Daredevil Season 1 Review

This is what we should’ve seen in the theatres over ten years ago!  First of all, I have to applaud whosever decision it was to stick to the original content.  As a retelling of the same story, this is a captivating adaptation.  With all of the reboots and recent writers adding their own variations (which isn’t always bad, like the Spider-Man movie serieses or hopefully the reports of the ape-shit story for the new Fantastic Four piece… we will see…).  Keeping most of the same stuff and undertones from the Ben Affleck Daredevil, the Netflix series is more than a departure from the notoriously tawdry version.  This turn is a stronger Daredevil universe on all levels.

The show gives off a "Batman: Year One" feeling, spanning from Matt Murdock’s first attempts at becoming an avenger of the night, forming the familiar stages of the man without fear.  I had imagined the show would reveal a little more of how they would fold it into the other factions of the MCU.  Unlike the popular DC shows (Arrow, Gotham and Flash [even contrasting the Marvel Films) Daredevil and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seems content on dropping very subtle hints, Easter eggs, or teases, connecting them to past and future projects.  Sometimes, while I watched DD, I yearned for more and in other instances I enjoyed the idea, catching an obscure or subdued reference that most wouldn’t.  Either way, I like how this show does it compared to the Arrow where it seems the whole entire DC Universe is introduced and revolves around Oliver the protagonist, better than Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. who has a large pool of hero-star power potential and doesn’t use it…  If it fell short of any, it would be of Flash and Gotham, the shows make me crave, encouraging me to tune in every week, seeing which or how each character/callback will be brought to life.

For several, uncountable reasons the cast is superb.  Vincent D'onofrio performs the Kingpin role with gripping fortitude.  Around half way through the season, a lonely scared boy trapped inside a monster is brought to the forefront.  The viewer witnesses flashes of Wilson Fisk’s background, a tasteful, sophisticated darkness as he becomes the most prolific crime boss of Hell’s Kitchen.  His deliveries are sometimes choppy, like he’s still battling a weird nervousness, plus he gives some over the top super-villain lines (I assume most of it intentional, lending to the sociopath side of the character). His assistant James Welsey is an equally gravitating baddie.

The unpredicted, undeniable gem is Elden Henson, as Foggy Nelson.  His fabulous chemistry with what seems to be everybody.  He owns this clever, happy-go-lucky sidekick bit (making me at times wish he were the focus.  It is all you could ask for in a supporting, sidekick friend).  He executed brilliant comic relief, but it made his serious moments ever so slightly awkward (that, my friend, was a nitpick).  “Foggy Bear” has come a long way from skating for the Mighty Ducks.

Nelson & Murdock’s first client and obvious soon to become assistant/secretary Deborah Ann Woll kicks booty as Karen Page.  The ravishing damsel in distress, or glue that holds the whole home base together, she definitely doesn’t shy away from the action.  As per usual for these roles, she finds herself in an incredible amount of danger, handling it with surprisingly crafted grace.  Janine Melnitz would be proud. 

Oddly, if I had to choose a weakest major cast member (using this term lightly) it would be DD himself.  Charlie Cox certainly isn't bad, but a cynical, secret-keeping, morals twisting in the wind character… that is blind, is a hard road to tow.  He nails about 75% of it but I feel occasionally lacks in the emotional range.   Between the civilian/lawyer by day portions, the courageous hero portions or the defeated, pained, humble portions, the writing and the follow through need to be kicked up a notch.  I would even have to say that I connected more with the young Matt Murdock, Cox’s child counterpart.

Some time before the release on Netflix I saw a “leaked” picture (hail Hydra) of the newest DD suit.  Until then all the trailers and marketing only showed the old Frank Miller black one, giving no hint otherwise.  There were many comments questioning its source or validity… but during only the second episode, Matt mentions his costume is as a “work in progress.”  I knew that moment that by the end of the season they were either going to tease or reveal the iconic, horned devil version (the one that I had stumbled upon earlier) in action.  There’s no telling what reaction it would get making the original outfit permanent, but the black and red suit is a fresh live-action take on a classic.

In attempt to make this a “dark” extension of the cinematic universe, Nolan’s trilogy had established most of this same territory, and the “punch people in the face then interrogate them technique” is fluent through both.  (BTW, I often hear people reference Nolan’s as the darkest or pioneering in that area of comic book movie universes.  Ones that don’t get brought up enough and ones that I enjoyed a great deal [most specifically the first and second] are the Blade flicks.  Even the ooold school [1989] Punisher, I know they’re not as popular or current but I like to give credit where credit is due).

The fight scenes are well choreographed, especially the “one shot” scene with the Russians.  The rotating camera sequences along with slow-mo are utilized just the right amount.  This show better resembles a light “R” rating, which doesn’t affect my judgment, but makes me think of all the people yammering on about how they wouldn’t attend a “PG-13” tagged Deadpool movie.  Daredevil is the first of Netflix’s Marvel series with Jessica Jones, Luke Cage and Iron Fist on the way, then a mash up of the four in the Defenders crossover. This is a good start, keep it going.

I give this a six and a half out of a possible ten Shazams.

Those are my thoughts, feel free to comment below

C.J. Foxx 

Author of Super-Hero Bowl VI
@CJFoxxAuthor on Twitter
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C.J. Foxx Movie House Reviews #7: Furious Seven (SPOILERS)

There have been seven of these flicks? Wow, where has the time gone? Now I have only seen a about half of these movies. Parts 1,2 & 4 (which happened to be on today so I got lucky there) and a bit of part 5. The series isn't really my cup of tea as I'm not really into cars and street racing. Simply not for me. I did a bit of homework on the what I missed in the other films so I'm not 100% clueless going in, although I am probably going to miss some of the little character nuances and the whole amnesia story line but we'll get to that.

On to the picture, but there not really much to say about this movie.  It starts with Jason Statham who plays Deckland Shaw the older brother of the villain from Part 6 in the hospital vowing revenge on the group who crippled him. He attacks The Rock in his office and after interference by THe rock's partner, Statham uses a grenade and blows the Rock and his partner out of a four story floor and on top of a car.

Now here's where things get a bit weird. Apparently Part 4-6 are prequels to part 3. There's a character named Han who is killed during a race in that movie. He was in the crew with the rest of them and went to Tokyo after the events of Part 6.  Shaw goes and kills Han and calls Vin Diesel up letting him know he's coming for him and detonates a bomb he had delivered under the guise of a package from Han, which blows up Vin's house.

Vin sees the Rock in the hospital who explains that Shaw is this super bad-ass British black ops assassin, who went off the grid after the brits tried to kill him. Vin goes to Japan to make a cameo in Part 3 so he can get the rights back to Riddick, I mean get Han's person effects, which include a cross necklace. This necklace has significance in Vin and Letty's (Michelle Rodriguez) relationship which is struggling after Letty's Amnesia events from one of the earlier flicks.

At Han's funeral, Shaw shows up and Vin chases him to the Staples center and they have head-to-head car collision where Shaw used a reinforced chassis to get the upper hand. Kurt Russell and his crew military crew show up scare Shaw off and invites Vin to have a beer. While Kurt insists on this awesome Belgium beer, Vin insists on his Corona, I guess this is a thing. Kurt explains this thing called the God's eye which is basically a suped up tracking system in the vien of the one Lucius Fox and Batman used in the Dark Knight to find The Joker. he says if they rescue the hacker who created it, he'll let Vin use it to get the upper-hand on Shaw.

He agrees and they plan the mission to recover the hacker Ramsey who is being transported in the mountains. This is where Tyrese Gibson starts stealing the movie, because he has a Loverboy like charm to him and had me in stitches the whole time.  During the mission which involves dropping cars out of the sky, he wimps out and Ludacris pulls a shoot on him and forcing him to join in the fun. zaniness ensue where everybody lands ok and Tyrese is floating aimlessly.

Driving happens, Paul walker gets into a fist fight with Tony Jaa in the back of a massive bus. Walker gets trapped as Jaa bails and Walker goes careening towards  and eventually dangles over the edge of a cliff, which reminded me of the original Italian Job. Shaw jumps in again after Vin grabs Ramsey and Tyrese takes Shaw out. Vin and Ramsey get cornered by the kidnappers and drive off a cliff to escape. Tyrese's like hackers aren't supposed to have a body like that. Ramsey is like I gave the god's eye to this guy in Abu Daubi.

If Garfield knew how awesome looking Abu Dhabi was I think he'd go there instead. So they find out that the god's eye is in a speed drive in this Prince's 3.5 million dollar car which when described leaves Tyrese aroused. So they go steal it, Shaw shows up, lather rinse and repeat except the big fight here is with Ronda Rousey and Letty and Tyrese tries to become a DJ.

They get the God's eye and use it to track Shaw and plan an ambush at an abandoned factory outside of the city.  They go in with Kurt Russell's crew and Ramsey's kidnappers show up seeking revenge on Vin. Kurt gets shot but survives to insist vin has his Belgium beer and the baddies get the god's eye. They go back to LA for the final showdown.

They setup a plan to hack the God's Eye to get it back under their control and it involves what else but a high speed chase through the streets of LA. This last sequence is just bigger and badder versions of what have already happened earlier in the flick.  Vin defeats Shaw on top of a Garage, then drops the garage on top of Shaw. Paul beats Tony Jaa by knocking him down an elevator shaft and The rock steals and Ambulance and crashes it into a drone, before grabbing a chain gun and shooting a helicopter.

Everybody shows up after Vin does a turbo boost up to the helicopter and leaves a Shaw's grenades hanging there and the Rock shoots them once Vin is clear but hurt in the crash. Paul's doing CPR on Vin and Letty's helping but then she just throws Paul off and starts cradling her man. Letty reveals she remembers everything now and apparently she got married to vin and the necklace was their ring.  Vin wakes up and all is well.

After saving the day the gang we have to deal with the Elephant in the room, Which is Paul Walker being dead. There's a whole domestication plot line going on with Paul and his girl who is Vin's little sister.  The first scene with Paul is him driving his kid to school or day care I don't know which, I was too busy laughing at him driving a minivan. He misses the bullets and Vin tries to get him to settle down after business is finished since there's another child on the way. So at the end the gang has a relaxing day on the beach. Paul is playing with his wife and son Vin leaves without saying goodbye.

A bit later on the drive back Vin starts talking about living a quarter-mile at a time and Paul shows up and says you're going to leave without saying goodbye? Vin talks about how they're brothers because they both lived a quarter-mile at a time and they drive off together until their paths separate and the camera follows Paul's car. Touching little bit.

Furious Seven is basically a paint by numbers action movie. They have a formula down and they didn't really deviate from it. The action set pieces are well crafted and shot well. a bit quicker than I'd like it, but not to where you can't follow the fights. It's completely over the top and it's a check your brain at the door film. It felt like the expendables movies, but with cars. Everybody did well with their parts, but nobody was amazing. Adding Statham was great for me since I love the guy and him playing the bad guy is a nice touch although, the premise from his perspective is the same as many of his movies.

Notice how I didn't really talk about Paul that much, well they reduced his part after his death.
The effects they did with it were brilliant because I couldn't figure out where he was played by the double (besides the end at the beach obviously). He spoke just enough to let you know he was there and I couldn't tell any difference in the speech patterns.

The Rock and Tyrese have the best lines including an awesome moment similar to this.

Now are they going to go out on top and end the series here? Obviously not. This movie is clear evidence that they can just get someone else to fill in the Paul Walker type spot on the team for the next one. Vin carried the picture and with Statham being locked up and the Rock pretty much acknowledging that the cell can't hold him, I'm sure he'll be back at some point. They're also setting April records at the box office so there's that too.

Overall, this an above average action flick mostly due to the inclusion of Statham and even non-fans will enjoy this popcorn flick, but in a month we'll forget about it when Avengers 2 comes out - Six out of Ten Corona's.

Those are my thoughts, feel free to comment below

C.J. Foxx 

Author of Super-Hero Bowl VI
@CJFoxxAuthor on Twitter
C.J. Foxx Like us on Facebook

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