DAREDEVIL Director's Cut

I watched the director's cut of DAREDEVIL yesterday. I'd been pleased with the theatrical version's dark, unheroic feel, but also heard thirty minutes--including an important story thread making the Kingpin's downfall more dramatic--had been cut.

I liked the greater interplay between Favreau and Affleck as Nelson and Murdock, and also more of Ellen Pompeo as Karen Page. The love scene between Matt and Elektra was indeed cut from this version. Writer/director Mark Steven Johnson was trying to make an already dark movie even darker.

My problem with that: there was no more in place of the lovemaking to build Matt and Elektra's chemistry. What if Frank Miller had never let their playfulness lead to lovemaking? Would the loss of Elektra to Bullseye have as much impact?

On the commentary track, Johnson explains why in some cases he stayed in scenes longer. Some of his reasons are so subtle and fannish, I can see why producers cut the scenes. I've learned not to be too clever in writing. It's not enough for me to know why a scene, line, or gesture is included; the audience has to know at the same moment in the story. In other words, the writer has to make every scene big enough to matter to everyone watching. If the scenes have a lot of dramatic weight to begin with, less of this weight will be lost in the final cut.

Johnson also emphasizes that the additional story thread clarifies just how the Kingpin was caught; namely his henchman turned on him in exchange for a lesser sentence. That's fine, but the end of the movie shows him serving out that sentence with the Kingpin right in the adjoining cell. The message here is "Justice was served," but was it served logically? Would you really put Kingpin and his stoolie henchman right next to each other?

Here's an example of what I would have cut: In their climactic rooftop battle, Elektra kicks Daredevil's butt. Then she pins him, says, "I want to look into the eyes of my father's killer as he dies," and rips off his mask. Now, if she just pinned him and ripped off his mask, it would show she wants to look into the eyes of her father's killer...

Johnson got to live every writer's dream, to bring his favorite characters to life. I suspect he was so excited to have the chance he wasn't sure what to do with it. I might react the same way. That's why I'll stick to writing my own characters.