Elektra follows in the footsteps of some of the bad superhero films of last year. Those are none other than such films as Van Helsing and Blade: Trinity. Elektra is the spin-off film to the entertaining, but somewhat mediocre film, Daredevil. As a film Daredevil has many more promising attributes than Elektra the film will ever have. Needless to say, Elektra is not only a disappointment, but it is indeed garbage.
With an opening scene that should have some comic book fans proud, Elektra quickly and rapidly at a consistent pace takes a downward spiral. There was no clear vision that Elektra was going to be a solid film, even when I thought we would receive a hell of a storyline, we are bummed out with a cheap and rehashed story that has no relations to her character. The filmmaking in this movie is for the mainstream, definitely, but its made in such a disgusting and messy way.
While watching Elektra it feels like the editing was done incredibly wrong. Pieces of the film feel like they don't belong in certain places and its almost hard to imagine that the editing was following the order of the scenes in the script or vice versa. This is quickly noticeable and its clear that the tactics were to impress an audience with explosives and cool moves rather than an intriguing film.
I can go ahead and get to the obvious and say that although this film is awful, Jennifer Garner does rather well as the confident yet mysterious Elektra. Much like Daredevil, this film has many flashbacks to what happened to her as a child. Some are very interesting, but play as a emotional standpoint rather than a relation with whats occurring. We understand that Elektra is assigned missions and she fights those that have committed terrible acts, but aligning herself with those that are guilty is quite the unspeakable crime.
One can argue that this film gets too unrealistic and exaggerated for ones intake. I must agree with anyone who argues that, because Elektra is human, she is simply a skilled fighter and the action scenes are over the top as it gets. Involving humans transforming into animals or creatures of some sort is a big mistake. Clearly, this film headed to grab the mindless entertainment.
Its hard to imagine someone that has the storyline down packed for Elektra. The film itself is under its own confusion and it never really finds itself tall on its feet. Elektra has that campy feeling with no brain, it falls way below average twenty minutes into it. Director Rob Bowman has made films such as X-Files and Reign Of Fire. Elektra is a lot like the latter, very fictionistic and beyond realism. Reign Of Fire called for it because of the substance, but Elektra was made pure by choice.
I can't help but say that if there was a lead lacking in acting and fighting skills, then this would be horrific. With that said, Elektra is still a horrendous film that went on to a conclusion that left you with your hands in the air. Next time, producers should throw in the towel if they can't watch this film themselves. Stating that, I can honestly say that Hollywood is really not caring about quality action films anymore, its about the box-office and it always will be.
Elektra is a bad film regardless of the lead star, Jennifer Garner. Take the blame to the crew and don't release any sequels to this mess. This film is a perfect example of a quick production simply to have box office success. However, Elektra is not likely to pass beyond the one hundred million mark. First White Noise and then Elektra, once January clears up, I hope to see some positive in movies.
