Tuesday, January 18, 2005

Elektra ***
Cast: Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yn Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp, Natassia Malthe, Bob Sapp, Chris Ackerman
Director: Rob Bowman
Running Length: 1:35
MPAA Classification: PG-13

"Elektra" takes the best part of "Daredevil", namely Jennifer Garner, and spins her off as the titular character. When we last saw Elektra, she was dead. After being raised from the dead and trained by Stick (Stamp), she takes on the job of a paid assassin. And she is good. Eventually, she passes on a job to eliminate Mark Miller (Visnjic) and his daughter, Abby (Prout). The reason for passing on the job: she has gotten to know them and sees a kindred spirit in young Abby. Of course, The Hand (the group that is out to have them killed) just sends more assassins, and Elektra finds herself playing protector for the Millers. Along the way she will get to fight a few bad guys and perhaps even avenge her mother's death.

Jennifer Garner has proven that she can do the action thing with TV's "Alias", so it is no surprise that she holds her own in "Elektra". She carries the movie firmly on her shoulders, and is the best thing about the movie. The biggest fault of the movie is the direction. Rob Bowman has made some good films, the best of which is the "X-Files" movie, but he seems a little out of his element at times with the heavy duty martial arts scenes that appear in "Elektra". He manages a level of stylishness though, but that is not enough to make this movie be all it could be. Fans of Garner and Marvel comics in general should rejoice though. "Elektra" is a good action movie that will satisfy most.

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