Daredevil: Director's Cut - Review REDUX

Daredevil: Director's Cut (DVD): C+/B-

It's funny how time flies, I remember doing a review for the theatrical version of DD for Janitor's blog now close to two years ago because if I remember correctly -- it came out on Vs D 2003

Out of some kind of perverse curiosity I decided to watch the DC of DD -- okay, okay I got sucked into the hype that it was very different

I think the key to a DC is -- does it tell a better story -- after all this time, I found that I feel the same way about the character acting

So what was I looking for, again the search began for the SOUL of Frank Miller style DD -- I had said earlier that the original cut had the FEEL of FM DD

The DC is clearly different than the TCut because it is not as compact feeling and tight -- in other words, it doesn't feel like your 2-hour old school, one shot Sunday TV action movie -- plenty of action, plenty of move it along, and the romantic scene

A lot of the artificial move along or giddyap is gone -- the movie breathes a lot better -- it feels more comfortable in the zone of darkness -- action defines the dark elements and gives them purpose and force rather than just moving it along

One of the new aspects of the cut is the court defense of a thug played by Coolio -- that was great because that was DD from the time I remember reading it -- it was dark, it had action, and it had a lot of his real life mixed in with it all -- DD was the contradiction, how could a blind man in the justice system be an avenger of justice outside of the justice system?

Kingpin feels a bit better in this cut -- they let the character grow in sinister-ity -- much like a comic book build, where you know the clash is coming -- it's not as much sprung on in the DC, and that's not such a bad thing

The thing that felt really good about the DC is the distance between DD and Elektra -- the TCut did everything possible to put them together, including the cheesy love scene -- well, this one seems to purposely keep them intrigued with each other, yet apart -- that is kind of more similar to the soul of classic relationship between the two -- perhaps that's what I liked about grittier comic books, the guy and girl didn't necessarily need to end up together

So this time, when they don't end up together, it's not the sappy I long for E vibe -- it's more like a haunting ending that is closer to the complexity of their comic existence

At the end of the day, it's just different -- many of the flaws that I felt were in the TCut still are in the DC -- the DC gives a different feel to the film that is worthy of a watch, but I don't believe that anyone will say it had reached Blade Runner DC cut status -- in many ways, it's a nice way to see DD movie again without seeing that same ol TCut, and although it gives out some newer good things -- the total balance to it is still off, so it remains at the end, still flawed -- but maybe that's the fate of something that has the DD name attached to it