This film is © by 20th Century Fox, 2005.

Starring:

Jennifer Garner
Goran Visnjic
Terence Stamp
Will Yun Lee.

Directed by: Rob Bowman.

RATING:

Perhaps I am being a bit generous with the rating for this film, but there's a reason for that. I used to read comic books as a kid so I have a certain fondness for some of the recent comic book adaptation movies being made. I preferred Marvel over all others, and out of all their characters Elektra was my favorite, so I had to include this film here.

I had very low expectations coming into this movie based on what I had seen in the earlier Daredevil film from where Elektra's story originates. Elektra (Jennifer Garner) like Daredevil, is a tormented soul and a tragic figure. The extent of internal pain and suffering for each of them is endless and is part of what makes them and their story interesting. Unfortunately there was so little presented in the Daredevil movie which was a great disappointment. While this film does not go in depth over the inner demons that Elektra constantly struggles with, at least it shows a handful of flashbacks that gives the viewer some sense of the complexity of the character. It would have been nicer if the script had called for Elektra to reflect on these memories and have Jennifer Garner show some emotion. While being very cold and harsh is part of the exterior image that Elektra is supposed to show, I never got any strong sense from Jennifer Garner as far as any emotions were concerned. The story does allude to the existence of anger and violence in Elektra, but I did not see it in Garner. I blame the lack of development in the plot for this failure.

The plot is very basic and begins at a time when Elektra is an assassin for hire. She is hired to kill a young girl and her father and that does not seem right to her and leads her to have a change of heart. A criminal organization know as "The Hand" ends up being hired to complete this job and Elektra ends up being caught in the middle of protecting the pair. Terence Stamp plays Stick, Elektra's old mentor who provides some assistance to her in this predicament and is a character that adds some substance to the plot. Stick represents not only Elektra's past, but explores her internal struggles as well. As it turns out, The Hand is after the young girl because of the talents and potential she possesses of becoming a great martial-arts warrior. Elektra embraces this girl and becomes somewhat of a mentor to her which I though was a neat part of the storyline. This relationship allows Garner to show a little bit of humanity.

The action and fight scenes in this movie were good. I have seen better but they were not disappointing at all. There is a mix of traditional martial arts with fantasy which I enjoyed for the most part. This is the strength of the film, and Kirigi (Will Yun Lee) does a good job as being the main adversary and leader of the The Hand's goon squad. He is an old warrior, and his past is deeply connected with Elektra's in a way she does not realize until she sees him face to face. The final battle was enjoyable and had a few neat things thrown into it. There's no doubt Jennifer Garner looked good playing Elektra in her traditional red outfit, and she fought in a manner that does justice to the character.

This movie was decent and enjoyable for me despite a very bad screenplay. There were two reasons I enjoyed this movie. One, I came in with low expectations; and in such cases the movie will seem o.k. unless the movie is really bad. Two, I always really liked this character so having a movie made about her was going to be enjoyable regardless. If you enjoy martial arts movies or fantasy then there is something for you here. If you find the character of Elektra interesting, I suggest you read some of Frank Miller's Elektra books where you will get so much more.