Daredevil

By EWAN McDONALD

(Herald rating: * * *)

Just into his teens, Matt Murdock had an accident with some chemicals that left him blind and also brought him unusual powers. Over the years he has adapted to his new abilities and is now an attorney who fights for the rights of the wronged in the courts.

His faithful — though often exasperated — sidekick is his law partner, Franklin Nelson. When the system fails, Matt takes justice into his own hands and becomes — drum roll, please — the anonymous, masked crimefighter Daredevil, roaming the streets of New York and taking out the bad guys.

Yes, when you thought they'd run out of Marvel Comics characters to turn into movie superheroes and it was safe to go back to the video store, here's another on the shelf alongside Spiderman, X-Men and The Incredible Hulk. But hey, this is a better movie than most of those comic-book cutouts.

Ben Affleck gets to wear the red leather designer underwear in the title role with Jon Favreau as his daytime buddy, Franklin. One night out fighting he meets and falls for Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner).

Danger looms: the city's baddest villain, Kingpin (Michael Clarke Duncan) and his killer-for-hire, Bullseye (Colin Farrell), kill her dad, a Greek tycoon. Elektra is next on Kingpin's list. Worse, the daytime Matt is implicated in Dad's murder, and a determined newspaper reporter, Ben Urich (Joe Pantoliano), is about to unmask Daredevil's secret identity.

By the way, Farrell is one of the best things in the film as Bullseye. He throws things. Darts, peanuts, paper clips, pencils and really bad one-liners.

It's nothing that — if you're male — you haven't read in a hundred comic books since you were 6. But the knowing wisecracks and the film-noirish photography of writer/director Mark Steven Johnson (writer of Grumpy Old Men and writer/director of Simon Birch) give this some depth, style, humour and blackness that the other comic book remakes haven't displayed. Great popcorn movie for a winter Saturday night, especially when the footie's not on till late.

DVD feature: movie (103min); commentary with Mark Steven Johnson (director)/Gary Foster (producer); text commentary; multi-angle dailies; Six features: Making Daredevil, HBO First Look; Men Without Fear; Shadow World Tour; Moving Through Space, Kingpin; Jennifer Garner screen test; stills gallery; music videos; trailers; DVD-ROM content.