Daredevil -- 2003 -- PG-13

This film had its ups and downs. First, the concept is just very cool making the protagonist and hero very cool as well. Like most superhero films, he works a boring day job and serves up justice on a plate at night, but unlike most heroes, he has to use his "superpower" in his every day life just to make a living.

He's 100% blind, but "sees" through what amount to echo sounding like a bat. This allows him some advantages over a seeing person, but some serious disadvantages during some key moments, which helps to add to the tension. The main disadvantage is that since he "sees" through sound, extreme sounds can disrupt his sight.

The biggest flaw in this film is the subplot of the Elektra romance, or more to the point, her own super-hero-ish moves. Their meeting was stilted and awkward. Their little "battle" was poorly set up and nothing short of silly (remember Count Dooku's challenge to Yoda? Yeah, something like that. Neat battle. Crappy setup.) I setup some minor tension fo a few scenes, but it is quickly and easily resolved the next time they meet...and then her part in the film is over.

Some of the bad guy stuff was a bit silly, like a lot of the bad guy stuff in these types of films tends to be. This one has a character named bullseye who "never misses." It's an impressive ability to be sure, but he's given some weird actions that I think were supposed to come off as cocky, but were just...weird. Like he's trying to be a showoff and be the ultimate bad guy. He needed to pick one. Like bad guys should, he learned of Daredevil's weakness, but faild to use it to any advantage except by accident.

As for character, it did pretty poorly. We didn't get a real sense of anyone other than Daredevil and his alter ego. Elektra and Bullseye got some minimum development, but not a lot beyond what was needed for the plot. The mobsters got nothing. Murdoch's partner was good comedy relief, but he didn't get much either.

So, from an idea perspective, this was awesome. Even the plot was okay, it had some good action, some clever stuff from the lead, but when you dig deeper you get concrete and celluloid. Not much in the way of substance.