How to do Daredevil right.

The poster for Daredevil

Hey everybody! I'm Ryan Howitzer and you're in The Line of Fire! Many of you have probably noticed that this blog is sort of dominated by DC comics stuff. The truth is I'm more of a DC guy than Marvel, so that's probably gonna be a common thing here. That being said, I love Marvel too and I've really been enjoying their new Cinematic Universe. Recently, Disney/Marvel has reacquired the film rights to some of their characters. Among those characters are Daredevil, Punisher, Ghost Rider, and Blade. I'm especially excited about Daredevil and Punisher. I'll get to Punisher in a later post, so for now, let's focus on Daredevil. for those of you unfamiliar with Daredevil, he's a blind vigilante in the Marvel Universe. His real name is Matt Murdock. He was blinded by an accident where he was hit by a truck carrying toxic wastes. His blindness enhanced his other senses and gave him a sensory based radar. Shortly after the accident, his father, boxer Battling Jack Murdock, was killed by the Kingpin for refusing to throw a fight. Matt Murdock trained with a blind martial artist named Stick. Stick trained him to use his radar and taught him to be a fierce and skilled martial artist. Now grown, Matt Murdock is a criminal defense attorney by day and the vigilante Daredevil by night. Daredevil is a great character who is fully capable of carrying his own movie. Unfortunately, however, most mainstream audiences only know Daredevil from the horribly mishandled 2003 movie Daredevil, which starred Ben Affleck in the titular role. What will it take for Disney and Marvel to remove the horrible taste from our mouths? Well, as usual, I have a list of things.

1. Go dark

More scenes like this

Daredevil is a very brooding character who has had a very tragic life. He protects Hell's Kitchen, which is a very rough neighborhood in Manhattan. This movie has to be pretty dark to stay true to the character. We need lots of shadows and rainy scenes and less fights on playgrounds.

This is an actual scene in the movie. I'm not kidding

We need violent criminals getting beaten to a pulp by a man dressed up like a demon. I know Marvel's usual shtick with their movies is a lighter tone with plenty of humor, but Daredevil needs to get dark. Besides, it'll give the movies some variety.




2. Make the villains interesting

Bullseye the way he's supposed to be

 One thing that hurt the 2003 movie was that the villains were boring. The big bad in Daredevil's rogues gallery is The crime lord known as The Kingpin. Kingpin in the head of the Maggia crime family. He's ruthless, clever, and brutal. He's also not afraid to engage in fisticuffs with his enemies. The version on display in the movie, however, was dull and uninspired.

He looks like a kid playing gangster

 Michael Clarke Duncan is a great actor, but his Kingpin was just a generic crime boss. There was nothing interesting about him. He didn't have that ruthless edge that Kingpin should have. The other villain in the movie was Bullseye, an assassin who's run-ins with Daredevil are frequent. Collin Farrell played Bullseye and turned in a truly strange performance with an equally strange costume. Rather than Bullseye's usual look (seen above), the movie went with a bald man in a long coat that had crosshairs tattooed on his forehead.

Is he wearing an alligator skin coat and leather pants? 

Both villains were boring and very different from their comic book personas. For the next go around, the filmmakers need to give the villains interesting personalities and motivations. Bullseye's "I never miss" thing got old after awhile. Especially after he kept missing. Kingpin needs to be more brutal and ruthless. The writer of the next film should look at past gangsters and develop Kingpin from them as well as the comics. Michael Clarke Duncan was pretty much a cartoon gangster with his white suit and cigar.

3. Stylish martial arts

Daredevil's chosen weapon is the billy club

Learn from Christopher Nolan's mistakes here. Daredevil and Batman are both excellent martial artists. Both of them need to be doing awesome high-flying kicks and such. Get a really good escrima choreographer for Daredevil so that his billy club fighting is awesome. Somebody like Tony Jaa would make an excellent choreographer for a Daredevil film.

With those things, I'm sure we'll have an excellent Daredevil film from Disney/Marvel. Until next time, this is Howitzer saying keep your head down, because you're in The Line of Fire!