Daredevil: The Man Without Fear

i was never a big fan of daredevil as the only thing i liked about the movie was bulls eye.
i never thought this could be a better film......but i was wrong.
this is one awesome fanedit. this is the cut people have to see, all the sloggy fat is gone,
the movie didn't feel bogged down at all and ran at a good pace the editing is seamless.
this is a daredevil movie everyone has to see.

all the stuff that was cut was ll the excess crap that needed to go.

i highly recommend this cut.

P.S if only the produces and director could have released this cut the movie would have done a lot better

Daredevil was a movie I wanted to like but couldn’t. Sure it was occasionally fun, but the CGI silliness, OTT antics, and convoluted plot obscured what could have been a engaging and relatable origin story. There were enough worthwhile elements to make me hopeful for the spinoff Elektra, but I was sorely disappointed, and while Daredevil seemed good by comparison, a second viewing of it on DVD reminded me how bad it really was.

I originally couldn’t find a different Uncanny Antman (UA) fanedit I was looking for, so I thought I’d sample a portion of one of his other works just to see what he could do. I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the end of his “Daredevil: The Man Without Fear” fanedit without dropping it or hitting fast play, and feeling eager for more.

The opening title sequence with the Marvel Knights logo was an auspicious beginning. The focused prologue with its simple human drama was satisfying but felt unfamiliar, almost as if I was watching a reboot, but using the same actors. Only when it came to Affleck’s initial outing as Daredevil (DD) did I start to feel anything was amiss. The transition almost directly into DD’s violent confrontation felt abrupt, though a first time viewer might not notice anything missing. However, that concern dissipated as the rapid pace of the story carried me along and I realized showing DD’s initial foray without preamble symbolized the rudderless state of his life at that point and makes his self-affirmation at the end all the more powerful.

My biggest gripe is the lack of buildup to DD’s romance with Elektra. While I agree with the artistic reasons for cutting Affleck’s initial athletic flirtation with Garner, I felt their romantic development was already underdeveloped in the theatrical cut. I like UA’s restructuring to eliminate flashbacks, but perhaps one or two flashbacks to that cut scene could have been used to lend credibility to their romance. Unfortunately the two leads have no other costarring roles to mine for new material and I doubt Pearl Harbor had anything useful given Garner’s small role in it, but possibly scenes shot from the perspective of her love interest (implying it’s DD’s perspective) in some other role(s) she’d played could’ve been inserted to support the romance. Still, sufficient chemistry shone through and I was satisfied with where things ended.

The soundtrack UA ended up with felt perfect and did not distract from the unfolding of the story like in the theatrical cut. The audio and visual transitions themselves felt seamless. I would’ve like to have seen more contrast in some of the night scenes, especially since DD can “see” in the dark, but I understand the limitations of the source material and the symbolism of keeping things in the shadow.

By the end of this edit, I felt the right amount was told about Daredevil, but to expand the story in a satisfying way would’ve required a whole nother feature film. The original can be put in storage and this fanedit can be put on the shelf as a worthy professional quality replacement.

Bonus points for the fantastic DVD menu and extras UA produced for his release. The “Removed Material” while interesting examples of filmmaking technique certainly did not belong in the film proper. The fictitious “Return of the Kingpin” teaser makes for an interesting what-if. “Law & Order: Hell’s Kitchen” if actually produced could bring me back to watching police procedurals. Finally the “Nelson & Murdock” 80’s TV spoof almost makes me think Netflix should just skip their upcoming Daredevil series and go directly to a wacky retro procedural spinoff. I look forward to watching more features and shorts from this editor.

Thank you Uncanny Antman! :]X

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.

Certainly the best way to watch Daredevil. The editing was smooth as butter on both the video and audio side. Had I not known it was a fan edit or already seen the original I wouldn't have suspected a thing.

The main plot points were all hit, and there were only a couple of areas that were VERY slightly jarring due to cut footage, and it was so minor that I'm not sure I would have really noticed had I not known something had been skipped.

I loved pretty much all of the rearrangements and stylistic edits (no cheese-ball narration!).

All in all a mediocre flick was transformed into something I actually enjoyed watching quite a bit. Well played, sir. Well played.