Marvel's Daredevil - The Complete First Season [Blu-ray] [Region Free] & Marvel's Agent Carter - Season 1 [Blu-ray] [2015] [Region Free]

A lot of people weren’t impressed by Ben Affleck’s portrayal of the Man Without Fear way back in 2003, although, in my opinion, the extended Director’s Cut did elevate it to an enjoyable romp.The problem was that Marvel was still not sure that they could bring comic book characters to life in a way that would satisfy the long time fans of the franchise and still put enough bums on seats in cinemas to make it a box office success.I took my daughter to see it and we both loved it.The late Michael Clarke Duncan was menacing as the Kingpin, Jennifer Garner was a decent Elektra (although the spin off film that followed was pretty dire) and Colin Farrell hammed it up as Bullseye.Rumours began to circulate of a sequel with Jason Statham in the role (heaven forbid), or a possible reboot.So, when Marvel announced a Netflix series was in production, I had trepidations that it might be a lame affair, cobbled together and drawn out by weak plotting, poor scripting and bad acting along the lines of “Agents of Shield”.Okay A.o.S has a large fan base now, but I couldn’t watch it.Far too slow, ponderous and, in places downright boring.Netflix “Daredevil” proves to be none of these.Plenty of action - decently paced - and a fine set of actors.Charlie Cox is excellent as Matt Murdock. Deborah Ann Woll is sexy, sultry and enigmatic as Karen Page and even Elden Henson manages to carry off the inept and bumbling Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson well enough to make him like the comic book version.Okay, maybe Jon Favreau was a tad funnier, but he was too busy looking after Tony Stark and directing other stuff to be involved.There are the usual perfunctory nods to the comic books, such as DD telling Claire Temple, the Night Nurse, that his name is Mike.Matt invented his twin brother Mike as a cover story in the comics.The real star of the show though has to be Vincent D’Onofrio as the Kingpin. Fragile, damaged, deranged and dangerous, with a merciless streak a mile wide, the Kingpin is a worthy adversary for the man without fear.The whole series kept me engaged from start to finish, with brutal fight scenes, sensible dialogue and a well-paced storyline.There are strong hints that Melvin Potter may emerge as The Gladiator at some point in the future.The Blu-ray version of the Season One series is a treasure to behold with superb picture quality and a great soundtrack, and I must confess to binge watching when it arrived, even though I’d already watched it.Marvel and Netflix got it right this time - sadly the same can’t be said for Jessica Jones (protracted and slow), Luke Cage (protracted, boring and very slow) or Iron Fist (Please…no…it’s awful).Looking forward to owning Season Two of Daredevil on Blu-ray very soon.

Excellent series. This is a Marvel series true to the comic, but perfectly adapted for the screen. Every character is well done. Almost every scene is important. The lack of special effects actually help rather then hinder the series. In-fact the make up and having character bloodies and bruised added to the realism of the series. Daredevil is a gritty down to Earth character, having blood splatters, bruises and injuries that have not healed from a couple of episodes ago was definitely the right move.Charlie Cox looks and acts the part of Matt Murdock perfectly. he manages to capture all of Matt's complexities, the good Catholic Vs. the realist. the Lawyer who believes in the law Vs. the vigilante. Even his Matt's ego and arrogance Vs. his humility and compassion. Cox even plays the perfect blind man on the screen no emotion in his eyes but all over his face, not really looking directly at people if they move around or in some cases not even looking at the camera. There are little touches like when someone nods he standing still waiting for a response, or puts his hand out shake, he stands still waiting for the person to come to him. As good as a job as Cox does the rest of the cast also pulls their weight. On that note I think it is important to point out the stunt team and fight coordinators who manage to perfectly capture Daredevil's acrobatic ninja/boxing style. the only character I was not sure about was the Kingpin I was not sure till later on.My only complaint is that this is a 4 disc Blu-ray set, yet there are no special features, yes the series is more than deserving of 5 stars on it's own but some extras would have been nice. Everything about the series was great, the characters, the fights, they leave the first season brilliantly but with plenty to explore in the next season. Even the pacing of the season was perfect they took their time from the man in the Mask/ the Devil of Hells Kitchen to Daredevil. This is an origin story Matt makes mistakes and usually pays for them brutally, but learns from them. For comic book trivia fan like me they are lots of mentions of characters (including a Greek girl Matt met in college), hidden pasts, wars and reckonings to come later.

Some light spoilers ahead...Not terrible. Good fight scenes that accurately recreate DD's combat style from the comics. They even made Stick tolerable. I didn't buy the stuff about Matt asking a priest, "Is it right to kill somebody if they're evil?" Because he had after all been to Columbia to study law, and graduated summa cum laude, and was brought up a Catholic, so it's hard to see how he could have such a school-dunce picture of morality. And actually at that point he hadn't seen the Kingpin do anything that much more evil than any of the other villains anyway. We never saw him drop an unconscious enemy off a roof and put him in a coma, for example, which DD does himself -- which makes all the moralising just hypocritical.Still, Vincent D'Onofrio did a good job of playing Fisk and he came across as quite a sad figure in the end. Matt and Foggy should have shut him down using the law, though. They sit around saying, "We're powerless to stop him," and you can't help but think that two determined guys using mad lawyer skillz would have more chance than a bloke in a blindfold running around punching folk.Bad stuff: the writers often forget DD's powers. He's taken by surprise by a cop car turning up that he would have heard five blocks away, and at one point he walks right past an electrical fusebox in order to have a gruelling fight with a dozen Russian mafia thugs. In the comics he'd have pulled the fuses and fought them in pitch darkness. Luckily, the television version of DD has Wolverine's healing powers!