Review Detail

Uncanny Antman has done something I never thought possible: gotten me to watch Daredevil again. I have always considered this particular Superhero movie to be an unsalvageable garbage film; then I read halfway down the cutlist for this edit and decided to give it another shot. So much has been done that the finished product is almost unrecognizable. And that is a very, very good thing. This is some seriously professional editing work, flawless in-scene cutting, perfect transitions, lots of subtle tweaks that didn't give themselves away even on second viewing, and some really well-thought-out and effective repurposing of footage. The new structure works great, the new songs were all terrific additions, and that Marvel Knights logo at the beginning was killer. The only thing that didn't really work for me was Elektra. Without the atrocious playground fight, there's nothing to suggest that she's a martial arts master, so when that Evanescence song kicks in and she starts doing her crazy training routine, it comes out of nowhere. Between this sudden shift and the song (oh, that song), I couldn't take it at all seriously. That's my only real issue, though.

All of this is not to say that I consider Daredevil: The Man Without Fear a good movie. I do not. There are far too many thinly written characters and loose threads when the credits roll. I wouldn't change anything though, and here's why: Daredevil is NEVER going to be turned into a decent movie; the script and the direction are just not good. However, this does feel like successful feature-length pilot for a Daredevil television show, and an above-average one at that. Were this meant only to introduce the main players and set the tone for an upcoming series, the fact that many of the characters (Urich, Bullseye, Elektra, Kingpin) don't have fully formed arcs wouldn't be a problem at all. The only character we would really need to understand would be Daredevil, and by the time the end credits roll, I feel like we do. Another factor that led to this conclusion is the way it looks. The director , Mark Steven Johnson, lifted his style whole-sale from Alex Proyas, but he has neither the skill nor the budget to pull it off effectively, leaving Uncanny Antman to tone town these stylistic choices whenever possible. Divorced from the zany angles and poorly-rendered special effects, the remaining film has a rather flat, low-budget look that wouldn't be uncommon on television. And if that is the first place we saw Daredevil: The Man Without Fear, I believe we would be looking back fondly on a decent (but likely short-lived) Daredevil series instead of one of the worst superhero movies ever made.

I highly recommend this fanedit, if only to marvel at the editing skill on display. I watched the SD AVI file, which looked and sounded just fine for what it was. It came with a trailer for an imaginary sequel which Uncanny Antman has put together out of completely unused footage, which was also great.