Re-Reviewed: Daredevil (2003) is best left in the past
How does Daredevil hold up when re-reviewed today?
When the Daredevil series with Charlie Cox debuted on Netflix, it was incredibly refreshing for fans of the Man Without Fear. That was because the last time they saw a live-action version of the character was in 2003 when Ben Affleck played him.
This was a movie that should have been a home run. But endless bad decisions were made along the way. This was definitely a situation where the people making the movie did not understand the characters and world they were working with.
Bringing Daredevil to theaters
Created by Bill Everett and Stan Lee, the late king of the cameos, Daredevil made his debut in the first issue of his own comic in 1964. In the decades after that, he would appear sporadically in animated series, live-action TV shows, and video games.
His only feature film appearance was in 2003’s Daredevil. 20th Century Fox picked up the rights to Daredevil and his associated characters in 2003, eventually acting as the distributor of the film produced by New Regency Enterprises, Marvel Enterprises, and Horseshoe Bay Productions.
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It starred Ben Affleck as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, Jennifer Garner as Elektra, Colin Farrell as Bullseye, and Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin. In retrospect, the casting was solid. Unfortunately, that was the only part of the film that worked.
Not a fan favorite but it made money
Daredevil (2003) wasn’t exactly the bomb it has been made out to be. It did pretty well at the box office, doubling its production costs and actually making money. But critics and fans were not as kind to the experience of watching it.
Some people praised the tone of the storytelling while others felt that it didn’t capture what made the character work in the comics. Daredevil killing a criminal early in the film didn’t sit well with a lot of fans. That wasn’t the only aspect that was problematic.
A planned sequel was canned after the failure of the 2005 spinoff Elektra. As bad as it was, Daredevil (2003) honestly wasn’t that much better. That’s something that’s become increasingly apparent in the years since its release.
Daredevil has not aged well
Even if a surprising number of people enjoyed the movie when it came out, it’s not one that a lot of people are going back to. The modern era of comic book/superhero films has set the bar a lot higher than what it achieved. Other films like Batman (1989) and Superman (1978) have aged well. Daredevil has not.
That became especially apparent when the Marvel Netflix series featuring Charlie Cox as the Man Without Fear came out in 2015. This was the version of Matt Murdock fans had been waiting for, one that gave an incredibly on-point depiction of the character and his world.
Trying to go back to Daredevil (2003) after watching Netflix’s Daredevil is like trying to chow down on a chunk of an old car tire after eating a nice meal. It is terrible by comparison and really wasn’t all that good to begin with. This is a movie best left in the past.
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Have you seen Daredevil? If so, what did you think of it? Let us know in the comments below!