Daredevil (2003)

There's a moment in Daredevil where Ben Affleck, soaking wet, lies draped across a rooftop crucifix in slow motion while the soundtrack swells to operatic heights, and I thought: mate, you've completely lost the plot. Not Affleck. The film. It's trying so hard to be weighty and mythic and tragic all at once that it forgets to actually be good.

Affleck plays Matt Murdock, blind lawyer by day, red-leather vigilante by night, a man so burdened by Catholic guilt that even his action scenes feel like penance. The noir voiceover is thick, the rain-soaked alleyways are atmospheric enough, and you can tell director Mark Steven Johnson genuinely loves the source material. That love is visible in almost every frame. The problem is that reverence isn't the same thing as craft, and what Johnson delivers is a film that mistakes moodiness for depth and mistake number two, can't decide whether it's a serious tragedy or glorified camp. It lurches between the two without committing to either, and that indecision slowly strangles whatever momentum the film builds.

The action is passable. There's a hallway sequence with some genuine flair to it, and a few moments where the choreography hints at something more kinetic and interesting underneath. But those moments keep getting buried under clunky dialogue and overwrought monologues that sound like they were written for a very different, much better film. The script has rooftop confessions to priests. It has slow-motion crucifixion imagery. It has a score that underlines every emotional beat so emphatically you half expect a subtitle reading "FEEL THIS NOW."

Colin Farrell's Bullseye is, genuinely, the highlight, which tells you something. He's cartoonish to the point of parody, all scenery-chewing and gleeful menace, but at least he's committed to what the film actually is rather than what it wishes it were. He's having a whale of a time, and it shows. Jennifer Garner's Elektra, by contrast, feels underdeveloped and underserved by a script that gives her little to do beyond being a plot device in leather. The chemistry between her and Affleck never quite ignites, though the two of them did at least eventually find each other off-screen, so something worked out.

Look, it's not offensively bad. I want to be fair about that. This isn't a film that makes you angry, it's a film that makes you a bit sad. Sad because you can see the bones of something interesting in there, a street-level vigilante story steeped in faith and guilt and moral compromise, and none of it quite comes together. It lacks the breezy charm of the Sam Raimi Spider-Man films, it lacks the pulpy conviction of Blade, and it lacks the self-awareness that might have saved it from its own pomposity. Ben Affleck has proven himself a serious actor and filmmaker since, as I wrote about when I reviewed Gone Girl, and looking back at this you can see a performer who deserved stronger material than what he was handed here.

What we're left with is a two-star superhero film. A demo reel for a better movie that never got made. It's the kind of thing you watch once out of nostalgia or curiosity, or because you're doing a completionist trawl through early 2000s comic book adaptations, and then you nod slowly and move on with your life. The Director's Cut is apparently a significant improvement, and I believe it, because the bones are decent enough. But I'm reviewing what got released to cinemas, and what got released to cinemas is a confused, well-intentioned misfire.

Worth a look if you're curious about where superhero films were before the genre found its footing. But don't expect much beyond hammy performances, a hero who broods in the rain more than he fights crime, and one gleefully unhinged Colin Farrell doing his absolute best to keep things alive. Two stars.

Rating: ★★  | Year: 2003  | Watched: 2026-04-29

View on Letterboxd →

Where to watch

Watch in the UK
Stream: Netflix · Disney Plus · Netflix Standard with Ads
Rent: Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi

Watch in the US
Stream: Disney Plus
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US

Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.

Related on Movies With Macca

More with Ben Affleck: Good Will Hunting (1997) · Gone Girl (2014) · Armageddon (1998) · Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (2001)
More from Switzerland: A Cat in Paris (2010) · Le Franc (1994) · The Little Girl Who Sold the Sun (1999) · My Life as a Zucchini (2016)
More from the 2000s: Kirikou and the Wild Beasts (2005) · Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (2004) · Apocalypto (2006) · Old Joy (2006)
More fantasy: Viy (1967) · Alice in Wonderland (1951) · Mononoke the Movie: The Phantom in the Rain (2024) · Mononoke the Movie: Chapter II - The Ashes of Rage (2025)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Hulk Hogan: Real American (2026)