There are redeeming features to this high-kicking Marvel comic adaptation - not least its strong visuals and attractive cast - but these do not add up to a satisfying whole. As a child, Matt Murdock is blinded by radioactive waste that simultaneously heightens his other senses. He grows up to be a New York lawyer (played by Ben Affleck) who doubles as a nocturnal, leather-clad crime-fighter. As the first instalment of a potential franchise, the film goes through the motions of setting up the story and characters, with the flashbacks to Matt's boyhood the strongest episode. Thereafter the narrative gets flabby - introducing a soppy love story involving Jennifer Garner of TV's Alias and a cursory game of cat-and-mouse against Colin Farrell's poorly sketched villain - and the action is sapped of clarity and subtlety by rushed editing and the relentless heavy metal soundtrack.

A man blinded in a childhood accident fights crime using his superhumanly-elevated remaining senses.