Review

Review Date: 23-January-05
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

Elektra (2005)

For an hour or so I was pretty into "Elektra," passively accepting it as a way to spend an afternoon filled with rain, wind, and little else. This was in part because it was immediately better than the atrocious "Daredevil," of which it is a very loose sequel, and in part because it was as somber and bleak as the weather outside. When we first see Elektra (Jennifer Garner) this time around, she is a shadowy assassin striking terror into the heart of an unnamed man of power: knowing she's at his doorstep, he can do nothing but resign himself to death. The opening scene leads to a more domestic episode between Elektra and her business associate (Colin Cunningham) which reveals that even at home, the lady isn't exactly a barrel of laughs. She lives only to work (i.e., kill people) and doesn't extend herself beyond that.

Most superheroes, even female ones, have their dark sides and their hang-ups, but I don't remember ever seeing one so inimical before, and I admit I found it rather appealing. (Garner gamely stashes her dimple to brood with sufficient intensity.) Elektra really gets to flaunt her truculence when offered an enormous sum of money to await the identity of her next victim from a quiet lakeside cottage. While there, she endures flashbacks that illuminate the root of her problems and meets a precocious teenage girl, Abby (Kirsten Prout), who inhabits the cabin next door with her father (Goran Visnjic). (And really, if the sight of him doesn't send a woman into fits of giddiness and glee, nothing will.) She manages to maintain her chill in the face of their friendliness and hospitality until she discovers that they are targets for assassination. And that's when she, and the movie, begin to crumble.

"Elektra" might have been a full-fledged winner if it had maintained the claustrophobic, violent, gloomy atmosphere of the beginning, but it loses its cool when the world opens up and the heroine finds all the answers. Almost against her will, Elektra becomes the protector of Abby and her father, which introduces her to some of the most boring bad guys ever found in a comic-book movie. (Sure, they looked good in the preview, but believe me, they're snoresville all the way.) She also meets up with her old mentor (Terence Stamp) and latent maternal side, neither of which do the movie any favors. A bit of development for Abby works well, largely because Prout is a pleasant child actress, but it all winds down to a poorly staged battle scene (one of surprisingly few) that left me thinking: Elektra donned blood-red leather for this?

Coming to grips with one's past and breaking away from painful behavior can drive a good story, but "Elektra" only clicks when the star is resigned to a grim and lonely fate. She still could have stumbled into playing a protective role and — deliciously — suffered from feelings of kindness, purpose, and lust that this movie merely toys with, fueling her fury by leading to a better understanding of the life she can never have. That's the movie I would have liked to see ... but maybe that's just me and the influence of a rainy day.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.