Let the Devil Speak: A Director's Cut Specific Review

So the biggest question first: is this version better than the theatrical? Absolutely, by miles and miles. Affleck is a good actor who is given so much more to do in this cut showing the conflicting morality (Catholic vs. being a literal murderer) of the character and showing much more nuance in his performance and the endless darkness that surrounds him. The character work is consistently pretty good even if the tone is sometimes confused. It also allows the intersecting plots to room to breathe and make much more sense. I even like the frequent use of comic book-like framing, shadow work and odd angles that is definitely inspired by Raimi's Spider-Man films. However...

Jennifer Garner is not a very good actress in this movie, she's terribly miscast and drags down large chunks, especially the infamous and awful "fight-flirt" sequence that was made into a big showcase in the theatrical film. The post-Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and post-Matrix wire work, fight choreography, and Nu Metal music video editing is really just consistently very bad, there's no excusing how awful the fight scenes look, especially when they break out the PS2-cut scene level CGI. It is painfully early 2000s. It also tries to fit too many different storylines and motivations and bad guys into the film even at 2 hours and 13 minutes. The music choices are routinely hideous. It is far from a perfect film.

However, it is a film I would actually recommend to people unlike the theatrical cut because it clearly DOES understand the Daredevil character in ways that Disney would later very much water down in terms of brutality, Catholicism, and moral ambiguity. I like it enough that I don't regret I own this version on DVD, and would revisit it again in the future.