**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**




I went into Daredevil with mixed expectations. I had heard some good things about it and I knew some about the character from my comic book days. The reviews I saw in the newspapers were mostly down on it and I heard mixed reviews on the love story or the acting or the story. But mostly poor reviews on the whole.

I expected it to be dark. But I didn't expect it to be darker than the Tim Burton Batmans, which seemed light hearted in comparison. I thought they did a good job defining the characters without getting too schlocky and they set it up for a possible sequel without making it necessary, a la X-men.

I bought the love story for the most part but I felt like they could have made the movie longer to extend the development of the relationship. Before I knew it, they were wrapping things up. Maybe this was their way of making me want more in another film.

Affleck did fine by me. He is playing "The Man Without Fear" so I don't expect much emoting. Ultimately, I don't think they gave me much on the characters to base my opinions on. I don't blame the actors, though, but the director/screenwriter/editor, etc. If given more material, I might have had a better basis of judgement.

I liked that they didn't over do the effects. We were given just enough of Matt Murdock's POV to understand it and I'm glad they didn't just exploit it so we could see the neat-o effects. If I want it overdone, I'll watch Armageddon. I was worried that they would try to make it too much like the Matrix (a little of that, but who doesn't these days) or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. One scene really felt like Deja Vu but I wasn't sure if they were stealing from those two movies or from the scene that SpiderMan "borrowed." I wasn't blown away by the fighting, which might be good. It was probably subtle enough to be good without trying to outdo every Jackie Chan movie to date.

The best part was that we saw it in an old theatre that has a balcony and all the old school wall decorations and curtains and even a Wurlitzer that comes up from the stage. Up in one of the balconies was a cardboard cutout of Daredevil that was backlit with a faint red light while the movie played. Thus, our very own Daredevil lurked above us, hiding in the shadows.

Ferrick