Review of Elektra (2005) by Kai82 — 23 Oct 2020

While I like some characters and parts of the story I must admit that it is not a good movie nor in the so bad it is good category. Many said this harmed female superhero movies for years and I think they are right.

As if there is a secret rule in Hollywood that these movies need a bad script, a weak story and some poorly written characters. I think of the even worse Catwoman movie and the Supergirl 1984 movie is also some of the best additional examples.

Exceptions are the great Wonder Woman 2017 and the excellent Wonder Woman 2009 animated movie (The animated movie is a hidden gem). They both have well written characters, an engaging story and immersion.

Lets go back to this movie: After the events of the Daredevil movie Elektra is taught the ancient art of Kimagure that gives her a set of superhuman abilities (Chi or Chakra based) and starts working as assassin.

Years later she gets a contract that will challenge her in ways she did not imagine as she still has a code of honor and emotions. So far not a bad story but foreseeable and generic. I could predict nearly everything from miles away as they heavily use tropes, cliches and staples that are common because other movies / medias used them before ( a lot).

Then there is the acting. Jennifer garner is excellent but cant turn the tide or defeat the bad script. A great performance in a bad movie. The other actors do their jobs and I think the script weakened the performance also as this movie had is moments.

For clarification it is often that I had disbelieves of the story and though that many scenes can be improved. This is not a good sign. Someone said that you can get away with many things if a movie is engaging and immersive.

It it is foreseeable or boring the watchers will search for errors, mistakes and think about failures in the structure of events and characters acting weird. Lets say the acting is as good as it can be in a script that needs improvement.

I will not blame actors for bad writing. The fight scenes are however good but also nothing you will remember. Overall this is the kind of movie were I see potential for a great experience. The script is the worst villain in this story.

While it has it moments it is not worth remembering and I am a fan of Jennifer Garner since Alias. Watchable once but nothing to remembered with exception of Jennifer Garners performance.