I want a fucking costume
Dec. 12th, 2006 12:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerI kept hearing that the DAREDEVIL Director's Cut was a far superior film to the original. I became really interested in seeing it, but since not even Netflix seemed to carry it, I finally splurged and bought the fucking thing. As I sat down to watch it with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spacechild, I started to worry if I hadn't just wasted twelve bucks. After all, this was DAREDEVIL, generally considered one of the worst of the modern superhero movies.
It is fucking amazing with 30 added minutes can do for a film.
Ok, maybe not that amazing. But still, the difference is remarkable. This version of DD is great. Really great. Flawed, yes, but so was the first SPIDER-MAN. God, I love SPIDEY 1, but that movie is flawed like crazy, and the flaws bug me more and more each time I see it! The DD Director's Cut (DDDC, as I'll call it from now on) was also still flawed, but with the new stuff in there... honestly, I think, pound for pound... it's easily as good as SPIDER-MAN. If not better.
And I can see why they cut it the way they did. The studio clearly wanted another SPIDER-MAN. The version that hit the screen was a hollow, trite, sometimes fun action movie with two-dimensional characters and a standard love story subplot. Plus, Affleck.
The DDDC, however... is an episode of "Law and Order," with superpowers.
The majority of the re-integrated scenes is a subplot of Matt and Foggy representing a petty criminal played by Coolio, an investigation which they soon discover has greater ties to the Kingpin. These scenes are great, because most of them are just quiet character moments. The bits of interaction between Matt and Foggy are some of the most genuine parts of the whole film, a lot more revealing and insightful to the internal struggle of Matt than, say, the "I'm not the bad guy" scene.
Speaking of that scene, which is easily the worst scene in either version of the movie, many of the flaws are still here. Like the playground fight, which would have been great, if, y'know, it weren't taking place on a frickin' playground. And the pop soundtrack, although much less than I remembered, and I'd forgotten how much nicer the original, non-studio-souped-up version of Evanescence's "My Immortal" was; that was used very well.
And honestly, I found the entire origin sequence jarring as hell. It's riddled with cliche narration and would have been much, much better handled if they did it without narration. Because they could have! "Show, don't tell," right? People easily could have figured everything out without Omnipresent Affleck guiding them through. Even with the stiff child actor, it would have been much better that way. With a few notable exceptions, voice-overs are a big no-no in movies.
But you know what's not in the Director's Cut? The love story. At least, not the one in the theatrical release. In that version, when Matt and Elektra are on the rooftop in the rain and he hears the sounds of people in trouble, he starts to run out on the romantic moment. She stops him, and in a very (and kinda refreshingly) un-superheroic way, he stays with her. Then they have a very by-the-numbers PG-13 lovemaking scene, right down to the camera panning to the fireplace fadeout!
But the DDDC? He does leave her. He leaves her standing alone on the rooftop in the rain while he goes to beat the crap out of criminals. No sex scene, none of that crap. It's a much more minimalistic love story, and thank god for that. As a romantic, I long for the day when people can write covincing, human love stories in movies like these. Again, SPIDER-MAN? *shudder*
And let's look at the cast themselves:
--Affleck? Damn it, I like him in the role. Sure, he's not brilliant, but nor is he at all weak. He's a very solid choice, and the extra scenes with Foggy really convince you of that, much more than when he's in costume. Which, in the DDDC, is very, very little of the time. DD appears for maybe a total of ten, twenty minutes of the film. It's a Matt-centric film.
--Jennifer Garner as Elektra isn't bad at all, she's just not great. She certainly doesn't detract from the film whenever she's on screen (kinda like Kirsten Dunst), although it is still annoying how very not-Greek she looks. Still, gotta love a woman who does her own stunts.
--Colin Farrell clearly has a total blast in this role, and the enthusiasm is infectious. Total scene-stealer, god bless 'im. Still, I really do wish Kingpin would have given Bullseye the "fucking costume" he demanded.
--Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin is not a bad choice at all. I mean, can anyone think of better? Who else is physically built like that but can also act? No, the problem is that Duncan was, as Danny pointed out, too damn smug throughout the film. Wilson Fisk doesn't grin and chuckle evilly. He's stone-cold hardcore cruel and serious. The one scene that Duncan nailed was the one where Fisk is preparing for Daredevil to show up and fight, where he says, "I was raised in the Bronx, Wesley. This is something you wouldn't understand." Pure Fisk, right there. He shoulda been like that the whole time.
--Leland Orser as Wesley and Jon Favreau as Foggy are perfect. I mean, you couldn't have gotten a better person to play the nerdy, weaselly WASP blond Smithers than Leland fucking Orser. All he had to do was show up on camera to nail the role. And Favs' Foggy is this movie's equivalent of J.K. Simmons playing J. Jonah Jameson. Nuff said.
--David Keith as Matt's Dad. He's good, but he's no Keith David.
--Ellen Pompeo from GREY'S ANATOMY was Karen Page for three seconds. I don't watch the show, so I couldn't say if she would be good for the role in a possible sequel. Danny thinks so, butkali921 strongly disagrees.
--Coolio was a tour de force powerhouse of... oh, who am I kidding, he was fucking Coolio.
I'll cut cut-paste what Danny wrote in his LJ:
so i've decided that i must invent the "Daredevil Director's Cut Drinking Game for Comic Geeks"... a game with such a long title that, by the time you've finished playing the game, you cant pronounce it any more.
why is it for the fanboys (or girls, Annie)? because of the in-jokes.
some examples:
- the marquee for the boxing match his father has, the one the mob wants him to throw? Jack "the Devil" Murdock vs John Romita (former artist for the comic).
- the mobster talks to his father before said fight and tells him that all the boxers he's beaten recently were set-ups, then he starts listing them.. Miller, Mack, Bendis.. (Frank Miller, David Mack, Brian Michael Bendis; all three were groundbreaking Daredevil writers).
- Frank Miller cameo. (writer)
- Kevin Smith plays the coroner. (writer)
- random, seemingly pointless appearance of a nun over Murdock's bed in a scene that lasts all of ten seconds (this is supposed to be Matt's mother, in an appearance that only the fans would possibly understand).
- Josie's bar.
- Coolio's character makes reference to having gotten drunk with "Turk", a longstanding source of comic relief in the books as he is a low level gangster that DD beats up on a lot.
and my personal favorite - the name of the rapist who got off in court, and who Daredevil goes after in Josie's bar to exact justice?
Jose Quesada.
Joe Quesada is the current editor in chief of Marvel. this one is my favorite because at one point Daredevil yells "QUESAAADAAAA!"
so i turned to Heffie and said, "yeah.. a lot of people feel that way about him lately." which gave Heffie a good laugh.
besides.. its fitting, since Quesada has been seriously raping people's canon lately.
so yeah.. this post is really only likely to be of interest to about 5 of you. but if ever we get Heffie, Annie and i together with some time to kill, we will have to play this game.
To which, I'll add my own: take a shot every time someone tells Matt to look at something. Examples: Elektra on the rooftop, "Look at this!" and Fogy in the office, "Look at me, Matt, I'm a plus-one..." HE'S BLIND, YOU INSENSITIVE JERKS! GAWD!
Really, comic fans, if you ever get the chance to check this out, I strongly suggest you do. Right around the Elektra/Bullseye fight (one of the very best moments and even more brutal in the DDDC), I told Danny that I was glad I bought this, and he said, "Hell, I'm thinking about buying it!" It's only a shame that there'll never be a sequel to iron out the kinks the way SPIDER-MAN and X-MEN did. At least now I feel better about writer/director Mark Steven Johnson's involvement in GHOST RIDER and the upcoming PREACHER series for HBO.
spacechild, I started to worry if I hadn't just wasted twelve bucks. After all, this was DAREDEVIL, generally considered one of the worst of the modern superhero movies. It is fucking amazing with 30 added minutes can do for a film.
Ok, maybe not that amazing. But still, the difference is remarkable. This version of DD is great. Really great. Flawed, yes, but so was the first SPIDER-MAN. God, I love SPIDEY 1, but that movie is flawed like crazy, and the flaws bug me more and more each time I see it! The DD Director's Cut (DDDC, as I'll call it from now on) was also still flawed, but with the new stuff in there... honestly, I think, pound for pound... it's easily as good as SPIDER-MAN. If not better.
And I can see why they cut it the way they did. The studio clearly wanted another SPIDER-MAN. The version that hit the screen was a hollow, trite, sometimes fun action movie with two-dimensional characters and a standard love story subplot. Plus, Affleck.
The DDDC, however... is an episode of "Law and Order," with superpowers.
The majority of the re-integrated scenes is a subplot of Matt and Foggy representing a petty criminal played by Coolio, an investigation which they soon discover has greater ties to the Kingpin. These scenes are great, because most of them are just quiet character moments. The bits of interaction between Matt and Foggy are some of the most genuine parts of the whole film, a lot more revealing and insightful to the internal struggle of Matt than, say, the "I'm not the bad guy" scene.
Speaking of that scene, which is easily the worst scene in either version of the movie, many of the flaws are still here. Like the playground fight, which would have been great, if, y'know, it weren't taking place on a frickin' playground. And the pop soundtrack, although much less than I remembered, and I'd forgotten how much nicer the original, non-studio-souped-up version of Evanescence's "My Immortal" was; that was used very well.
And honestly, I found the entire origin sequence jarring as hell. It's riddled with cliche narration and would have been much, much better handled if they did it without narration. Because they could have! "Show, don't tell," right? People easily could have figured everything out without Omnipresent Affleck guiding them through. Even with the stiff child actor, it would have been much better that way. With a few notable exceptions, voice-overs are a big no-no in movies.
But you know what's not in the Director's Cut? The love story. At least, not the one in the theatrical release. In that version, when Matt and Elektra are on the rooftop in the rain and he hears the sounds of people in trouble, he starts to run out on the romantic moment. She stops him, and in a very (and kinda refreshingly) un-superheroic way, he stays with her. Then they have a very by-the-numbers PG-13 lovemaking scene, right down to the camera panning to the fireplace fadeout!
But the DDDC? He does leave her. He leaves her standing alone on the rooftop in the rain while he goes to beat the crap out of criminals. No sex scene, none of that crap. It's a much more minimalistic love story, and thank god for that. As a romantic, I long for the day when people can write covincing, human love stories in movies like these. Again, SPIDER-MAN? *shudder*
And let's look at the cast themselves:
--Affleck? Damn it, I like him in the role. Sure, he's not brilliant, but nor is he at all weak. He's a very solid choice, and the extra scenes with Foggy really convince you of that, much more than when he's in costume. Which, in the DDDC, is very, very little of the time. DD appears for maybe a total of ten, twenty minutes of the film. It's a Matt-centric film.
--Jennifer Garner as Elektra isn't bad at all, she's just not great. She certainly doesn't detract from the film whenever she's on screen (kinda like Kirsten Dunst), although it is still annoying how very not-Greek she looks. Still, gotta love a woman who does her own stunts.
--Colin Farrell clearly has a total blast in this role, and the enthusiasm is infectious. Total scene-stealer, god bless 'im. Still, I really do wish Kingpin would have given Bullseye the "fucking costume" he demanded.
--Michael Clarke Duncan as the Kingpin is not a bad choice at all. I mean, can anyone think of better? Who else is physically built like that but can also act? No, the problem is that Duncan was, as Danny pointed out, too damn smug throughout the film. Wilson Fisk doesn't grin and chuckle evilly. He's stone-cold hardcore cruel and serious. The one scene that Duncan nailed was the one where Fisk is preparing for Daredevil to show up and fight, where he says, "I was raised in the Bronx, Wesley. This is something you wouldn't understand." Pure Fisk, right there. He shoulda been like that the whole time.
--Leland Orser as Wesley and Jon Favreau as Foggy are perfect. I mean, you couldn't have gotten a better person to play the nerdy, weaselly WASP blond Smithers than Leland fucking Orser. All he had to do was show up on camera to nail the role. And Favs' Foggy is this movie's equivalent of J.K. Simmons playing J. Jonah Jameson. Nuff said.
--David Keith as Matt's Dad. He's good, but he's no Keith David.
--Ellen Pompeo from GREY'S ANATOMY was Karen Page for three seconds. I don't watch the show, so I couldn't say if she would be good for the role in a possible sequel. Danny thinks so, but
kali921 strongly disagrees.--Coolio was a tour de force powerhouse of... oh, who am I kidding, he was fucking Coolio.
I'll cut cut-paste what Danny wrote in his LJ:
so i've decided that i must invent the "Daredevil Director's Cut Drinking Game for Comic Geeks"... a game with such a long title that, by the time you've finished playing the game, you cant pronounce it any more.
why is it for the fanboys (or girls, Annie)? because of the in-jokes.
some examples:
- the marquee for the boxing match his father has, the one the mob wants him to throw? Jack "the Devil" Murdock vs John Romita (former artist for the comic).
- the mobster talks to his father before said fight and tells him that all the boxers he's beaten recently were set-ups, then he starts listing them.. Miller, Mack, Bendis.. (Frank Miller, David Mack, Brian Michael Bendis; all three were groundbreaking Daredevil writers).
- Frank Miller cameo. (writer)
- Kevin Smith plays the coroner. (writer)
- random, seemingly pointless appearance of a nun over Murdock's bed in a scene that lasts all of ten seconds (this is supposed to be Matt's mother, in an appearance that only the fans would possibly understand).
- Josie's bar.
- Coolio's character makes reference to having gotten drunk with "Turk", a longstanding source of comic relief in the books as he is a low level gangster that DD beats up on a lot.
and my personal favorite - the name of the rapist who got off in court, and who Daredevil goes after in Josie's bar to exact justice?
Jose Quesada.
Joe Quesada is the current editor in chief of Marvel. this one is my favorite because at one point Daredevil yells "QUESAAADAAAA!"
so i turned to Heffie and said, "yeah.. a lot of people feel that way about him lately." which gave Heffie a good laugh.
besides.. its fitting, since Quesada has been seriously raping people's canon lately.
so yeah.. this post is really only likely to be of interest to about 5 of you. but if ever we get Heffie, Annie and i together with some time to kill, we will have to play this game.
To which, I'll add my own: take a shot every time someone tells Matt to look at something. Examples: Elektra on the rooftop, "Look at this!" and Fogy in the office, "Look at me, Matt, I'm a plus-one..." HE'S BLIND, YOU INSENSITIVE JERKS! GAWD!
Really, comic fans, if you ever get the chance to check this out, I strongly suggest you do. Right around the Elektra/Bullseye fight (one of the very best moments and even more brutal in the DDDC), I told Danny that I was glad I bought this, and he said, "Hell, I'm thinking about buying it!" It's only a shame that there'll never be a sequel to iron out the kinks the way SPIDER-MAN and X-MEN did. At least now I feel better about writer/director Mark Steven Johnson's involvement in GHOST RIDER and the upcoming PREACHER series for HBO.
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:04 pm (UTC)holy fucking awesome! that's the best thing i've heard comic-to-movie-wise in a while.
better HBO handling it than pretty much, well, anyone..
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:09 pm (UTC)I think PREACHER is overrated like crazy, but I still love it nonetheless and am very excited.
no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 09:14 pm (UTC)Go HERE (http://kali921.livejournal.com/94573.html?nc=2) RIGHT NOW and follow the link at the top!
HURRY!! *glee*
no subject
Date: 2006-12-14 04:49 pm (UTC)Go HERE and comment on a post i wrote almost purely for your amusement!
of course, Heffie just reposted half o it above, but oh well.
Matt and Frank. Now there's a buddy movie
Date: 2006-12-12 10:05 pm (UTC)These are similar to the reasons I liked Tom Jane in The Punisher. Frank and Matt are bruisers and tough as Hell. But they are human to boot, and when they get hit it hurts and they bleed. They never let us forget that there are people under the outfits. I'm sorry to hear there won't be a DD sequel, I'll put my faith in Punisher 2 I guess.
Re: Matt and Frank. Now there's a buddy movie
Date: 2006-12-12 10:11 pm (UTC)Yeah, after seeing the DDDC, I am even sadder there won't be a sequel. I want my BORN AGAIN movie, damn it!
Re: Matt and Frank. Now there's a buddy movie
Date: 2006-12-12 10:59 pm (UTC)http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=92646
Enjoy
Re: Matt and Frank. Now there's a buddy movie
Date: 2006-12-12 11:11 pm (UTC)