While
Daredevil, one of the numerous throwaway Marvel Comic adaptations of the
past few years, wasn’t a very good motion picture, itself, Jennifer Garner’s
character in it, Elektra, was an absolute treat to watch. Along with her
adrenaline-pumping television show, “Alias,” the film served as proof of the
charming actress’ skills as an action-star. From the moment of its release,
no one doubted that she would land many more roles like it, in the years to
come. However, I don’t think anyone thought that Garner would end up playing
Elektra again, in one of these. The fact that the character died in
Daredevil is only a minor concern of the new spin-off.
In her new, resurrected form, Elektra is a deathly
assassin who is hired to kill Abby and Mark Miller (Kirsten Prout and Goran
Visnjic), a father and daughter, for two million dollars. Elektra moves into
a vacation near the cabin that her target-pair lives in, two days before the
time in which she plans to kill them. Once settled, she meets both of them,
and the three even share a conversation over dinner together. Elektra
realizes that something seems fishy about the situation, and it turns out
that her instincts are right. The Order of the Hand, an evil group of
opposing assassins, wants something with Abby and her father. After Elektra
decides not to kill Abby and Mark, the film’s plot is basically comprised of
Elektra leading the two away from The Hand’s assassins in an attempt to
ensure their safety. What a turnaround, eh? At times, Elektra seems
incomprehensible because its story’s details are so vague.
Disregarding the fact that the movie is,
thematically, quite a mess, there is only one thing that really bothered me
about it: the premise. Daredevil was released almost two years ago;
Elektra’s screenwriters—Zak Penn, Stu Zicherman, and Raven Metzner—had
plenty of time to make it interesting. If the film’s storyline was
adapted from the best material in the comic book, it should have
never been made. Either that or the folks over at 20th Century
Fox should’ve hired a competent screenwriter with a proficient imagination
to invent some interesting situations for these characters to embody.
Elektra runs primarily on empty ideas and overplayed clichés.
Visually, the film kept me interested. A Hand
assassin called Tattoo (Chris Ackerman) is capable of making the ink-drawn
figures on his skin come to life, and it is fun to watch this happen. The
same applies to the scenes in which Garner, who is undeniably the best part
of the movie, strips down into her red, satin wardrobe choice. Then again, I
think I’d be just as entertained by her wearing the same outfit while, say,
reading any old book aloud.
I was somewhat involved in Elektra because,
after the initial shock of the awfulness of the premise wore off, I was
willing to go wherever it wanted to take me. The movie isn’t the cinematic
crime that everyone seems to be proclaiming it to be, but it is, make no
mistake, a very average motion picture. It has enough interesting elements
to be deemed tolerable. Compared to the average January release, Elektra
is actually pretty decent.
-Danny, Bucket Reviews
(Posted in 12.28.2004-2.5.2005 Update)
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