I've always had a special place in my heart for ol' horn head. Daredevil was he very first comic book that I ever bought with my own hard earned money and I continued to collect it from that moment on for at least five years straight, and still, roughly twenty years later, continue to pick up the title from time to time just to see what the marvelous Marvel bullpen are putting Matt Murdock through these days. So when I found out a big screen adaptation was finally going to happen, I was pretty happy about it. After all, the comic always read with a very cinematic feel, especially Frank Miller's groundbreaking runs with the character that brought a very obvious noir feel to the series and made the character a lot more human, and therefore a lot more believable.

The movie came with one caveat, however. Ben Affleck was cast in the lead role. Now, don't get me wrong – I can see why they chose him, after all, he's a dead ringer for Matt Murdock, but I'm honestly not much of an Affleck fan. I find his performances outside of the odd Kevin Smith film to be rather wooden and uninspired. The reviews for the theatrical cut back this up, panning his performance and the film in general and I decided to opt out of checking this movie out on the big screen, instead catching it at home and finding out not as bad as most critics claimed, but hardly the classic that I'd hoped it would be but new it wasn't. Part of this was the fault of the script, part of this was the fault of the director and the performers, and part of this was due to marketing and the studio's insistence on a more theater friendly PG rating, thus maximizing their potential audience and ultimately, their revenues.

The story? In a nutshell, Matt Murdock is blinded in a childhood accident. The cause of the accident heightens his other senses to super human proportions so that while he is disabled by the fact that he is blind, he's still able to function at a level far above most humans. As he grows up, he graduates from law school and after the unusual death of his father he decides to become the masked vigilante known as Daredevil, making the streets of his home, Hell's Kitchen, a safer place. In doing so, he makes enemies with Wilson Fisk (Michael Clarke Duncan), the Kingpin of Crime, who has his best assassin, Bullseye (Colin Ferrell), try and take Daredevil down. Throw in a romantic subplot between Daredevil and the enigmatic female ninja known as Elektra (Jennifer Garner), and that's more or less the nuts and bolts of the storyline.

While the script isn't so hot and the performances are all over the place, the action scenes are top notch and the look and feel of the film is really well handled and stays true to its four color roots. While Affleck isn't the most convincing street hero of all time, he does do well in the role of his secret identity which makes for not so much a terrible film as it does an uneven one.

Fox has now released the 'Director's Cut' of the film which clocks in at twenty minutes longer than the earlier PG version. The main differences in this cut of the film are as follows:

The relationship between Matt and his father Jack is definitely fleshed out more, making for a more believable mission of vengeance when Matt decides to don the red suit and fight the bad guys.

The film fills in some details about Murdock's childhood, particularly his Catholic roots and how they have shaped him into the man that he has become today. This also lends for some internal conflict on his part when he decides to suit up and throw down.

There's a whole lot less Elektra. While I like to look at Jennifer Garner run around in fun outfits as much as the next red blooded male, in the theatrical cut it almost seemed like the movie should have been called Daredevil And Elektra as she's got a huge part in it. Here, she's more of a background character and because of that the lead character's story flows better.

The fight scenes are nastier. There's a lot more blood and a few more solid 'hits' in the combat scenes that make them seem more intense and give the movie and edgier feel.

These changes do make the movie flow better and they do make it feel more like the comic book source it borrows from. The flaws that exist in the theatrical cut don't go away with this revision but the movie is improved in that it plays more for grown ups than teenagers and it fleshes out the characters which ultimately makes for a more believable story that flows more naturally.

Video:

The films original aspect ratio of 2.35.1 is retained for this DVD release and thankfully the transfer is enhanced for anamorphic television sets. With the film looking as dark as it does, it's definitely to this transfers credit that the black levels remain stable and solid throughout pretty much the entire film. Contrast levels are nice and accurate looking and color separation is clean and distinct. The reds, which also play an important role in the look of the film, don't bleed into the other colors are all and for the most part, this is a great transfer. The only real flaws with it are some edge enhancement that is noticeable throughout, though thankfully it is quite mild. Fox has used a clean looking print that is free of any noticeable damage and high in detail.