rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 2005
Directed by Rob Bowman; produced by Avi Arad, Gary Foster, Arnon Milchan; written by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman, Raven Metzner
Starring Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yun Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Elektra' is a mess of a movie, worth watching for the looks of Jennifer
Garner and maybe for an evening without thinking. We are spoiled with
comic-adaptations like 'Spider-Man 2', 'Sin City' and 'Batman Begins' and
even lesser movies like 'Hellboy'; a movie like this is memorable because it
is nothing like those movies. If you have to avoid one adaptation I think
'Elektra' is a front runner.
The character Elektra first appeared in 'Daredevil' starring Ben Affleck as
Daredevil and Jennifer Garner as Elektra. I liked that movie. The villains
were interesting and Jennifer Garner was one of the best ladies I had seen
in a superhero-movie. Here we have Garner again, still looking great, but
basically there is nothing else. The story is made up out of clichés
including a youth with traumas and villains that seem invincible, but all
these clichés are never really clear to the audience.
By the way, Elektra is a killer for hire here, once trained by a person who
is able to bring dead people back to life, played by Terence Stamp. She has
to kill a father (Goran Visnjic) and his daughter (Kirsten Prout) but of
course she grows soft and ends up protecting the two. The villains,
belonging to the Order of the Hand, have supernatural powers and
conveniently disappear once killed. They are looking for the Treasure, for
you to find out what that is.
'Elektra' is as predictable as a movie like this can be, with nothing else
to save it. The fighting sequences are more an exercise in editing, as we
see so much lately, the villains very uninteresting, the character of
Elektra nothing more than good looking. If you really want to see Garner as
Elektra I would try 'Daredevil' instead of this one.