Elektra (2005)

Director:

Rob Bowman

Writers (WGA):

Mark Steven Johnson (motion picture characters) and
Frank Miller (comic book characters) ...

Release Date:

14 January 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Tagline:

She's the last thing that stands between good and evil.

Plot:

Elektra the warrior survives a near-death experience, becomes an assassin-for-hire, and tries to protect her two latest targets, a single father and his young daughter, from a group of supernatural assassins.

Plot Keywords:

Assassin | Resurrection | Heroine | Supernatural | Action Heroine

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Jennifer Garner	...	Elektra
Goran Visnjic	...	Mark Miller
Kirsten Prout	...	Abby Miller
Will Yun Lee	...	Kirigi
Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa	...	Roshi
Terence Stamp	...	Stick
Natassia Malthe	...	Typhoid
Bob Sapp	...	Stone
Chris Ackerman	...	Tattoo
Edson T. Ribeiro	...	Kinkou
Colin Cunningham	...	McCabe
Hiro Kanagawa	...	Meizumi
Mark Houghton	...	Bauer
Laura Ward	...	Young Elektra
Kurt Max Runte	...	Nikolas Natchios

Also Known As:

Elektra (Canada: French title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for action violence.

Runtime:

97 min | 100 min (director's cut)

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English | Japanese

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

UK:12A (original rating) | Netherlands:16 (video rating) | Taiwan:PG-12 | USA:PG-13 (certificate #41331) | USA:Unrated (director's cut) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Iceland:14 (theatrical rating) | Malaysia:18SG | South Korea:15 | Denmark:11 | UK:12 (video rating) | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (British Columbia/Nova Scotia/Ontario) | Japan:U | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Brazil:14 | Chile:14 | Finland:K-15 | France:U | Germany:12 | Hong Kong:IIA | Ireland:12A | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Zurich)

Filming Locations:

Capilano River Regional Park, North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Due to the low level response from the previous film Daredevil (2003), promotion for this movie claimed ties to the movie X-Men (2000) 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.

Goofs:

Continuity: In one scene, Stone throws his wooden club to Elektra. In the next shot, he attacks Abby with his club which he didn't get it back.

Quotes:

[from trailer]
Elektra: I'm not a good person to get involved with.
Mark Miller: I'm not asking for anything.
Mark Miller: [kisses her]
Mark Miller: I'm sorry.
Elektra: [smirks] Yeah, I hated that.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Troldspejlet: (#33.14)" (2005)

Soundtrack:

WONDER

Nothing of any value here – pretty much a template for how to make a bad action/superhero movie

Having recovered from the fatal injuries inflicted upon her due to her involvement in the film DareDevil, Elektra has become an assassin for hire, embittered by her life and living only for her next job. When Kirigi and the Order of the Hand present her with her next job she takes it and heads out to kill Mark Miller, a man who must die to account for an act committed by his grandfather years before his birth. However when she actually meets Mark and his young daughter, Elektra has a change of heart and joins the Millers to defend them from the Order?

Having seen my fair share of films I rarely find one that is totally without value, so often I'll give things a try even if I fear the worst. More often than not bad films have some good but generally fudge the mix and has some average parts that drag it down. However having seen Elektra I can honestly say that if you're looking for a template to make a bad film then this is as good a place to come as any. First of all the plot could be written on a postage stamp and it is as bad as people say. It lacked anything to make e interested and I honestly didn't care about the detail, but it would have been nice to have had a bit of development of the story. Speaking of development, don't expect any in your characters either – Elektra's past is a collection of flashbacks and "sudden waking-up" moments but nothing more than that; she is just a bit of eye-candy who will "find her heart again" at some point and the sad thing is that she is the best developed character in the film.

With such a thin frame to work within, Garner does nothing that look determined or, as she "finds her heart again", simpers and weeps for the camera. She cannot walk properly because someone has decided that "strutting" makes a woman look sexier (I blame Destiny's Child) and she has no presence at all (this from someone who continues to watch Alias even as it gets sillier and sillier). However beside Prout, Garner looks like the next big thing because Prout is so toe-curlingly awful as the cute-kid that it is a wonder that she got cast at all. Visnjic has nothing to do and it is shame that he got involved. Terence Stamp does nothing more than take the cash and support from Tagawa, Lee and others is average at best. A clue to a bad film is when it uses lesbian teasing to get the teenage boys in – it happened in 2004's Taxi and it happens here too. The direction is just as bad as the acting; the action scenes are terrible and, outside of these the film has no idea what to do and thus just rushes to the next poor action scene, loaded with poor special effects throughout.

Overall this is a pretty terrible film that has nothing of value within it. The characters are poorly developed at best and none of the cast can do anything with them at all – Garner is all at sea in a collection of pouts, poses and strutting walks. The story is hollow and is the minimum needed to bring the film to the screen (and it shows). The director makes the action scenes unexciting and just a collection of poor CGI, meanwhile using music in a hamfisted attempt to make the audience have any emotional attachment with the product. Even die-hard Garner fans will struggle to enjoy this dog – January and already I think I've seen one of my least favourite films of the year.