Daredevil

The flood of Hollywood superheroes continues with Marvel comics' blind, costumed crusader, Daredevil. His blindness is the result of a childhood accident, which means chundering through the usual back-story where bad hats despatch his prizefighter dad, before we meet Affleck, lawyer by day, radar-sighted crimefighter in red leathers by night. So far, so standard, but as he mashes neighbourhood scumbags, self-doubt has him wondering if it's really for justice or vengeance. When romance strikes with lithely combative Garner, the plot manoeuvres him into the lethal orbit of both crime lord Duncan and crackshot Irish assassin Farrell. With its notably tougher violence, this lacks the sheer fun factor of Spider-Man, yet shies from the follow-through on moral complexity. Convincing in the physical demands of the role, Affleck persuades us of the pain of sightlessness and supersensitive hearing, although writer/director Johnson's scrappy construction fails him and everyone else as the showdown approaches.