Daredevil 2003

Critics score:
44 / 100

Reviews provided by RottenTomatoes

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: Too hollow and pedestrian to dramatize the conflict between its hero's vigilante streak and his moral straits imaginatively. Read more

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Plays closer to the Joel Schumacher campy sequel Batman & Robin: convoluted, junky and obsessed with form-fitting leather costumes. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: For all its ambition, Daredevil can't overcome the fact that at its colorful center lies a perfect blank in a bad suit. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: Daredevil has electric energy, a wickedly dark sense of humor, some ingenious fight scenes and that high-powered cast. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Daredevil is slick, expensive and filled with good-looking actors flexing muscles, but once it grabs our attention it doesn't really reward it. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: While Daredevils' title role proves to be a snug fit for Ben Affleck, the movie itself sags in all the wrong places. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: The action almost never stops, which is both Daredevil's biggest asset and its greatest shortcoming. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: After sundry Batmans and last summer's Spider-Man, the comic-book formula of childhood loss, filial revenge, and freakish physical prowess doesn't seem all that fresh anymore. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: Completely devoid of subtlety or sense, the film is a series of bad scenes connected by empty characters, most of whom seem like leftovers from scripts abandoned long ago. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: Second-rate and ordinary. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: The flick misses the bull's-eye by such a length that nobody except hard-core fanboys and leather fetishists will be panting for the sequel promised at the end. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [A] dull actioner. Read more

Mark Rahner, Seattle Times: Marvel's on a roll. Read more

Steve Murray, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: A grimly glam superhero tale that doesn't quite dare to hit the heights. Read more

Keith Phipps, AV Club: There's good stuff in the margins. But on the heels of such successful comic-book adaptations as X-Men and Spider-Man, Johnson's film makes Daredevil look like the second-rate hero he never really was. Read more

Bruce Newman, San Jose Mercury News: With the appearance in movie theaters of Daredevil, we have now officially arrived at the bottom of the comic-book pile. Read more

Ben Nuckols, Associated Press: When Farrell's on screen, Daredevil becomes more than just a finely tuned entertainment machine. In a movie that will rake people in no matter what, it's fun to see something unexpected. Read more

Bruce Westbrook, Houston Chronicle: The best Marvel movie to date. Read more

Ricardo Baca, Denver Post: A well-crafted introductory course. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Daredevil, in this movie at least, is little more than a hollow clone of Batman and Spider-Man, with far less idiosyncrasy than either. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A dull waste of a compelling comic-book character. Read more

John Powers, L.A. Weekly: The movie has far less emotional weight than, say, Spider-Man. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: The dialogue is dreadful, a stale sort of hokum that wouldn't make the cut at Marvel Comics. Read more

David Ansen, Newsweek: Torn between moody grandiosity and cartoonish mayhem, Daredevil tries to have it both ways, and succeeds at neither. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Much of the rest of Daredevil is so dark that you can't see it. I don't think you're missing a great deal. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Sometimes, you can tell when parts of a movie have been left on the cutting room floor, and that's the case with Daredevil. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: The movie is actually pretty good. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: The maroon couch-suit is kind of cool and it's fun to watch him suck face with Jennifer Garner. But in the end, Ben Affleck can't make us forget that other red-costumed New York superhero. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: One of the biggest misfires in its genre since Godzilla. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Kind of lousy. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: Not woeful, not wonderful, merely watchable. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: Even in February, it feels like the worst movie of the year. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Convincing in the physical demands of the role, Affleck persuades us of the pain of sightlessness and supersensitive hearing, although writer/director Johnson's scrappy construction fails him and everyone else as the showdown approaches. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: There'll be plenty of ragging to go around once audiences get a dose of the dullest live-action comic strip on record, one that lacks even an interesting villain. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: A pretender in the realm of bona fide superheroes. Read more

Ed Park, Village Voice: The numerous fight scenes have been filmed in Confuse-o-Rama, a headache-inducing technique that mixes a dozen too many cuts per minute, projectile P.O.V., and intermittent glimpses of the hero's sonar sensorium. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: Daredevil doesn't take a single dare. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: Perfectly satisfactory without being deeply satisfying. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: It isn't a great film, or even a greatly original one. Still, it has many grace notes, and interesting oddities. Read more