Oh man, I saw this movie in the theaters ages ago, and as new, but big DD fan at the time, I was immensely disappointed.
I thought the Director's Cut was..."better," but it's still a pretty mediocre early 2000's superhero movie.
However, there are two things I unironically enjoyed about the movie:
1) I thought Michael Clarke Duncan was a great pick for Kingpin. Obviously, it'd be hard to get a comic book accurate Wilson Fisk on the screen from a physical perspective, but Duncan had the intimidating physical presence, and I just loved seeing him show up in movies. Granted Vincent D'nofrio is perfect for the role, but back then I don't think he had the build to pull it off, despite having the acting chops.
2) Colin Farrell as Bullseye was absurd, yet entertaining. He was clearly having fun with it, and was hamming it up in a way I thought was hilarious and ridiculous whenever he was on screen.
Everything else about the movie was...yeah.
I still think it's a fun one to watch with friends and make fun of during, but god bless the Netflix DD series for giving me a version of DD that I had hoped to see back when the Affleck DD movie released. I felt a little bad for Ben, since he clearly loves comics and superheroes, and wanted to play one. But I also don't feel bad for Ben, since he managed to pull off a pretty solid Batman despite Zack Snyder, and I think if perhaps Ben had directed/starred in a solo Batman flick, it could have been really interesting. I think he's a really talented director, though his acting can be mixed (I'm leaning more towards him being a good actor, but it really needs to be the right part for him to lean into).
Oh, wait, also Evanescence, so maybe 3 things I unironically like about this movie. I didn't really know about them at the time, and it wasn't until a year or so later, when I met my wife, that she introduced me to Evanescence proper, and I got to hear more of their music (which I enjoyed that particular album).
www.vitalthrills.com
