The superhero genre took a wild beating last week with Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Not only did the film undo the freshness injected into the genre by Deadpool a month ago but it also reminded us once again that bigger budgets don’t necessarily mean better quality.
The funny thing is, just a week before the film hit theaters Marvel displayed some rock hard balls by pushing out the second season of Daredevil on Netflix. It boggles the mind that a Daredevil TV show turned out to be far superior in every way than a big budget movie that put the legendary Batman and Superman against each other.
1. The Versus
The main selling point of Batman v Superman was that the two iconic superheroes would punch each other in the face. Here’s the problem - the audience already knew that they would become friends later, so the conflict between them needed to be really solid.
The conflict that co-writer Chris Terrio delivered was out of 80’s Bollywood, and its resolution was out of 90’s Bollywood featuring two moms with the same first name.
In Daredevil S2 we get three full episodes of the ideological conflict between Daredevil and The Punisher. The former, like Batman, does not like to kill people while the latter would drive every ounce of ammunition into anyone he doesn’t like. You get genuine, nuanced and richly detailed (and also fun) back and forth between The Punisher and Daredevil yammering at each other, sometimes violently defending their respective stand. And to top it all there’s one moment when Daredevil even contemplates going to the other side, acknowledging that some people deserve to die.
One might argue that Marvel and Netflix had ten episodes so it was easier to make this conflict nuanced, but then Batman Begins quite beautifully established the ideological conflict between Ra’s Al Ghul and Wayne in one movie.
2. The Action
While some people might watch modern superhero movies for social commentary or philosophical fluff, most people watch them for the awesome action. When you promise Batman and Superman hitting each other, one expects some real satisfying Pacific Rim levels of fun.
Zack Snyder’s movie was depressing and ugly to look at, and it was impossible to figure out who was fighting whom and why. Even the Batmobile could not be seen clearly in the dull lighting. All one gets to make out was Batman stabbing people to death and Superman destroying some more CGI buildings.
Daredevil S2 took action to another level. If you liked the one-take hallway fight scene in S1, the fight choreography in S2 is that scene on hard steroids. And pretty much every episode has such a scene. Moreover, there is beautiful detailing in the way the three superheroes in Daredevil fight. The Punisher is a wild animal with guns who would tear things apart, Elektra has a series of quick moves that first mobilizes the enemy and then takes them down, and Daredevil has now become a sleek fighting machine much like a Ninja. The scene where The Punisher rips through the inmates in the prison is far more fun than anything in BvS.
3. Rated A
With Marvel delivering ‘funny’ Avengers movies BvS needed to be different than the Avengers in style and tone, and the filmmakers attempted this by making the film look dour and depressing, without a shred of humour.
It’s kind of ironic that Marvel themselves tried and achieved something genuinely different in their own show. Daredevil S2 raises the gore in unexpected ways - there is some imagery that would make you flinch. But the best scenes are the ones where violence erupts when you least expect it. Case in point, a scene where Matt Murdock visits The Kingpin in prison and gets his face hammered on the table.
But it’s not just the violence – the world of Daredevil has adults talking, doing smart things that adults would do, reacting to situations how adults would.
In BvS everyone behaves like children and attempts to please the crowd that watches the Transformers movies. Snyder has promised an R Rated director’s cut but it’s highly unlikely that version could come anywhere close to the quality of Daredevil.
4. The Love Interest
One of the most cringe-inducing moments of BvS was when Louis Lane walks into Batman and Superman fighting and tells the former about the latter’s mom. Apart from that scene, the main function of Lane was to either be saved repeatedly by Superman or be a really terrible journalist.
The main function of the other woman in the movie – Wonder Woman, was to display her Wonder Bra. Some people liked her character but Gal Gadot’s performance was awful to say the least.
Contrast this with Elodie Yung as Elektra who:
- Had a superbly
written role as Murdock’s feisty, manipulative and a mildly crazy ex
- Had a
wicked sense of humor,
- Did some truly amazing stunts,
- And delivered a
great performance in the dramatic moments.
So even if Deborah Ann Woll’s
character conveniently shifts from a lawyer intern to a full-time reporter
without having any experience, it’s easy to forgive because you get Elektra
kicking copious ass. With Jessica Jones and now Elektra, Marvel are serious
about rendering superlative female characters that don’t exist only for the
cleavage and ass shots and be saved by the hero.
5. The Villain
The weakest part of Daredevil S2 was the fact that there wasn’t a real ‘main villain’ like in S1, and yet that aspect worked better than what we got in BvS.
Lex Luthor was a grotesque hammy spectacle played to cheese ball ridiculousness by Jessie Eisenberg and it was never clear what his motivation in the film was and why he was manipulating Batman and Superman into fighting each other.
In Daredevil S2 we got bits and spurts of a larger conspiracy involving the ninja assassins at play and there’s enough mysticism and tease (like the hole in the ground for instance) to make us wait for S3. It makes the franchise much smoother because Marvel has laid the groundwork for a much larger universe leading to the Avengers style Inhumans team up show.
It’s kind of poetic that both Daredevil S2 and BvS end with the exact same scene - that of a dead person hinted at being resurrected. One scene makes you excited and desperate to see what happens next, the other makes you groan because the scene feels like a cheat – because the character was terribly written, and you already know the character can never be dead. Guess which is which.
(Mihir Fadnavis is not only a film critic and journalist but also a certified film geek who has consumed more movies than meals.)
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