Elektra (2005)

There have been a lot of comic-book superhero movies released by Hollywood over the last few years. Perhaps too many. While most of the films produced have been reasonably entertaining and a few have been excellent it is hard to escape the feeling that there’s a limit to how many variations on a familiar formula there should be. Elektra laudably attempts to be at least slightly different from the standard formula, unfortunately the vague attempt at originality isn’t enough to make this a good film.

In theory this is a semi-sequel to another comic-book superhero movie, the Ben Affleck-starring Daredevil. However, this film never really refers to its predecessor and the fact that Jennifer Garner appears in both films playing a character called Elektra is about the only thing the two films have in common. In fact, her character seems to be so completely different to her character in Daredevil that she might as well be a different person.

At the end of “Daredevil”, Elektra appeared to be dead. Fortunately she was brought back to life by a blind man named Stick (Terence Stamp). Why he did this is never satisfactorily explained. Stick practices a martial art with a silly name that involves being able to see into the future, experts in the martial art can use this to bring people back to life. He is part of a group that opposes another group who really want to get their hands on a prophesised warrior woman, which would be a great victory for the forces of evil although it is never explained how. Actually, there is generally a complete lack of explanation about any part of the rather fantastical background. Either all the explanation got cut out during editing or the scriptwriters didn’t waste any time actually thinking about the purpose of their plot. I suspect the latter.

After being resurrected, Elektra becomes a highly skilled assassin. Actually, she may have been a highly skilled assassin before that (although she didn’t appear to be in Daredevil) again the film seems a bit vague on this point.

Her latest contract is to assassinate a seemingly ordinary man (Goran Visjnic) and his precocious teenage daughter (Kirsten Prout). However, Elektra is somehow emotionally touched by Visjnic’s terminal blandness and decides to protect the family instead from the evil attentions of The Hand. The Hand are an association of assassins with implausible superpowers, of course the film never actually tells us what they want or what their purpose is. I’m sure I started off this review intending to right a fair assessment but I seem to have become sidetracked into mocking the plot, I blame Rob Bowman for this.

Elektra and the other two are forced to go on the run and try to hide. The attempt at hiding is naturally unsuccessful and therefore there is an opportunity for some generic and unmemorable fight scenes between Elektra and The Hand.

Aside from one nice plot twist there is very little to recommend here. Garner is a good actress and does a competent job here, but can’t really overcome the weakness of the script. Terence Stamp’s character doesn’t do much and Goran Visknic is dull, although some of the supporting actors put in decent performances.

In summary, this is vaguely entertaining but memorable chiefly for the incompetent plotting rather than anything interesting actually happening in the film.

Rating : 5 / 10

All content ©2007 William Marnoch.

Comments? Agree/Disagree with the Reviews? Suggestions? Random Ramblings? Whatever you might want to say, feel free to e-mail me at william@wmarnoch.freeserve.co.uk .