absolutely knowing about the musical, not having a sweet clue what the music was like nor how the plot unfolded. Perhaps someone who has seen the live show will have a different opinion, but I felt this was one Hollywood adaptation of a Broadway musical that really worked.

Movie: Daredevil By Brodie MacRAE

Daredevil is the latest comic book hero to be honoured with his very own

film, following in the footsteps of the X- ES

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Men and Spiderman. Daredevil, however, is unique in a number of ways. For one

thing, while Spiderman is a familiar pop

icon, the majority of audiences have never even heard of Daredevil. Stan Lee's aveng- ing devil has always been more of an underground comic and until now, hasn't succeeded in becoming a household name like the Hulk or Batman. How long he'll stay as one remains to be seen.

The film stars Ben Affleck as the blind Matt Murdock, Jennifer Garner as the stunning and deadly Elektra, Michael Clarke Duncan as Daredevil's enemy the Kingpin and Colin Farrell as the assassin Bullseye. This was directed by Mark Steven Johnson, who also wrote the screenplay.

It is unfortunate that Daredevil isn't more popular, as he is a fascinating character. Young Matt Murdock is blinded as a child by radioactive chemicals which leaves his other senses super-humanly heightened. He studies law in the day and, defying his prize-fighting father's wishes, he learns how to fight at night. When his father is murdered for refusing to throw a fight, Murdock becomes a vigilante to bring his father's killers and others like them to justice.

This is undeniably a difficult comic to bring to the screen. The story of Daredevil's origin is a long, complex and interesting story that would make a good movie itself; however, no one wants to go

to see a movie about a superhero that ends just as the main character decides to fight crime. This leads to another problem.

Daredevil has three big villains - Elektra

(lover/villain), Bullseye and the Kingpin. Each of these characters, their relationship with each other and Matt Murdock are complex and intertwining. You can't really have one without the others without changing the story dramatically, which would in turn upset the hard core comic fans upon whom the producers are relying to tell all their non-comic book fan friends to go and see the movie. So what you're left with is both an exposition and a main story that are too rushed in order to make it fit into one cohesive film. Enough time isn't given to properly develop the rela- tionships between the characters.

With that said, there was quite a bit I liked about the movie. Affleck was actually pretty good as Murdock and nag- ging self-doubt the character is plagued with in the comic came across very well. Aside from looking identical to the charac- ter (and just plain looking great), Garner was convincing as the troubled heroine/villain and added the necessary amount of sex appeal for the character to work. Michael Clarke Duncan was proba- bly the only actor who could have physi- cally fit the role for the powerful Kingpin of crime and did a fine job portraying the ruthless nature of the character.

Colin Farrell was easily the most

enjoyable character as the psychotic Bullseye, the villain who never misses and

_can-turn anything into a weapon. His char-

acter was stole many scenes and just bor- dered on being too much, but thankfully never quite got there. Jon Favreau deserves to mentioned as well for bringing

‘much needed comic relief as Murdock's

somewhat bumbling law partner Foggy Nelson.

Another highlight of the movie was the scenery. The sets did a great job of capturing the dark and haunted mood of the story and the prevalence of Catholic iconography was consistent with the imagery of the comic book. The sound- track is commendable and the fight scenes, though a little far-fetched when the charac- ters are only supposed to be able to jump as high as any other well-trained human, were exciting mostly well done.

This wasn't a great movie. While the script (written by the director) is being blamed by some critics, it actually lies in the comic book story itself, which as it turns out, doesn't easily translate into film. All things considered, there isn't a whole lot that could have been done to make this better than it is. Besides, it is a fun movie and a cool movie and has something for just about everyone. Plus Jennifer Garner _ tight leather pants. What else do you need?

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