I love Daredevil.
Forget Spider-Man, Wolverine, Captain America because not one of them is as compelling a character as The Man Without Fear. Don't get me wrong all have had their moments but nothing that compares to Daredevil's greatest stories, The Man Without Fear, Born Again and Bendis and Brubakers stellar runs have propelled Matt Murdock to legendary heights.
Then of course Andy Diggle boned the character almost fatally with the dire Shadowland arc but I wont open that can of worms right now.
Daredevil is great because he is so hugely flawed, besides his obvious physical handicap his own self-loathing and inability to form any kind of long-term relationship outside of a few close friends makes him painfully isolated from the world around him. This loneliness has almost torn him apart on many occasions and makes for a potentially brilliant movie formula.
Of course instead of a brilliant movie we got this shite.......
Oh god where to start with this one...
Affleck does give it a fair old shot but just doesn't deliver where it counts.
Bullseye was portrayed as an OTT loon with Colin Farrell completely misfiring on all cylinders. Taking a cold, calculating psychopath who takes a perverse joy in killing and his uncanny talent for it and turning him into a gobby oirish knob-end who is ultimately more clown-like then chilling.
Elektra was replaced in the movie by a cardboard cut out of Jennifer Garner who, whilst looking undeniably pretty in a sweet but square jawed kind of way, completely failed to capture the spirit and innate menace and sexuality of the character.
Kingpin fared slightly better than the rest even though bearing the least physical resemblance to the character , the late great MCD at least pulled of a reasonably charismatic and charming Wilson Fisk although again much of the characters menace was lost.
There were a few flashes of inspiration however, Daredevils 'sonar sense' was very well realised and there were several moments where sound was brilliantly depicted from the hero's viewpoint. The fact that Matt pops painkillers like vitamins and is covered in bruises and scars shows us that through it all Daredevil is very much human and no Superman.
To be fair these complaints are as much to do with script and direction than the characters themselves, hopefully the new Netflix series will get it right and give us Marvels version of The Dark Knight rather than Batman and Robin.
Which brings me to the core of this post, how I think the new Daredevil series should be.
First off casting
Matt Murdock/Daredevil
Cillian Murphy
We need someone with serious acting chops to pull this one off, heck any stunt double can kick ass in a Daredevil costume but to really capture the tormented soul of Matt Murdock I reckon Cillian is our man!
Bullseye
Javier Bardrem
Scary, believable and someone you seriously do not want to fuck with, just draw a bullseye on his forehead and you'll see he's perfect for the role.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead
Maybe a little young for the role but MEW can easily balance sexy, vulnerable and dangerous.
Kingpin
Jeffery Dean Morgan
Kingpin is always going to be a tough one to cast simply because of the unrealistic physical proportaions of the character himself so the choices are either kit someone out in a realistic fat suit, or just forget the whole fat man thing and just cast someone of normal proportions. Either way I say JDM is our man, easily capable of pulling of Wilson Fisks charismatic menace and would still be able to make us sympathetic to the character. The recent Punisher arc entitled simply 'Kingpin' would be an ideal starting point from which to develop Wilson Fisk for a Daredevil reboot.
The Combat
Daredevil is a ninja, one of the best in the world and as such should be quite comfortable kicking ass. In the comics Daredevil is a swift, brutal combatant and whilst he draws the line at killing he doesn't pull punches either. Watch the fight scene below, an excerpt for the movie Warrior King and just imagine Tony Jaa in a red outfit...
Now that is how Daredevil should fight, fast, brutal and yet with grace and poise. Watching him fight should be like watching a dancer do his stuff only with alot more limb breakage! Most importantly no sliding down stair rails and blatant wire work (Along with poor CGI, obvious wirework is a passionate hatred of mine).
Next up is how Daredevil should move. This is a character who prowls the rooftops Batman style, using his superkeen senses to zero in on crime, he needs to be fast, agile, graceful and silent. What we don't want to see is more unbelievable CGI stuntmen or ludicrous wirework, what we need is to get some guys like this into a Daredevil costume, watch this clip and try to picture DD moving like this...
So there we go, even if you don't agree with all of what I've suggested hopefully there will be a couple of things in there that will make you realise just how great this movie has the potential to be. Let's just keep our fingers crossed that this time Daredevil fans will finally get the movie they deserve.
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