It’s no secret that Ben Affleck’s 2003 Daredevil film wasn’t very well liked. Critics and fans panned the film and it even made Affleck vow to never play a superhero again after the humiliation he received from that film.

Obviously, that changed.

Well, the film apparently has one big fan in current Daredevil actor Charlie Cox. At this weekend’s Wizard World Convention in Pittsburgh, the actor was asked if he thought fans were harder to win over after the poor reception of the first film and while he agreed the film had some problems – he really enjoyed it:

“I actually don’t. I actually think it’s the other way around. When I got cast in Daredevil, a friend of mine, who I was having tea with said he heard that I got that Daredevil role and I was like “Yeah, yeah. Super excited!” and he said “The bar is low.“

Cox continued:

“By the way, I don’t agree with that. I actually really, really liked the film and thought Ben Affleck did a really good job. I think the film is tonally a bit confused [but] I actually really enjoyed it. I think that if you make Spider-Man, and I don’t know much about the other characters to be honest, but if you make Spider-man, for example, you can make a movie for kids and adults and it can have that kind of humor because I think it’s true to the characters for the most part. Daredevil needs to be on a platform like Netflix because the source material is so dark and so complicated and so sinister at times. I think what benefited us so much was that Netflix wanted to make the show with Marvel and we were able to embrace those darker tones.”

Elden Henson (Foggy Nelson) who was with Cox at the panel, also added:

“Just so everyone knows out there – it’s not easy to make a movie. It’s really hard. No one sets out to make a bad movie or disappoint anybody. I think they were [just] making these types of superhero things in a much different way back then.”

Personally, I didn’t really care for the film but I can definitely agree with what the actors are saying.

Some of the films that were being made back then were just being made as cash grabs to try and capitalize on the success of X-Men and Spider-Man. Daredevil had the right idea, but it’s like Charlie Cox basically said. The tone of the movie is confused.

Stan Lee even said they messed it up in an interview 4 years ago:

“Now with Daredevil, they just wrote the whole thing wrong. They made him too tragic. That’s not the way I wrote him. I think they’re working on a new Daredevil movie and it will be better, so hold your judgment until then.”

I’ve seen some people say that the Director’s Cut is a much better film – though I haven’t seen it yet. I know that the film was actually set to have an R-Rated theatrical release, but was scrapped at the last second because FOX was scared it would limit their Box Office returns.

The film was released almost 15 years ago and is long in the past – where we should leave it. Ben Affleck is now Batman and Charlie Cox is Daredevil, and they’re both great.