(Not) Love Actually: Trial of the Incredible Hulk

At this weekend's New York Comic Con, the cast and creators of new Netflix series Daredevil swung by, dropping tidbits, screening footage and showcasing a few stills.  The Man Without Fear is shown to be clad in all black on a rooftop which is straight from some Frank Miller - John Romita, Jr. version of the comic so fans seemed happy enough.  When I saw said photo, I did a double take and thought it was a high-res capture from 1989's TV movie, The Trial of the Incredible Hulk.  Basically, it's a guy covered in all black with a bandana over his eyes with no eye slits.  Or, as one comic loving friend put it, a ninja with a mouth.

If you'll recall, Marvel's record with live action outings have only recently been successful.  In the 70's and 80's you had less than well received takes on Spider-Man, Captain America and Doctor Strange.  The one that stuck was CBS' adult take on The Incredible Hulk in 1977.  Bill Bixby played David Banner, instead of Bruce, rumored to be too homosexual a name at the time or that producer Kenneth Johnson didn't like double alliteration names that Marvel was so known for (Reed Richards, Matt Murdock, Peter Parker, etc.).  I wonder how double B Bixby felt about that...After exposing himself to gamma radiation, Banner transforms into the huge, muscular and green giant known as The Hulk, played by bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno.  The show follows his nomadic adventures trying to control the beast and rid himself of it.  With 2 Hulk Outs per episode, the rest of the runtime would be filled with Banner's arriving in a new town, seeking work, somehow getting caught up in local trouble then Hulking out to bust some heads or random property.  An intrepid news reporter begins to chase him from town to town.  The show was a hit and ran for 5 seasons but ended with a cliffhanger in 1982.

By the late 80's, Marvel was owned by Roger Corman's New World Productions and along with the young, visionary NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff, set out to bring the Hulk and some friends from the Marvel Universe back into the public consciousness.  Tartikoff is credited with turning then low-rated NBC into a powerhouse with hit shows like Miami Vice, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Alf, Saved By the Bell and The Cosby Show changing the medium and attracting millions of viewers.  A television movie, The Return of the Incredible Hulk aired in 1988 to solid ratings and introduced Asgardian god of Thunder, Thor.  Thor is kind of a loud mouthed douche bag in the flick who likes to drink beer, fight and call Hulk "troll" a lot while hefting a prop hammer that looks surprisingly not hefty.  Further adventures of Thor starring Eric Allan Kramer were not commissioned as the telefilm is extremely clunky with lots of slow motion, over the top performances and unexplainable poor story logic.

Next up was 1989's The Trial of the Incredible Hulk where Banner is working construction somewhere cold but then heads to the big city after not wanting to Hulk out on one of the asshole crew members.  Vancouver stands in for the I believe nameless city which is rash with street and high level crime as well as a vigilante known as Daredevil making things interesting.  After a brazen daytime jewelry store heist planned by crime Kingpin Wilson Fisk, two thieves hit the subway where one of them hits on a chick with big hair.  When Banner tries to intervene, he's tossed aside and gets P-I-S-T, unleashing da Hulk and tearing through the tin can.  Lou Ferrigno looks yoked as ever clad in green paint, a big wig, fake nose and green slippers.  Waking up in human form, Banner is tossed in jail where blind lawyer Matt Murdock visits him.  Turns out the big haired lady has been threatened by Fisk's thugs and claims Banner was the one who assaulted her.  Murdock has a unique gift and knows when someone is lying to him and wants to help Banner.  That gift?  Why, super radar sense from losing his sight as a boy saving an old man from a runaway truck.  A steel drum full of radioactive waste hits young Matt and takes his sight but amplifies his hearing, scent and touch to the point he can listen to your hearbeat and read normal print with his fingertips, even with gloves on!  His backstory from the TV movie comes straight from the comic books, former boxer for a father who gets killed by gangsters and all.

It's said that Trial was to serve as a backdoor pilot for a Daredevil series.  If you watch closely, you can see groundwork laid out with an interesting hero protagonist who could deal with people at city hall by day and thugs in alleys by night.  There's a supporting cast; funny, fresh from the Army office assistant Al (Richard Cummings, Jr.) filling in for the comics' Foggy Nelson, Murdock's partner in law and would be love interest Christa (Nancy Everhard, who would co-star in New World's big screen adaptation The Punisher w/Dolph Lundgren the same year).  There's sleazy street informant Turk (Mark Acheson) and the tough yet honest cop with a great voice and hard hitting delivery Tendeli (Joseph Mascolo) who inspires Murdock to become a "Daredevil" that can fight the corruption and not be killed off, paid off or scared off.  Then you had a recurring villain in the sleek, suit clad and operatic Wilson Fisk (Indiana Jones' & Lord of the Rings' John Rhys-Davies).  Former 70's teen idol/singer Rex Smith plays Murdock with handsome dignity and Daredevil with action posing, overcooked hero delivery.  With Banner's knowledge of radiation mishaps, there's an instant bond with Murdock and the two are like Radioactive bros, preceding Banner and Tony Stark's science bromance from The Avengers.

While there's a lot of poke fun at or laugh about, for some reason, from the opening somber piano theme, Bixby's grounded, honest portrayal of David and even tempered directing, I just get into it.  Back in those days, this was before Tim Burton's Batman became a global phenomenon, costumed superheroes were not easy to pull off so giving DD an all black leotard outfit was a lot more understandable than giving him a red outfit with horns.  Said outfit is like a gymnasts singlet with wetsuit-ish turtle necked shirt and a tight, domed hood with a sleeping mask looking thing covering the eyes.  There's some gloves, elbow and knee pads, a belt and big boots to give some texture while the trademark billy club is in effect complete with a few gadgets like a zipline attachment and plunger firing wire thing.  The fight scenes are pretty TV movie with lots of slow motion and awkward pause filled karate moves and exhales along with more than a few unconvincing hits.  Lance Rubin's synth score is seemingly generic yet appropriate and effective.  The ending features some really bad visual effects (this is the late 80's, on TV no less) as Fisk escapes his skyscraper in a helicopter/hovercraft!  All in, I dig it, the actors take the material seriously, there's no winking or camp factor and that lends the semblance of drama.  They just could have used a bigger budget I'm sure but it's still fun to see The Hulk and Daredevil in the same 90 minutes a decade before the first X-Men movie and 20 years before superhero team up The Avengers.

After the surprise success of Return, New World was set to produce two additional features for NBC and bring Daredevil, She-Hulk and Iron Man to the small screen.  While Return was the 4th highest rated program of the week, Trial did not lead to a Daredevil series and we never got to see low budget versions of Iron Man or She-Hulk.  New World did attempt to produce a She-Hulk theatrical film from writer/director Larry Cohen that would have starred Brigitte Nielsen but it never happened either.

Ask Me a Question: X-Men: Days of Future Past

After cinematic go rounds with Spider-Man and Godzilla, it was time to get even bigger.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is allegedly Fox's biggest greenlit film in history behind Avatar.  Why?  Because the filmmakers decided to make a huge summer tent pole action film that involved time travel, a period setting and two casts.  Two casts?  Yup.  If you've kept up with the X franchise since 2000's X-Men, 2003's X2: X-Men United, 2006's The Last Stand, 2009's Origins: Wolverine, 2011's First Class and 2013's The Wolverine, you know that the merry mutants call for a huge entourage of guys and gals with wondrous and freakish abilities who fight on the side of good and evil.  First Class served as a prequel with James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender taking over roles previously played by Patrick Stewart and Ian McKellan.  Days of Future Past blends the new and original cast while introducing yet even more new characters.  What could have descended into overcrowded camp a la Batman and Robin (which is still an enjoyable romp, what?!), Days does a surprisingly effective job of utilizing both casts to tell a grand tale ripped from the panels of the comic books.

Continuity has always been an issue in the X-Men franchise because the original was a difficult production that studio Fox didn't quite believe in.  When it was a success, it was more about getting to the next film than it was maintaining a cohesive timeline.  In The Wolverine, we saw Hugh Jackman's gruff, adamantium metal fitted bones and clawed anti-hero hanging out in Japan.  Upon return he's greeted by friends-enemies-friends Professor Xavier (Stewart) and Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (McKellan) who have put their differences aside to face a larger threat and need Wolverine's help.  From there we jump right into Days of Future Past with a small contingent of X-Men; Kitty Pryde, Iceman, Colossus, Bishop, War Path, Sunspot and Blink as they continuously evade seemingly unstoppable mutant hunting machines, The Sentinels.  I think it's Warpath who can sense them coming then Kitty transfers the consciousness of Bishop to his body a few days prior to warn his comrades so they can escape death.  Xavier, Magneto, Wolverine and old standby Storm catch up with the crew and think they can change the present by altering the past.  With Logan's healing factor and slow aging, he's the perfect candidate to go back 50 years to 1973 to help stop an assassination that will cause the Sentinel program to take root.

We then switch settings and casts for the 1974 scenes which sees Professor Xavier a shell of his former self after destructive results of First Class 10 years prior.  Logan, Xavier and Hank McCoy aka Beast recruit the super fast mutant Peter (Pietro in the comics) Maximoff (Evan Peters) to help break young Magneto (Fassbender) out of the Pentagon so they can stop the shape shifting Raven aka Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) from taking out weapons and Sentinel designer Bolivar Trask (Game of Thrones' Peter Dinklage).  His death will trigger even more anti-mutant fervor while cementing the need for the Sentinel program.  The flick starts off well enough, just diving right in without much set up or explanation.  Even as a fan of the movies and comics, I was a little confused though as The Sentinel program seemed to come out of nowhere.  I suppose it could have all happened in the 7 year gap between Last Stand and Days but a little clarification would have been nice. 

Early scenes show the young X-Men using their powers to battle the Sentinels with Iceman finally flying around on ice bridges and slides.  Initial scenes with young Xavier and Magneto are very powerful with excellent performances from McAvoy and Fassbender. The 70's vibe provides some laughs with the fashion, water beds, etc.  Hugh Jackman looks swoler and striated as ever in his surprisingly lone shirtless scene but he does get in a heinie shot which I think is a first for the X-Flicks and does his usual likable loner act.  Going into the flick, everything we had seen of Quicksilver looked hokey and ridiculous.  His appearance seemed to be derived from Doc Brown from Back to the Future and the Carl's Jr ad of him eating a burger in super speed/slow motion was just awkward.  But in the film, it all works marvelously and he's one of the most memorable characters in the flick with arguably the greatest scene in the picture as he uses his super speed and mischievous sense of humor to break Magneto out.  In the comics, Mags is his father and there's a throwaway line alluding to it.

With the two casts jockeying for screen time, I was slightly astonished that much of the film takes place in the 70's with the First Class cast and Wolverine in a bit of a supporting role.  I figured it would jump between time lines with conflicts reflecting each other a la Inception but for the most part, the present day cast is confined to what seemed like only a handful of meaty scenes which don't really utilize or showcase characters like Kitty Pryde, Iceman and Bishop or the actors who play them.  That's actually a departure for this series that has always been so Wolverine centric and then gave Storm a boost at the expense of Cyclops when Halle Berry won an Oscar.  There are some great cameos throughout and the film ends on a high note that gets you pumped for future installments.  If you're going to see this, forgo the post-conversion 3D as it adds nothing to the experience.  NOTHING.  The Arclight's glasses are incredibly heavy and uncomfortable and they're battery operated so you get power flickers too boot.

After the film, producer Lauren Schuler Donner and Quicksilver, Iceman and Bishop actors Evan Peters, Shawn Ashmore and Omar Sy participated in a Q&A that was streamed out to each Arclight location around California.  Some quick bites:

- Project was brought to Donner's attention by former development exec, she read Wolverine's bio in a series bible and loved him.
- X-Men was most difficult because they didn't know what direction to go, she shrugs off part 3
- Story hammered out by Bryan Singer, Matthew Vaughn, Jane Goldman and Simon Kinberg then bounced off of Donner and then Kinberg went off to write script.
-X2 writers Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris did a few tweaks and are coming back for X-Men: Apocalypse which is still in story development mode.
- Had a subplot where present day Magneto, Professor X and Iceman go to the Mansion to rescue Rogue (Anna Paquin) but was cut due to time restraints.  Will be finished and scored and included in DVD release.
- It was kind of a low key affair but Omar Sy was visibly excited to be there and won the audience with his love for the franchise, gratitude for the opportunity and French man charm.
- Evan Peters was offered the role flat while Ashmore had to audition 5 times back in 2000 and was cast as a different character before taking over Bobby Drake.
- Shooting the movie was like a family reunion and Sy's first day was working with Professor X, Magneto, Storm and Wolverine which also meant Patrick, McKellan, Berry and Jackman.
- James McAvoy is a practical joker and cut the cheese in the middle of a scene
- Scheduling nightmare as Jackman was promoting Wolverine, Ashmore on The Following, Paquin on True Blood, Patrick and McKellan starring in a play together, etc.

I don't quite understand all the loathe for X-Men 3.  Part of it stems from the casting off of director Brett Ratner as a talentless hack but they guy knows how to make movies look good, always has great casts and has made fun flicks like Rush Hour and Rush Hour 2 with enjoyable mass market efforts like The Family Man, After the Sunset and Tower Heist.  X3 isn't perfect, there's too many characters crammed in, Cyclops gets killed off after 4 minutes of screen time, blah blah but the same people who made Days, made The Last Stand and had no problem singing it's praises on the DVD features and commentaries.  After director Matthew Vaughn jumped ship thinking he couldn't do what he wanted to do in the limited time frame, Ratner came in with little prep and made a perfectly fine X-Men movie because let's face it, X-Men isn't a masterpiece and Origins: Wolverine is downright crap with it's shoddy f/x, nonsensical mutant cameos, poor production values and unfulfilled potential.  While people go see Marvel marathons, I seriously doubt you'd get too many people willing to sit down for a triple feature of X-Men movies.

The Arclight does stuff like this all the time I feel but this just felt underwhelming.  From the eh moderating to the volume of the microphones being barely audible to the 20 minutes to get out of the parking garage, it was just like all the energy and goodwill from the film had been sucked out.

Summer Cinema: Godzilla

Godzilla.  What does that name mean to you?  For me, it brings back memories of catching parts of the various 28 cinematic chapters on TBS as a kid, guys in suits stomping on miniatures, early special f/x, his little kid Godzilla trying to blow blue fire breath and of course, the all famous Godzilla roar.  At the time of his release in Toho's 1954's Godzilla, the King of Monsters was seen as a metaphor for nuclear weapons like the ones dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.  Since then, The Big Green has defended and terrorized the population of Japan fighting against and alongside the likes of Jet Jaguar, King Kong, Megalon and Mothra.  While Godzilla mean "gorilla" and "whale", his appearance and history has always come from the prehistoric age and mixes Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, alligator, etc.  In 1998, then kings of the special f/x driven disaster/sci-fi flick Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin brought Godzilla to America proper but the results were less than legendary.  Cut to 16 years later and Legendary Pictures has brought Godzilla back to America with a big budget, summer tent pole that will crush nearly $100 million opening weekend.

Following The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as 2014's latest action packed spectacle of the sequel/reboot/revamp variety, Godzilla employs another young director not accustomed to huge Hollywood budgets, Gareth Edwards.  Fresh from the success of his under $1-million dollar indie flick Monsters, Edwards does a great job making the leap to studio fare.  The film starts in Japan where engineer Joe Brody (Bryan Cranston) has discovered a strange, earthquake like phenomenon occurring near a nuclear reactor.  Something beneath the surface awakens and the reactor is destroyed and the area turned into a quarantined zone.  Cut to 15 years later and Brody's now grown up son Ford (Aaron-Taylor Johnson) has to go bail pops out of prison because he's been lurking around the Q Zone for the last 15 years trying to figure out what happened.  We find out that the cause of the nuclear reactor destruction all those years ago was from the reawakening of a giant, mantis like creature dubbed Muto that has survived from the prehistoric era when the Earth was radioactive.  As the surface leveled out, Muto and others like him retreated to the depths of the sea to be closer to the Earth's radioactive core.  But the rise of manmade radioactive hot spots has drawn him to the surface.  Dr. Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) has been following these creatures for decades, one in particular, Godzilla.  Big Green arises from the ocean to hunt and take on Muto to give the world balance once again.

Edwards and writers David MacCallum and Max Borenstien approach new Godzilla with an old school touch like a disaster film where we follow a few protagonists on their journeys to safety and family reunion.  There's only a few human characters to keep track of so we don't have to delve too deeply into the backstory of a dozen characters a la The Towering Inferno or Independence Day.  But the approach sadly back fires to a degree as the characters are thinly sketched and not overly interesting or compelling, we don't root for them, we're not concerned with their safety, they're all just there to let us know what's going on.  Sure there's carnage, destruction and monster on monster crime galore but the film takes so long to build up to it that by the time it happens it's a little underwhelming.  The choice to delay Godzilla's appearance is a smart one but once he shows up to take care of business, the film cuts away to some human issue right before a monster mash is about to go down and that happens several times.  Don't get me wrong, there's some great stuff in the film from the Incredible Hulk like opening of news clippings and footage of nuclear tests and the rise of the mysterious beasts and cover ups, Godzilla's amazing appearance and movement, fluid action scenes, iconic shots of the monster, a flaming French kiss, nods to the original series, a nice pace, a trim 2 hour runtime and a penchant for actual sets and props VS total CGI environments. There's a familiar, low-watt, movie star free but capable cast involved who all do fine jobs no matter how brief their appearance.  In the end, it's not that Godzilla is boring or ponderous, it's just not very exciting, sadly.  And it's no Pacific Rim.  Elbow Rocket!

We saw the flick in 3D at The Chinese Theatre in Hollywood on their fake IMAX screen.  There's a great statue in the courtyard of the big beast as well as posters in the lobby etc.  If you haven't been to the Chinese IMAX, it's quite a nice place, beautifully decorated and of course a huge screen and giant speakers.  I can't say I noticed too much 3D difference but then I usually never do because it's a sham.  Just have stuff hurtling at the audience already so we know we're getting our money's worth!  I can't be totally immersed in the movie when I can see the edges of the screen and the tops of everybody's heads.

Summer Cinema: The Amazing Spider-Man 2

While Summer doesn't officially begin until June 21st, the cinematic season started last weekend on Friday, May 2nd with the release of Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man 2.  If you'll recall, Sam Raimi had directed 3 chapters in the Spidey-verse with Tobey Maguire playing the brilliant but struggling and lovelorn genius Peter Parker and his radioactive spider bitten heroic alter ego Spider-Man.  After budgets continued to climb and quality lowered, plans for a 4th Raimi directed Spidey adventure were scrapped in favor of a reboot by 500 Days of Summer's Marc Webb that would allegedly put more focus on the awkward teen still reeling from the mysterious disappearance of his parents.  Coming in at a hefty $230 million, The Amazing Spider-Man wasn't a bad time at the movies, it just didn't seem that different from the 2002 version.  Instead of being a nerdy photographer, Andrew Garfield's Peter Parker is just more of a loner.  Not an emo or goth kid, not an outcast, just a kid who wears hoodies and rides a skateboard.  Which today, doesn't seem that odd.  Instead of the vivacious redhead Mary Jane, we get Parker's first love from the comics, Gwen Stacy, played by Emma Stone. 

Part 2 of Stan Lee and Steve Ditko's comic creation adaptation starts out by delving further into the origins of Peter's father, Richard.  If I'm not mistaken, you don't hear much about his real parents in the comics, he's just with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben from the start.  But now, everything has to be connected with some grand threat and inherit legacy involved blah blah so Richard Parker is shown to be a scientist working for Norman Osborn who doesn't want his top secret work on regenerating spiders weaponized so he dumps young Peter with his relatives and goes on the run.  I don't know what it is that we have to explain everything about everyone these days as Man of Steel was arguably more about his two dads than it was about him.  Here, large chunks of the narrative hinge on Peter finding out what dad was up to.  Are our current heroes so bland their stories can't fill the runtime of their own movies?  Maybe the makers should consider trimming these movies down to 2 hours even so you could save a good 20 minutes from having to up the stakes at the cost of our protagonist.

Anywho, Spidey comes across overlooked, overworked and socially awkward Oscorp electrical engineer Max Dillon (Jamie Foxx) who after a horrible accident at the office, harnesses the power of electricity and becomes Electro.  Meanwhile, childhood bud Harry Osborn comes back to the city to greet his dying father Norman and becomes obsessed with using Spider-Man's blood to find a cure for a disease he and his father share.  The opening of the film is quite fun with lots of wisecracking from Spider-Man but right away the movie lost me a bit because they have Spidey rescuing this person and that, his saving Max Dillon and showing him kindness is a story jump off point but then he just lets a rampaging semi run right into traffic causing what looks like horrific accidents.  I know they need to blow shit up to keep our attention but couldn't they at least had the truck driver escape the hero instead of just being let loose to cause havoc and innocent bystander deaths?

The flick moves at a nice clip and there's sweet, nearly saccharine scenes between Garfield's Parker and Stone's Stacy as they try to make their relationship work in the midst of going to college, Peter promising her dying father to leave his daughter alone and him being Spider-Man in general.  Everything is set up pretty quickly which is nice, you get a sense of the drama and issues and it's a jump off point for the story and action to come.  Simple beats of Foxx's put upon and lonely Dillon lead up to his wild outburst when he's granted super powers and wishing to be finally noticed while Harry Osborn quickly deals with his father's ailing health, taking over a $200 billion dollar empire, swimming with corporate sharks, having a friend in Peter and a suddenly fast moving flesh eating disease.  There are plenty of nods and straight giveaways to future cinematic Spider adventures with Doctor Octopus' arms, The Vulture's wings and a suit of armor for The Rhino as part of Oscorp's secret, military style division.

If you've read the books, you know that Gwen Stacy doesn't make it and Amazing Spider-Man 2 addresses that head on.  The scene came as a shock as I had forgotten that piece of Spidey's history.  It gives the film a bit of weight and I commend the filmmakers for having the balls to do that to such a major character played by a famous actress instead of just making everything work out fine in the end.  Divergent's Shailene Woodley shot scenes as future love interest Mary Jane but were cut so we'll see if she pops up in part 3.  Facing some stiff competition in the form of Seth Rogen and Zac Efron, Spidey 2 has taken a bit of a tumble at the box office and won't scale the financial heights of it's Sam Raimi helmed predecessors but is cleaning up overseas so more web slinging, city swinging, wise cracking, Spidey-sense tingling (only used once, lame) shenanigans should be on the way.

The Way We Weren't: Jean-Claude Van Damme as Daredevil

On a hot summer day in 1994, Jean-Claude Van Damme hopped on a private jet in Burbank, CA and flew to San Diego for Comic-Con.  There, the self proclaimed fan of comic book heroes Spider-Man and Tintin greeted 2,000 waiting fans in an auditorium, answering questions and taking pictures of the crowd.  Afterwards, Van Damme met the press in a small conference to promote his two upcoming pictures, Timecop (newly announced to be rebooted) and Street Fighter (since rebooted).  Timecop would become one of Van Damme's biggest critical successes as well as his most lucrative.

Post presser, the Muscles From Brussels took to the convention floor where he created a small frenzy as fans recognized the cinematic hero of such 80's and 90's hits Bloodsport, Universal Soldier and Hard Target.  Van Damme was escorted to the Marvel Comics booth to meet the legend himself, Stan Lee, who along with artists like John Romita, Steve Ditko and Jack Kirby created Daredevil, Spider-Man, The Hulk and The Fantastic Four among hundreds of others.



After an amiable introduction, Van Damme hoped to catch Stan Lee later to discuss a project he had in mind, a big screen adaptation of The Man Without Fear, Daredevil.  The Fred Astaire of Karate hoped to secure rights to the character with no upfront and points on the back end instead.  A friend doubted Lee would take no upfront but Van Damme confidently replied that someone else could pay, sit on it and not have it made while he could get it into production, turn it into a sensation and Lee would be happy to have the points.

As cinema has shown us, it took nearly a decade to get Daredevil on screen and the results, while entertaining, won't exactly go down in the history books as a success. In the 2003 version, Ben Affleck played the blind lawyer by day, masked and costumed avenger by night.  He's joined by a familiar supporting cast and rogues gallery from the comics; crime boss Kingpin, hyper accurate and insane assassin Bullseye, ninja trained love interest Electra and partner in the courtroom Foggy Nelson.  These roles are gamely filled by the likes of Michael Clarke Duncan, Colin Farrell, Jennifer Garner and Jon Favreau.  It's a visual translation of the comics; dark, brooding and violent yet lacks any real depth.

What would Van Damme's version entail?  Who knows.  But I've always been intrigued by the notion of a comic book hero being played by an actor with the physical prowess and action credentials of 80's and 90's stars.  Guys like Van Damme, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone and Dolph Lundgren seemed tailor made to play superheroes because they were basically real life versions of them.  Physical, driven, multi-talented and intelligent types who took care of the job.

A mid-1990's Daredevil would have benefited greatly from the action directors working at the time.  Guys like James Cameron, Paul Verhoeven, Renny Harlin, Walter Hill, Andrew Davis, Roland Emmerich, John McTiernan and Jan De Bont all showed us intense, exciting, character driven action that didn't require wires or unbelievable CGI.

Physically, Wham Bam, Thank You Van Damme playing Daredevil would be no problem.  His acrobatic grace and powerful kicks would have worked beautifully for the martial arts centric Horned Hero.  But what about as secret identity Matt Murdock?  The blind, skirt chasing defense lawyer?  As we saw in Lionheart and Universal Soldier, Van Damme is fully capable of playing vulnerable and sensitive without appearing macho or threatening.  As for the skirt chaser aspect of Murdock, well, JCVD has never lacked charm for the ladies on screen so it wouldn't have been an issue.

Jean-Claude Van Damme playing Daredevil would have been a treat as straight forward superhero movies weren't exactly the norm in the 90's.  It might not have been the blockbuster of Batman or had the virtuoso touch of Dick Tracy but it could have definitely been a charged and entertaining time at the movies.

Here's Joe Carnahan's last minute effort to direct Daredevil for FOX before the rights lapsed: