Tuesday, October 01, 2013

An action figure remembered as fondly as the movie it came from! Which is...hmm.

The general online hate for Marvel's 2003 Daredevil movie has always baffled me, at least a little. It's not a great movie, to be sure, but the response has been a little too vehement, a little too much like kids trying to be cool by tearing something they once liked down. The film was fairly successful at the time, but I think the backlash against Ben Affleck transferred over to it; and I'm not positive why there was backlash against Affleck, either. I'm not a big fan, but his public persona always seemed nice enough; it's not like he beat his wife or ate a baby or something.

The general online hate for the Marvel Legends Series 3 Movie Daredevil is somewhat less baffling. He was the first movie-style figure added to the comic book-style line, and M-DD doesn't have anywhere near the range of articulation that Marvel Legends was already known for. The ML Thing figure from the prior wave has more articulation! Most noticeably, the torso is a solid unarticulated piece, the hips are a t-joint, and the shoulders are cut joints. Eventually the pendulum of public opinion would swing on Marvel Legends as well, and some considered them over-articulated, but Movie Daredevil doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the line.
Wow, he could really use mid-bicep swivels, too. The sculpt and the paint aren't bad at all, although I think there is a version with painted "stubble" that may or may not look right. The hands and the ankles are both very nice--good range, really holds a pose--but that just gives the overall effect of putting racing tires on a Pacer: you aren't getting the best use out of them. I do like the ankles, but I suspect they have more range of motion than a person actually wearing those boots would have.

(An aside: since this figure has a paint rub on its nose, I was wondering, if you somehow knocked out Daredevil and then drew all over his face with a Sharpie, would he be able to feel it when he woke up? Actually, I think DD could probably smell it. And either way, he would beat your ass sideways later...)
DD's costume seems very, very influenced by the leather outfits of the X-Men movies. Lines and panels for little apparent reason, but thankfully without the overly pronounced texturing of recent movie outfits like Amazing Spider-Man, Man of Steel, or even Star Trek. Some might find it odd his neck is uncovered; but that actually strikes me as less odd than the Batman cowls where he can't turn his neck.
Ah, yes, Batman: With the announcement of Affleck being cast as Bats in the upcoming Superman-Batman movie, I half-expected some industrious customizer to have used pieces from Movie DD for an Affleck-Batman. I was also a little surprised to have two of these: one probably belonged to my Oldest son, and Marvel Legends then were cheaper than a Big Mac meal with large fries and a drink now.

I don't know if you can see it in the pictures, but one of the Daredevils there seems...longer; while the other one seems just slightly more squat. Both are recognizable enough as Affleck, though. Shop it around if you need one, as DD or for a custom, it's still available on the cheap!



1 comment:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Wow! Yeah that figure hasn't aged well at all, and definitely the due ot the double course of a bad movie and poor-ass articulated figure. Why would they do that when they were obviously capable of better articulation? Remember the redonkulous amount of articulation that 1st wave Cap has? Yeah.

I had a good laugh at the sharpie comment. Yes, DD really would track your ass down and beat the shit out of you for that. Then, while you're unconscious, he'll do the same to you:)

I actually bought the batman '66 Batman and Penguin figures last week, so yay! What's weird though, is I actually prefer the burgess meredith Penguin to the Adam West one. He's just bulkier and appropriate versus the unfortunately much smaller batman. makes no sense at all. I feel jipped now.