Elektra

G and I saw "Elektra" last night.  I wasn’t too sure what to expect after "Catwoman" and the talk about these girl powered superhero movies just not having what it takes to succeed.  I am not a big fan of Jennifer Garner to begin with.  I didn’t really enjoy her TV series "Alias" very much.  G reckons she is a sexy woman (I told her she can keep her) and doesn’t agree that her ears have a tendency to stick out a bit (peeve of mine from Alias).  So, I wasn’t expecting much from "Elektra".

Thankfully, I was pleasantly surprised.  The movie wasn’t that bad at all.  The characters had some depth and the story did actually flow although I suspect there was quite a bit that was left out.  I don’t follow Marvel comics (more of a DC Comics guy myself) so I don’t know the background to the character.  Fortunately the movie gives enough background for the uninformed viewer to be able to watch the movie in isolation without feeling a bit lost from time to time.

Garner is pretty hot in her very red outfit and she knows how to move.  The action sequences were pretty well done and the effects were awesome.  One or two parts were a bit cliched but they are cliched because they are universal themes and superheroes are really all about archetypes.  One nice surprise was Terrence Stamp who plays Elektra’s blind Master.  He has had quite a career and did the role of General Zod in the Superman movies; the voice of Jor-El in Smallville and a gay cross-dresser in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.

A comment on IMDB pretty much agrees with my thoughts (although not all reviewers were too impressed and there is a contrary view below):

As a fan of Marvel Universe I found that I liked this movie. I suggest
people not familiar with Elektra, The hand, or other aspects of the
Marvel plot lines stay away from this movie. Having the knowledge from
the comics I was able to fill in the plot holes and just enjoy the
movie. I liked the visual aspects of the movie which includes the
special effects, settings, and Jennifer Garner. I thought that some of
the bad guys were unnecessary. They should have just stuck with one or
two bad guys and spent more time defining them. What was the point of
the big bullet proof guy? All in all I didn’t feel ripped off after
seeing the movie. I got my $6.50 worth.

Rollingstone.com wasn’t too complementary and I gained the impression that they don’t approve of the movie:

Jennifer Garner should have used an alias instead of putting her
name on this breathlessly boring spinoff of Daredevil, the
2003 Marvel Comics misfire in which she co-starred with her new
honey, Ben Affleck. Garner is back (Affleck isn’t) doing
martial-arts kicks as Elektra, this time dressed in skimpy
S&M Madonna rejects. The hottie lady in red has returned from
the dead in the form of a cranky, listless contract killer redeemed
by the love of the little girl (Kirsten Prout) she saves from —
oh, who the hell cares?

For my part this rates as a movie worth seeing.  Not every superhero movie will be as good as X-Men or X-Men 2 (which I regard as brilliant).  If you are looking for trailers, have a look here.

For a different perspective of Elektra, I found this very sexy interpretation of Elektra: