So just how different from the theatrical cut does this dare to be? Well, for starters it's around 30-minutes longer, which doesn't do the film's pacing any favours. However, most of the changes are to the good: gone, mercifully, is the log-fire lurve scene with Jennifer Garner's Elektra, while the restored material includes a fiercer fight with Michael Clarke Duncan's Kingpin and a murder sub-plot that drafts Coolio into proceedings and beefs up characters arcs all round.
An improved vision, then, but it still falls well short of two benchmarks: comic-book maestro Frank Miller's definitive take on the blind superhero and the bigscreen adaps of fellow Marvel mainstays Spider-Man and X-Men.
DVD Extras:
Two worthwhile extras - a chat-track with writer/director Mark Steven Johnson and a 15-minute featurette - that outline the differences between the two versions in forensic detail.
