Daredevil Series Review

The initial response I had to Marvel’s Daredevil were flashbacks to a terrible movie involving Ben Affleck, a strange Colin Farrell, and an annoying Jennifer Garner.

Thankfully, every single aspect of the 2003 Daredevil was rectified in Marvel’s official take on the hero of Hell’s Kitchen. 

Daredevil starts right off with the show’s hero, Matt Murdock, played by Charlie Cox, snapping someone’s kneecap and brutally beating several other sex traffickers. It’s clear from the beginning that Daredevil is nothing like anything else in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Daredevil’s tone is incredibly dark, dealing with ground level issues instead of an alien invasion, or one of the infinity gems from the Avenger films. Daredevil is an outlier, and because of this separation, it is truly able to shine.

The fighting in Daredevil happens frequently and many of the scenes capture the desperation and grueling physical toll of battle. Murdock is utterly broken after several fights despite winning, lending a great credibility to Daredevil’s premise of a very vulnerable man trying to clean up his neighborhood. 

One scene that stands out is Murdock battling six or seven thugs in one long, continuous shot in a narrow hallway, and the result is mesmerizing.

Murdock is fighting the vices of organized crime; sex trafficking, heroin use, bribery, and extortion. These ground level issues and the singular focus on the setting of Hell’s Kitchen really make Daredevil the most self-contained story in the MCU, and allows it to flourish and stand on its own.

The show attempts to make subtle references to other big Marvel heroes such as Thor and Captain America, but they are awkwardly executed, and are of little importance to the show’s plot.

Speaking of the plot, it takes its time to develop, with both the protagonist and antagonist methodically planning how to take out, or draw out the other. It does in fact slow down a little too much in the second half, but it eventually picks back up.

The show’s plot centers on Hell’s Kitchen, and the need to save it. The city itself feels like an infected dying patient with King Pin and Daredevil as two surgeons who have conflicting methods on how to save it.

Although everyone has a fairly strong performance in Daredevil, the show is held up by its two central characters: Daredevil, played by Cox, and King Pin, played by Vincent D’Onofrio, who recently starred in the blockbuster hit, Jurassic World. Cox plays a low-key, clever lawyer who practices with a good sense of humor and keeps his actions within the law. Cox as Daredevil, however, is relentless and unforgiving. He proves that he is not someone you cross. Several great scenes where he conducts interrogations certainly come to mind, as he conveys his brutal nature by threatening to and ultimately breaking his victims’ bones. 

King Pin is the primary antagonist of season one, but I felt Marvel cleverly decided to dig a little deeper into the character, and turn him into an anti-hero. Straying away from the source material of King Pin as a stereotypical bad guy really made his story, which consumes a considerable chunk of the show, a lot more compelling. 

Daredevil hit the ground running, and showed an assured confidence right from the first episode. The show wiped my memory clean of the 2003 Affleck disaster, as director Drew Goddard’s lethal execution shines, and lands more than a few haymakers. Marvel deserves applause.

The Devil of Hell’s Kitchen earned his keep with 4/5 beaten-to-a-pulp apples

Jurassic World Review: “We Need More Teeth”

The original Jurassic Park is one of those movies that people must see at least once in their lifetime. It is a cultural phenomenon, and it is one hell of a movie.

The success of Jurassic Park in 1992 spawned two sequels: The  highly underrated The Lost World in 1997, and the highly disappointing Jurassic Park Three.

Now, 14 years later, we have Jurassic World; a film that fans of the beloved series have had their hopes pinned on since its release date was announced back in 2013. In the mean time, it has become one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2015.

So, does Jurassic World live up to the hype and act as a palate cleanser for the bad taste Jurassic Park Three left? In short, it certainly does.

The opening of Jurassic World follows two brothers who are being sent to Isla Nublar, the island that is home to the Jurassic World theme park, to stay with their distant aunt, played by Bryce Dallas Howard, who is also one of the cogs behind the park’s creation. Sound familiar? The kids in the original film visited Richard Attenborough’s character John Hammond, who was their grandfather and the founder of the original park.

Once at the park, the classic John Williams Jurassic Park theme music roars into the background, and the audience is welcomed to the new and improved Jurassic World theme park, and it’s a thing of beauty.

By the time the film begins, the park has already been established as one of the top tourist attractions in the world, and believe it or not, visitors are becoming bored with the dinosaurs on display.

In the hopes of instilling new life and excitement to their attraction, the park’s genetics team has been working to improve the quality of their assets by creating genetic hybrids. Their newest creation is called “Indominus Rex;” a dinosaur that is mixed with a variety of genes from different dinosaurs and other animals. The result is a terrifying and intelligent killing machine, and it looks awesome.

The original Jurassic Park had the best CGI of its time. Even with 22 years of technological innovation, the film’s CGI holds up. In Jurassic World, CGI is heavily relied upon, and even though it’s 2015, I have to admit that Jurassic Park’s visual effects look more realistic.

The CGI in Jurassic World is good, don’t get me wrong, but the old dark, gritty style of Jurassic Park’s CGI made the dinosaurs seem like living, breathing animals. That style has been replaced with a sleeker and shinier one, and it’s not as believable.  Perhaps there is a practical reason for it, as the genetically-enhanced dinosaurs are meant to look bigger, sexier, and come equipped with more teeth.

Chris Pratt’s performance as Owen Grady, a raptor whisperer of sorts, was great, as he continues to grow into a true hollywood star. His character was very similar to his character of Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy, and provided just the right mixture of action-hero persona and comedy.

Yeah, he’s a badass.

Howard’s performance as Claire Dearing truly surprised me, as I went into the movie thinking that she was going to be a stern, uptight female authority figure who lacks a likable personality. While her character is a little uptight, she brings a lot to the table in terms of emotion, humor, and personality. I really bought her performance, and she and Pratt had excellent chemistry.

Unfortunately, none of the other performances stood out for me. I was not a fan of Vincent D’Onofrio’s character, as he was just an obnoxious, stereotypical, and cliche military personality.

I was gad to see comedian Jake Johnson play a small role. While his character was also a stereotype, I thought he provided necessary comedic relief.

While there were some funny scenes in Jurassic World, not all of the jokes hit their mark. There were a lot of moments where I didn’t laugh despite recognizing something was meant to be funny.

The action, however, is the highlight of the movie and it hits its mark big time as the scenes involving the Indominus Rex are thrilling, fun, and intense. The last thirty minutes won me over, as it provided a satisfying conclusion to the film.

Jurassic World is not a perfect film, and it can’t recapture the magic of the original, but it is a hell of a lot better than JP3, and is a fun-filled thrill-ride with terrific performances from Pratt and Howard.

4/5 prehistorically ripe apples.