(Not so bad-ass without DAREDEVIL around, are you honey?)
CAST: Jennifer Garner, Goran Visjnic, Kristen Prout, Will Yun-Lee, Cary Hiroyuki-Tagawa, Terence Stamp, Natassia Malthe.
DIRECTOR: Rob Bowman
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and one pretty convincing reason to never do a spin-off - straight ahead…
IT’S LIKE THIS: If you will all recall, at the end of DAREDEVIL (SPOILER ahead!), Elektra Natchios (Jennifer Garner) was stabbed in the tummy while trying to avenge the death of her father. Too bad it only ended up getting her killed herself. Or did it? Sure enough, at the start of ELEKTRA, we find out that she just had a “near-death” experience and actually survived - before going into hiding. Riiiiiiight. And Rachel Dawes actually survived that explosion in THE DARK KNIGHT. Whatever. Anyhow, Elektra lives under the radar, operating as some sort of assassin-for-hire for a clandestine organization called - and I swear this is the truth - The Hand. Her latest job is to kill some dork named Mark Miller (Goran Visjnic). Unfortunately, Elektra falls for him instead, and decides to betray her employers at The Hand by protecting Mark and his daughter Abby (Kristen Prout). Soon, the threesome are on the run and trying to stay ahead of The Hand’s other assassins, who don’t take kindly to being fucked over by one of their own. Way to go, Elektra. Better move that ass, sweetie…
THE DUDE (OR DUDETTE) MOST LIKELY TO SAVE THE DAY: Elektra all the way. Because Mark is about as useful as an Italian Stallion-sized condom on a gherkin-sized dick.
EYE CANDY MOST LIKELY TO FIRE UP A WOODY: Jennifer Garner as Elektra, and the half-Norwegian/half-Philippine Natassia Malthe as Typhoid, one of The Hand’s other uber-hot assassins. I guess good looks are a prerequisite for working for The Hand. Oh, and Goran Visjnic as Mark ain’t so bad lookin’ either.
MOST INTENTIONALLY HAIR-RAISING SCENE: Elektra realizing that her targets are actually Mark and Abby. Awkward…
MOST UNINTENTIONALLY HAIR-RAISING SCENE: Elektra scrubbing the floors of her house. A superhero cleaning her own place. WTF? She should get her own version of Alfred The Butler. Or something.
HOTTEST SCENE: Typhoid and Elektra sharing a lesbian kiss. YOWZA!!! It’s not exactly Chris Evans sticking his tongue down James Franco’s throat but, hey, I’ll take it.
INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW: Why does The Hand want Mark and Abby dead? What do they have that The Hand wants so bad? Will Elektra survive her betrayal of her own people? Is she sticking her neck out for a good cause? Or does Mark have his own secret agenda? Is he really innocent? And the most important question of all: does Elektra ever explain her employment by saying: “Talk to The Hand”? Get it? Talk to The Hand. Oh, fucking forget it.
WHY YOU SHOULD WATCH “ELEKTRA”: If you like female-driven action films with hot chicks wearing skin-tight leather. And if you dig Jennifer Garner.
WHY YOU MAY NOT ENJOY “DAREDEVIL”: If you actually require your female-driven action films with hot chicks wearing skin-tight leather to actually be, you know, better than just average.
FINAL ANALYSIS: As a quasi-follow-up/spin-off to DAREDEVIL, ELEKTRA is merely okay and is not remarkable or entertaining enough to rise above the average mark. I favor female-driven films and would like to see more female-oriented action movies succeed at the box-office. Unfortunately, most of these films have fizzled at the box-office. Box office analysts tend to ascribe this reason to the theory that the male-driven action demographic is not interested in women playing kick-ass roles. This isn’t exactly true, because TOMB RAIDER, WANTED, and SALT all found an audience and became hits. You could argue that this is because Angelina Jolie starred in all of them, but let me counter that argument by stating Jolie had action movie fizzles of her own with TOMB RAIDER 2 and TAKING LIVES. In the end, I think the reason most female-driven action films fail at the box office is because the scripts need to be stronger.
Such is the case with Elektra, which just doesn’t have the energy that DAREDEVIL had. I think the reason for this is that electric central relationship between Matt Murdock (Ben Affleck) and Elektra from DAREDEVIL is sorely missing from ELEKTRA. The fiery and intense relationship between Matt and Elektra anchored DAREDEVIL and gave it heart. In ELEKTRA, the male lead is Goran Visjnic. Unfortunately, he’s saddled playing a rather bland and boring character. He’s just not intense enough to go up against Elektra the way Matt did. The result? ELEKTRA has no emotional center the way DAREDEVIL did.
Jennifer Garner is competent as Elektra, but just doesn’t have the spark she had in DAREDEVIL. You could argue that this is because she’s playing the character as more emotionally-damaged because of all her losses. But I would counter that Garner could’ve played the character with more fire and dimension, even with her demons. Unfortunately, just like the rest of cast, Garner is merely okay. This is essentially the best way to describe ELEKTRA: it’s okay - nothing more.
