Review Detail

As others have added already, the music and dialogue audio needs to be rebalanced a little.

The "few days later" transition sequence (38:32) didnt fit the atmosphere of the movie. While the movie felt gritty and subtle, the transition felt very dramatized and borderline cartoonish. Personally i would have conveyed the passage of time with a simple cut to B roll/recolored (stock) establishing shot and straight into the Karen scene or even with a fade in to the Karen scene with plain text indicating "a few days later".

Although this is definitely pushing the limits, i think the length can be slimmed down even more. Scene for scene i think the editor condensed the story excellently, but i think within some scenes there can be some dialogue or pauses that can be polished off or recontextualized. Getting the film under 140 minutes wouldve really helped. Overall a good watch where every scene had a reason to be in it, but ended up still feeling a little drawn out inevitably due to a long runtime.

Rather than having the "Karen apartment" fight be drawn out with a flashback, i personally think it wouldve more effiective dramatically to give the Nobu fight more time. *Read bottom paragraph for why*

Criticisms aside, i think this edit was very concise and efficient, my biggest praises are with the usage of music and monologues to summarize a lot of story beats. Thanks to the clever usage of music, I very clearly saw the intention of when the acts began and ended. Mirroring the heroes' and Fisk's activities was also a genius way of framing the story. Im amazed that the editor was able to omit so much runtime and conversations, but still keep enough dialogue in the script so that there are callbacks within the movie. Comparing the original visuals to the edit, I have to say the recolor definitely helped it feel more like a standard MCU movie. Good balance of primary, secondary and tertiary characters. Every supporting character that was vital to the story, had enough screentime to be fleshed out (like the Owl, Vladimir, Wesley, Ms. Cardenas), everyone that was just needed due to the continuity (notably Det. Hoffman, Turk, Mahoney) showed up just enough for me to remember them. Which is impressive because when dealing with shows, there can easily be an oversaturation of characters. Cutting Night Nurse was a tough but rewarding decision.

Overall I'd say this edit successfully turned an entire TV show into a seemless Daredevil movie.

Continue reading for my personal rant of why i think the Nobu fight shouldve been kept:

One sequence i thought shouldnt have been shortened so much was the Nobu fight. That fight was such a catalyst moment for Matt. The fight acted as the biggest physical trial of Daredevil so far. Where Fisk out maneuvered Matt strategically (by getting ahead of the media), Nobu dominated Matt physically. The Nobu fight was the realization that there are even greater dangers out there if he continued to pursue this secret life. His near death experience was definitely a humbling experience that reminded the audience that in the end he's still human. Visually nothing compared to the "Oh Sh*t" moment when Nobu pulled out his kyoketsu-shoge (the hook on a rope). Visually, just by revealing that weapon, you can tell its about to push Daredevil's senses to the limit. In my opinion, this fight should have been a little longer, i couldve done without the Karen and Foggy scenes interrupting when the fight got good. Not to mention it felt a little jarring he went from getting punched in one scene to being eviscerated in the next. Recontextualizing or removing the flashbacks from the fight in Karen's apartment for this fight wouldve heightened the stakes of the Nobu fight.