Review Detail

Having seen Spence's edit of Daredevil, I knew Daredevil was a film that was able to be salvaged. I had originally trolled the Internet looking for Uncanny Antman's Daredevil the Man Without Fear, but was sorely unable to find it. Having mentioned this in my review for Spence's edit of Daredevil, I promptly received a PM from UA a few days later on how to obtain this truly technically advanced fanedit. Having seen both gives me a little bit better perspective on what sorts of things the Daredevil movie could've been and the sort of things it just simply wasn't.

Overall the visual effects of this edit are truly stunning. The frame by frame details, the removal of the floaty wire work, the recoloring of the devil vision; all of it was truly inspired. The action was greatly cleaned up and the narrative streamlined. The Kingpin's involvement has been made more clear than it was in Spence's edit and overall there is a fair amount of resolution to be had.

Of the things I didn't like, the only thing that was really noticeable was a complete lack of resolution with the Bullseye storyline (though if a sequel had been made, this sort of inconclusiveness would have made a for a great lead in where Daredevil and Elektra go after Bullseye). I realize that the church fight scene is terrible and in most ways I'm happy that Uncanny Antman didn't even bother to try fixing it. I don't think that fight scene could have been saved, though I do think there was a way to have Daredevil confront Bullseye and then work his death scene in somehow (but again, as a lead in for an imaginary sequel the lack of resolution with Bullseye works quite well). I think it's completely justified to remove it entirely and while the church plays an important role in the movie and Matt's talks with the priest are included, we have been spared the organ fight scene. After watching this I ended up watching the Elektra movie which sadly doesn't have a fan edit though honestly it's pretty standard run away from the kidnappers faire and it was really not a particularly good movie. Overall I think a Daredevil/Elektra edit combined could work fairly well though it would have to be done in such a way as to not detract from the otherwise good parts of Daredevil (and is not a project I would want to take on, I honestly just don't think the source material from these two movies is enough to make a satisfying movie for BOTH characters). A few scenes from Elektra were incorporated into this edit mainly the training scenes with Terrence Stamp, as well as some of the Elektra revival stuff. The training scenes were actually nice to have as there was more or less no explanation as to how Matt becomes so good at fighting (I mean every superhero movie needs some kind of training montage no?). The only other thing I felt was lacking was the finale of the court case which felt a little rushed especially towards the end. Though honestly as viewers were not terribly invested in the case anyway except that Kingpin decided to frame somebody which gives Daredevil the clues he needs to find him.

In short, technically astounding, narratively better, but not even this truly inspired edit completely saves this movie. The action is remarkably better and simply for that I would check this edit out if you have any interest in DD. At just 90 minutes the pain has been minimized and the best parts of this movie have been compiled into something that's worth more than the theatrical or director's cuts.