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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
Salesrank: 12331
Released: November 30, 2004 |
| Our Price: $3.76 |
| Used Price: $1.90 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
After losing his sight to radioactive exposure, Max Murdoch uses his other, now heightened, senses to fight crime.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: R
Release Date: 6-SEP-2005
Media Type: DVD
Description of Daredevil (Director's Cut):
Darker than its popular comic-book predecessor Spider-Man, the $80 million extravaganza Daredevil was packaged for maximum global appeal, its juvenile plot beginning when 12-year-old Matt Murdock is accidentally blinded shortly before his father is murdered. Later an adult attorney in New York's Hell's Kitchen, Murdock (Ben Affleck) uses his remaining, superenhanced senses to battle crime as Daredevil, the masked and vengeful "man without fear," pitted against dominant criminal Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and the psychotic Bullseye (Colin Farrell), who can turn almost anything into a deadly projectile. Daredevil is well matched with the dynamic Elektra (Jennifer Garner), but their teaming is as shallow as the movie itself, which is peppered with Marvel trivia and cameo appearances (creator Stan Lee, Clerks director and Daredevil devotee Kevin Smith) and enough computer-assisted stuntwork to give Spidey a run for his money. This is Hollywood product at its most lavishly vacuous; die-hard fans will argue its merits while its red-leathered hero swoops and zooms toward a sequel. --Jeff Shannon
Daredevil (Director's Cut) Reviews:
Directors Cut - The sweetest cut of all! 
2008-08-25 - Finally!
Having grown up reading the comic from the Frank Miller era it would be fair to say I was a fan long before the film arrived. Having seen the studio release when it first came out I enjoyed the film but certainly felt it was missing something. That something that was missing has been judiciously amended in the Directors Cut of which this review comprises.
The Directors Cut proves yet again that studio's don't know as much as they think they know about the movie going audience. The decision to cut important character development, sub plot and themes which serve to enhance and underpin the Daredevil story merely reveals this flawed 'think tank in a bubble' aspect of the industry. What is put back into the film is a crucial 30 minutes of footage that was initially deemed superfluous to the action - not by the director it must be said but rather the studio heads.
The difference between Daredevil the Studio release to the Directors Cut is glaring and in the case of the latter what we are presented with is a Marvel superhero film of great depth and action combined. This is the way intelligent audiences always want their Marvel films - the studio's seem to miss this at times and assume we all just want action without storyline or character development ... how wrong they are!
A great deal of what initially fell to the cutting room floor was the story of Matt Murdock's ( Daredevil by day ) legal business partner Foggy played by Jon Favreau. It would have been criminal for this footage to never see the light of day as Jon Favreau brings a much needed light and contrast to the darker aspects of the films mood which also serves as exposition for what passes for Matt Murdock's normal day to day life as a lawyer. Through Matt's exchanges with Foggy we are also able to witness a more three dimensional and human side to Daredevil. Without Foggy we'd have a 2D superhero that not even the comics presented but which the studio's saw fit to provide us with in their chosen release! Are you listening film makers?
The treatment of Daredevil overall is pretty well spot on as we get to see his origins as a young boy growing up in New Yorks Hell's Kitchen, the son of a working class single parent who is a boxer down on his luck.
There are plenty of clever nods to the Comic reading audience with the various names of fighters being the names of artists in Marvel who worked on Daredevil over the years. We get a nice cameos from Stan 'the man'Lee and one other absolute classic appearance from a Daredevil artist later in the film in a scene with Ben Urich, played by the great Joe Pantolano.
Ben Afleck does a great job playing Matt Murdock as does the stunning Jennifer Garner who plays what must be the ultimate film version of Elektra. Both of them put a great deal of work into training martial arts with the likes of Jeff Imada ( Bourne Identity ) and Wu Ping ( Crouching Tiger et al ) but I did feel the fight scene with Murdock and Elektra in the school playground was the weakest of the fight scenes in the entire film ... frankly it looked very stiff and not particularly fluid as it should have been. In the 2 disc version of the Directors Cut that I have we see the Chinese wire crew performing the fight scenes as they worked them out in Hong Kong using only handycams. What we see in these rough cuts is the difference between Martial Artists/Athletes and actors! Having said all this the rest of the fight scenes in the film were excellent and very well choreographed and performed.
Michael Clark Duncan is superbly well chosen to be the giant mob boss King Pin and the director was absolutely correct in ignoring skin colour and instead making sure that the spirit of King Pin was served through the right man playing the role ... he does indeed bring the gargantuan quality to King Pin to the big screen.
Colin Farrell as Bullseye is actually very good indeed and as he says himself, he 'camps it up' as that is exactly what we would expect from a complete psychopath like Bullseye. Having Farrell play himself as Irish was the best move yet and he brings something very nasty to the role even though his character is so over the top. When we finally get to the crucial Frank Miller scene with Elektra and Bullseye it really is quite gut wrenching and Farrell delivers a kiss of death that saw the film elevated to an R rating based on this act alone! Not that I felt an R rating for this scene was justified but I agree that for younger audiences it is quite a powerful scene and can see why they may have given it an R.
Jenifer Garner as I said earlier is absolutely stunning as Elektra and is certainly not just a pretty face. She brings a visceral quality to Elektra that certainly brings her to life in way Daredevil fans could have only hoped for - her weapons work in the film is very well done and is to be commended.
All in all Daredevil the Directors Cut builds beautifully as it was supposed to have done and runs in at 128 mins which for me was not overly long at all. I will say it again, an audience would happily sit through an extra 30 minutes of footage that brings essential character development to a film and adds depth to the storyline. Rather than sit through a dissatisfying action film which runs in 30 minutes shorter and makes little sense of the overall theme it should serve as testimony to the fact that this kind of thinking from studios is a false economy.
We can have our popcorn and eat it too ... the Directors Cut gives you exactly that!
director's cut- do yourself a favor. See it 
2008-08-20 - First of all, I was never a reader of the comics, and didn't know much about daredevil before venturing into the cinemas to see the original when it was released. At the time, there wasn't much action out and i like most of Ben Affleck's movies, so though i would give it a go. Although i liked the theatrical release ( but didn't love it) i still bought it when it came to DVD...and to be honest, when i watched it the 2nd time on DVD, i didn't think as much of it, as when i left the cinema.
So when i heard the directors cut was out, and people who hated the first release, but liked the 2nd one, i thought wow, i didn't mind the first, perhaps i will really like the new version. and guess what? I did ! Its absolutely fantastic. After the characters were fleshed out more, the storyline was more involved and filled in the plots- you actually cared about what happened and got more into the feel of being apart of what was going on in hell's kitchen.
If you watch the "featurette" : giving the devil his dues, you will understand that Mark Johnson the director, absolutely loves this material, loved the comic, and was disappointed himself with the theatrical release. He understood why the critics & fans alike didn't support it, and really wanted to fix the problems with this DVD. When will Hollywood studios & executives learn, a 100 minute movie, does not mean a better movie - and when will they learn that audiences DO want more than just action - we can think, you morons! And can hold our attention for more than 100 minutes. Here's a simple plan for your money making schemes - and this goes to Gary Foster ( producer who still says the theatrical version of daredevil is better) If you make a GOOD MOVIE, that gets good reviews, and that fans & critics enjoy, then more people will see it, more people will see it a 2nd time, more people will recommend it to friends, and that means a bigger audience, a repeat audience and bigger dollars for your pockets ! So while the first was a quick paced movie that made quick bucks, a longer - more thought-out MOVIE, would have garnered longer life at the box office.
Shame on the movie industry
2008-07-29 - It is a shame that whomever in the movie industry decided to wreck the theatrical release of this movie, once I watched the directors cut of this movie I could not believe how much better of a movie this is and more than likely would have faired better at the box office and would not have been one of the final death knells of Ben Affleck's movie career
A huge improvemant.
2008-07-21 - If you were verry dissapointed with Daredevil in theatures like I was then this Director's Cut will probably bring a smile to you face. This version is actually pretty good. It has less Elektra and focuses more on Daredevil and his demons. They cut some stuff out like that days of our lives love making scene. They added like 30 minutes or so mostly involving a sub plot including Lil Wayne or I think Lil Wayne as an innocent man on trial for murder. You get more John Faverau as DD'd best freind, and you get to see more of a brutal and vicous Kingpin. Now it still has flaws such as bad music, that ben and jen playground fight,some corny expressions from Collin Farrel and that new airport scene they added in. They also extended the DD and Kingpin fight at the end which is a way better showdown then the one shown in theatures. This is definately worth a second look, still flawed but pretty good.
THUMBS UP!!
2008-07-04 - I've been a comic-book fan since I was 11, but I had never heard of Daredevil...
The movie (theatrical version) introduced me to DD... and I instantly fell in love with him!!
Then I discovered the Director's Cut version, and I have to say this is much better than the first one. It's 30 minutes longer and has a secondary plotline which explains many dark spots in the first one. Plus, it's a darker, grittier movie, which, in my opinion, is much more faithful to the original atmosphere in the comics.
This movie has just one weak point: Special Effects. SOME (not all of them) are bad... but this was due to low budget... The Director is not to blame!!
I love this movie.
