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56 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
ELEKTRA entertains despite slow stretches, January 16, 2005
After the modest success of DAREDEVIL, it was decided that the hero's would-be girlfriend, Elektra, would be spun off in her own film. The final result proves to be a film that is long on atmosphere and character touches, and surprisingly short on action. Jennifer Garner once again repeats her role as the tragic Elektra, now making a living as an elite assassin. When she's ordered to make a hit on a man and his 13 year old daughter, Elektra finds that she must re-evaluate her own life while keeping them alive from a ninja society. Garner pretty much nails the character of the hard-bitten killer who is haunted by her past and she enjoys some nice moments. She is equally matched by Terence Stamp as her blind mentor, Stick. Unfortunately, the villians and supporting characters are pretty much one demensional. The action scenes are uneven, with some wild cutting proven to be more irritating than clever, although a scene in which Elektra must fight in a room of flying bedsheets is effective. There are slow stretches between action scenes in this film and it does take about a half hour into the film before things really start to roll. Still, this movie did not deserve the total drubbing that the major media critics gave it. All in all, this is a decent, though not great, film and is definitely worth recommending for fans of the character and those looking for a fun film to pass the time.
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Much better than most people think, March 26, 2005
I loved Daredevil, so much so that I have both the original release, and the director's cut on DVD. Hopefully, there will be a director's cut of this too, as many other reviewers have mentioned, there's a lot of stuff where it appears that scenes have been taken out.
Elektra is a stand alone film, and you don't need to have seen Daredevil first before seeing this. There are flashbacks in this, but not to Daredevil, it references Elektra's mum dying when she was young, which wasn't mentioned in Daredevil. The only real reference to Daredevil is seeing Elektra's character coming back to life after being killed by Bullseye. Many people have said there should have been a reference to Daredevil, or a cameo by Ben Affleck. But the good thing about this movie is it stands alone. It would have changed the entire movie if Daredevil had been referenced. And as for a Ben Affleck cameo - hello people, can I mention that there are deleted scenes on the DVD?! Yes, Ben Affleck DOES have a cameo in the movie as Matt Murdoch, but it was quite rightly cut from the movie, as it probably would have ruined it, and puzzled viewers who hadn't seen Daredevil. It also hints that Elektra may return to Matt, which was also hinted at, at the end of Daredevil anyway. I hope she does. (And here was me getting worried, as while they were filming, Ben was on set, but spent a lot of time with Jennifer in her trailer, while he was still with Jennifer Lopez, the naughty boy - but they're now together!)
Jennifer Garner is gorgeous, and even more so in this, than in some of her other movies. Of course, in this, she's wearing (for her assassin scenes anyway) a bright red, and very tight outfit. She's a guy's wet dream in this movie - and admitting in interviews that she couldn't wear any underwear sent the male viewers heads spinning! She is incredibly fit to have taken part in this movie, as she does a lot more fight scenes than she did for Daredevil. Yet her hair never moves while she's fighting, and it's very obviously extensions. Her makeup is perfect too, giving her the sculpted cheekbones look - you didn't really think that was real did you guys?! It takes work to get cheekbones like that! (Says she who doesn't have any!) I'm surprised there's not been rumours about Jen's lips, as they're very full lips, but they're all real, although at some points during her movies, they do come across as looking very fake. But look at Angelina Jolie, Steve Tyler, and that old guy from Rolling Stones, they're famous for their lips. Jennifer also has a great on-screen prescene, and she commands your attention from the first moment she appears. She's got something a lot of her peers don't.
The cast are brilliant in this, with Goran Visnjic and Kirsten Prout performing well. Kirsten performs extremely well, even looking like Jennifer at some points, plus she's a "prodigy" as described during the movie. Look at this girl go! I found the bad guys extremely one-dimensional, and they could have done with some fleshing out. And for lethal assassins, Elektra has a pretty easy time killing them off. There's four of them in total: Tattoo (a guy who's tattoos quite literally come to life - I hope mine doesn't!), Stone (another guy who bears a striking resemblence to Michael Clarke Duncan, and the name says it all), Typhoid (who can kill with a single touch), and some other martial arts guy, who Elektra's met before, but doesn't really have any special abilities apart from being lightning fast. Especially for the guys there's a girl-on-girl between Elektra & Typhoid, when she tries to kill her. This was completely unnecessary, as it was shown earlier in the movie that Typhoid can kill with just her fingers, so why on earth did she kiss Jennifer (for ages might I add) to kill her?! I'm sorry, it wouldn't be a turn on to see two guys kiss, so why is it for two girls?!
Due to the low level response from the previous film Daredevil, promotion for this movie claimed ties to the movie X-Men instead, which had a much higher popularity response. The first promotional mention of ties to the Daredevil movie only took place one week before the Elektra movie was to be released. There's a lot of X-Men in this movie actually, from kids trying to hide their special powers, to the special effects, and the bad guys, with their special powers. It all screams X-Men, which isn't such a bad thing, but it's missing a hunk like Wolverine! :)
The film seems cut down a lot, which in an interview with UK's Empire Online, director Rob Bowman stated that the original director's cut was a R-rated film and he had to tone the film down (due to contractual obligations). So personally, I'm crossing my fingers for a director's cut of this. I feel, much like the director's cut of Daredevil, while adding to the film (although it took away the love scene between Jen & Ben), it slowed it down a lot, and the same for this as well. There's a lot of unnecessary scenes, and not enough time devoted to the bad guys. The 'romance' (and by romance, I mean a chaste peck) between Goran & Jennifer seems awkward almost, and you can't help but think of Matt. The OCD thing is also brilliant, organising everything, and counting while she walks.
The extras are quite good and include: deleted scenes; a making-of; comic-con presentation; trailers, and inside the editing room, with Rob Bowman. There's also an inside look at Fox's next movies, Fantastic Four and Mr & Mrs Smith, both of which look excellent!
I definitely think this film should be seen at least once, if not for the story (if you hated Daredevil, you'll love this or hate it) then for Jennifer herself. I'm sure there's plenty of guys tongues hanging out everywhere while watching this.
Sweet dreams boys.
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32 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Better than expected, April 1, 2005
I thought Daredevil was an absolutely pointless film with anonymous direction and an unappealing, non-unapalling lead actor. Thankfully, Elektra has a prettier lead and stronger direction from Rob Bowman, who seems to have ditched the slimy creature effects he seemed so fond of in X-Files and Reign of Fire.
Daredevil is nowhere near as popular in the collective public conscience as Spiderman or even the Hulk. So imagine why Elektra failed at the Box Office. The whole world saw the poster and thought 'Who is she supposed to be?'. Either that or they saw the horrible, highly cliched trailer that totally misrepresented the film.
The resulting critical mauling by just about everyone wasn't completely fair nor was it completely unexpected. The film reeks of deleted scenes and subplots that have been completely cut out. It fades out at the 90-minute mark, leaving us wondering why they even bothered.
However, what we do get is a mild, but nonetheless entertaining action movie with an almost constant spooky atmosphere. The plot is meagre and many of the subs and tangents are never explained or developed. Or they were then got cut out in the editing room (along with Ben Affleck, thankfully)? If they got Frank Miller (he did create the character after all!) to write the script instead of 3 nobodies then it could have been something special.
The DVD is in crisp 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with loud, sometimes dynamic Dolby/DTS 5.1 sound. Besides a trailer for the new Family Guy series the extras are of the usual 'whogivesadamn' lot.
Perhaps a future directors cut will improve the film, but as it is Elektra is hardly brilliant, but definitely an above average brainless movie.
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