Didn't enjoy the Daredevil movie? It could've been worse...

[seriousfic]

So I reviewed a rejected script for Daredevil: The Big Damn Movie by Chris "Home Alone" Columbus. It's bad. How bad? Well, Matt Murdock spends a lot of time wearing this costume.



I was left pining for the innate feminism of Frank Miller.

Comments

[halloweenjack]

The movie had its good points and bad points.

Good:

- Neat set-up of Matt Murdock's life (has to sleep in a sensory-deprivation chamber, takes pain pills to cope with aftereffects of fights)

- Sonar makes more sense than vaguely-defined "radar sense" and gives him an obvious vulnerability (but see below)

- The movie costume works pretty well

- Michael Clarke Duncan made for a good Kingpin, although some of that may be him evoking Ving Rhames as Marcellus Wallace in Pulp Fiction

The not-so-good:

- The meet-cute scene for Matt and Elektra--their duel in the playground--just seems flat, as does their chemistry in general

- Colin Farrell as Bullseye just can't get his teeth on enough scenery

- In the first fight in the bar, Matt's OK with all the gunshots going off around him, even though in real life close-proximity gunshots hurt even people with normal hearing, especially if it's inside (that's why gun ranges have ear protectors). But church bells hurt him? Why would he be especially vulnerable to purer tones? It would have made a lot more sense if Bullseye lights an M-80, tosses it at him, DD dodges it... and it goes off and not only temporarily deafens him but also dampens his sonar. Then he'd have to rely on his other senses (well, maybe not so much taste).

Anyway, I understand that the director's cut was better.

[valtyr]

I forget how close he was to the bells, but church bells are incredibly loud - opinions are divided as to whether being in a bell chamber during a peal can actually kill you. So with enhanced senses I can see it being pretty bad.

Was it actually bells? Because I vaguely remember something about organ pipes, and I don't recall any bellringers.

[halloweenjack]

I remember it as their being in the choir loft, and Bullseye pulling on the bell rope.

[valtyr]

You would not get much of a noise by just yanking on the rope, really. Maybe if they'd been left mouth up?

I mean, I'm not a campanology expert or anything, but getting the bell swinging takes a bit of work.

[halloweenjack]

Right. As noted above, it came off more as "This is Daredevil's kryptonite" than "This is something that someone with enhanced hearing would be logically vulnerable to", especially given his previously-demonstrated tolerance for gunfire at close range.

[valtyr]

Yeah, it's like they knew bells could be dangerously loud but didn't really know how that would work, so just had Bullseye pull a rope. And you're quite right about gunshots, if he's not vulnerable to them I don't see why he'd have trouble with other loud noises.