Product Details

• Actors: Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Will Yun Lee, Kirsten Prout, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa
• Directors: Rob Bowman
• Writers: Frank Miller, Mark Steven Johnson, Raven Metzner, Stu Zicherman, Zak Penn
• Producers: Arnon Milchan, Avi Arad
• Format: Color, Director's Cut, Dubbed, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Rated: Unrated
• Studio: Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation
• DVD Release Date: October 18, 2005
• Run Time: 97 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (262 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000A9QK96
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #30,902 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Elektra - The Director's Cut (Two-Disc Collector's Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

While 2003's Daredevil was a conventional superhero movie, the 2005 spinoff, Elektra, is more of a wuxia-styled martial arts/fantasy flick. Elektra (Jennifer Garner) has returned to her life as a hired assassin, but she balks at an assignment to kill a single father (Goran Visnjic, ER) and his teenage daughter (Kirsten Prout). That makes her the target of the Hand, an organization of murderous ninjas, scheming corporate types, and a band of stylish supervillains seeking to eliminate Elektra and tip the balance of power in the ongoing battle of good vs. evil.

As the star of Alias, Garner has proven that she can kick butt with the best of them, and some of the visual effects are impressive, but the action sequences tend to be anticlimactic, and there's not much to the story. Fans will notice numerous references to Frank Miller's comic books, but there's very little resemblance to Miller's cold-blooded killer (Elektra with an agent? Elektra referring to herself as a "soccer mom"?).

Is Elektra better than Daredevil? Not really, even with the distinct advantage of having all Garner and no Ben Affleck. That could be the spinoff's greatest disappointment: after Spider-Man 2 raised the bar for comic-book movies, Elektra lowered it back to Daredevil's level. Directed by Rob Bowman (the X-Files movie), and featuring Terence Stamp as the mysterious mentor Stick, Will Yun Lee (Die Another Day) as the chief villain, and NFL-player-turned-mixed-martial-arts-champion Bob Sapp as the immovable Stone. --David Horiuchi

DVD features

The unrated director's cut of Elektra might be worth the purchase just for the bonus features, specifically a pretty terrific documentary called "Elektra: Incarnations." Almost an hour long, it traces the history of Elektra in the comic books by interviewing Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Greg Rucka, Brian Michael Bendis, and others, and displaying lots of art, some of it unpublished. There's also a 15-minute featurette on Elektra in Greek mythology, a massive (140 minutes) two-part making-of documentary, and a commentary track in which director Rob Bowman and editor Kevin Stitt discuss Elektra for a while then Bowman's work processes. The three deleted scenes that were included on the theatrical-cut DVD are here, though now with commentary on two of them by Bowman and Stitt (the Ben Affleck cameo scene apparently left them speechless), but there are also four alternate/extended scenes including an interesting opening sequence.

The director's cut has a bit more violence and some intriguing flashbacks, but at about three minutes longer than the theatrical cut isn't a substantially different--or substantially better--film. The changes made for the Daredevil director's cut were a much greater improvement. --David Horiuchi

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars ELEKTRA entertains despite slow stretches, January 16, 2005

By	Hazen B Markoe (St. Paul, MN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Much better than most people think, March 26, 2005

By	Dumb Blonde Reviewing "I'm A Lonely Angel Stu... (In my bed) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Elektra (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

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.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Hero in a tight red suit, July 23, 2005

By	Amanda Richards "Modest to the extreme" (Georgetown, Guyana) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Elektra (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

For pure entertainment value, I thought this was a great movie. Good vs. Evil, female superhero with hot red costume, villains with magical powers, martial arts action, dreamy fight scenes a la "Hero" and a valuable treasure to be protected.

On the surface, this movie swept me away with its action sequences and special effects, but then I got to thinking, and that kind of spoiled it for me.

Elektra (Jennifer Garner) at the beginning of the movie was the coolest thing in red ever. She was like Trinity (Carrie Ann Moss) from the first Matrix movie, unstoppable, inhuman, focused and deadly, plus she looked darned good in that outfit with her hair swinging around.

As the story goes, suffering from a bit of burnout, she accepts one more assignment, and then suddenly has a change of heart when she receives her hit list. From here on, the writers strip away her intrigue and mystique, and it was disappointing to see a superhero suffer from OCD and insomnia, depend on an agent instead of a trusty butler, and generally get less and less super and more and more vulnerable. She doesn't even don the red body hugger again until the end of the movie.

The bad guys then begin pursuing her new acquaintances, and she assumes a bodyguard role without even asking why one man and his daughter would be worth the effort. After a lot of ta-da, she ends up back at the training camp of her sensei, who although blind like all good mentors, is not an inscrutable Asian with a long moustache, but a cranky white dude named Stick (Terrence Stamp).

This brings us to the best part of the movie, with a group of villains with real superpowers, who of course choose to attack one by one so that the good guys can save the day. Kirigi (Will Yun Lee) is a real martial artist, and two-sworded leader of the bunch; Typhoid (Natassia Malthe) can kill with a touch, and she almost sucks the life out of Elektra with a lingering kiss; Stone (Bob Sapp) is like The Thing, skin like armor and built like a barn; Kinkou (Edson Ribeiro) comes and goes quickly, and Tattoo (Chris Ackerman) is by far the most magical, with body tattoos with lives of their own. These guys make the movie worth watching, and it's really sad to see them go.

Kirsten Prout handles herself very well as Abby Miller, the young girl that looks up to Elektra, and has a secret of her own, but Goran Visnjic doesn't have the satisfaction of a solid role to stand on.

Enjoy this one for the action, but don't pause to think about the plot.

On the side of good
Elektra wields a mean sai
To save the treasure


Amanda Richards, July 24, 2005