While the comic book genre has been dominating the box office for years now, there was a time when they came around less often. Case in point: Ben Affleck’s Daredevil movie from 2003, before the days of cinematic universes. Charlie Cox would play that hero in the MCU, and his take on the movie is way harsher than before. But he’s not exactly wrong.
Actor Charlie Cox starred in all three seasons of Daredevil as the title character, before reprising his role in the Defenders series and (more recently) Spider-Man: No Way Home. But he wasn’t the first one to play Matt Murdock in live-action, as that honor went to Ben Affleck in the movie version. Cox was recently asked about that 2003 movie, responding with:
I hadn’t seen it before I got the role. I watched it when I got the role and, to be fair, I think Ben Affleck does a really good Matt Murdock. I like his Matt Murdock.
Ben Affleck has had a celebrated career as an actor, so perhaps it should be no surprise that Charlie Cox responded to his take on Matt Murdock in Daredevil. While the movie wasn’t super well-received, that wasn’t on the fault of it’s star. At least, not according to the MCU version of the hero.
Charlie Cox’s comments to about Daredevil come from his recent appearance at Middle East Film & Comic Con, which was later uploaded to YouTube. On top of opening up about his tenure playing Matt Murdock, he also addressed his predecessor in Ben Affleck. Although it wasn’t all praise for the movie version.
Later in that same appearance, Charlie Cox also offered some criticism about the Daredevil movie, and exactly what went wrong with the blockbuster. To the 39 year-old actor, the problem was trying to fit too much lore into an origin story. As he would put it,
I don’t love the movie. I feel like the movie tried to do too much and it was a little tonally confused. They had everyone in that movie. They had Kingpin, they had Bullseye, they had Elektra, they had Karen Page, they had Foggy. It was saturated, and it’s two hours. So that was part of that problem. And the suit sucks!
Well, there you have it. While Charlie Cox has never been on to bash the Daredevil movie, he definitely has some thoughts. On top of feeling like the movie was overstuffed, it seems he wasn’t too keen on the costume worn by Ben Affleck as the hero. And it’s true; Cox definitely had the superior suit out of the two. And while the Daredevil series had the time available to introduce various characters and aspects of the lore, the movie definitely tried to cram it all into a few hours.
This criticism of the Daredevil movie is a bit harsher than the way Charlie Cox usually refers to the project. He was asked his thoughts a few years ago, throwing praise Ben Affleck’s way with:
Personally, I think... I'm just laughing because I get asked this a lot and sadly I'm going to say the same thing that I've said before. I happen to think Ben Affleck's performance as Daredevil is fantastic I really like his Matt Murdock... I stole a lot of stuff.
Marvel fans were thrilled when Charlie Cox surprisingly popped up in Spider-Man: No Way Home, reprising his role as Matt Murdock for the first time since the Netflix Marvel shows were cancelled. Fans are hoping to see him in a more significant role down the line, including actually suiting up as Daredevil.
The next installment in the MCU is Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness on May 6th. In the meantime, check out the 2022 movie release dates to plan your next movie experience.
