoming a Kimagure master. The film ends with Elektra and Stick discussing her and Abby’s lives. Stick tells her that second lives can often be better than the first.

REVIEW:

I am not well versed in Elektra knowledge, other than her relationship with the Hand, Daredevil, and of course the red suit. Having said that, this is a very enjoyable film, even though it varies from the source material so far that it is almost not recognizable.

Jennifer Garner reprises her role as Elektra. A role she first took on in Daredevil. Strangely enough, she had more life and was arguable a better character in that film than this one, in which she is supposed to be the lead role.  I don’t think the issue is with her acting, but with the script and story. It has more issues than the world economy.

Kirsten Sprout is a bright spot in the cast. She lights up the screen with her innocence and youth. I believe she is currently starring on ABC Family’s Kyle XY, and hopefully she’ll get more roles as she matures as an actress.

The only other part of the cast worth mentioning is Will Yun Lee as the ninja assassin, Kirigi who leads a group of “freaks” to capture the treasure and is the main villain in this film. The climactic battle between he and Elektra is one of the better fighting  scenes I’ve seen in film, but not the best.

One of the best parts of the film is the effects that the aforementioned “freaks” have. They are beautifully done, especially Typhoid (Mary)’s..Tattoo isn’t too bad either. I wish we could have learned more about the Treasure and had more references to Daredevil, but that’s just me.

Some reviews I’ve read have wanted this to be a darker, more violent film. Jennifer Garner even said that if they made a sequel she would only do it, if it was like that. I don’t have any issue with the tone of the film. There is murder at the beginning, but it doesn’t set the tone for the film, that apparently comes in the next scene where she is cleaning the floor. 

I don’t want to make it sound like this is a bad film, because it isn’t. I just think it could have been better. Elektra is a popular character in the Marvel universe, yes, but she hasn’t sustained her own comic. So, why give her a feature film, other than to feature Jennifer Garner, which this film accomplishes, but doesn’t do either Elektra or Jennifer any justice. So, my recommendation is to wait for this to show up on TV to watch it unless you’re just dying to see it. It’s just an average picture. Nothing really memorable except how they may have ruined a perfectly good character.

3 out of 5 stars