| Major Cast | |
|---|---|
| Jennifer Garner | as Elektra |
| Goran Visnjic | as Mark Miller |
| Kirsten Zien | as Abby Miller |
| Will Yun Lee | as Kirigi |
| Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa | as Roshi |
| Terence Stamp | as Stick |
| Natassia Malthe | as Typhoid |
| Bob Sapp | as Stone |
| Chris Ackerman | as Tattoo |
| Edson T. Ribeiro | as Kinkou |
| Colin Cunningham | as McCabe |
| Hiro Kanagawa | as Meizumi |
| Mark Houghton | as Bauer |
| Laura Ward | as Young Elektra |
| Kurt Max Runte | as Nikolas Natchios |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 |
| Production Companies: | * Twentieth Century Fox * Regency Enterprises * Marvel Enterprises * New Regency Pictures * Horseshoe Bay Productions * Epsilon Motion Pictures * Elektra Productions * SAI Productions |
| Distributors (US): | * Twentieth Century Fox (theatrical) * Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment (Blu-ray, DVD) |
| Release Date (US): | 1/14/2005 |
| Running Time: | 100 minutes |
| Language: | English/Japanese |
| Domestic Box Office (IMDB): | $24,409,722 |
| Worldwide Gross: | $32,149,231 |
| Production Budget: | $43,000,000 (Est.) |
Every generation produces a Treasure: an individual uniquely gifted with fighting ability. The contenders in the ancient battle between good and evil seek to coopt this Treasure for their cause, for he or she will be a formidable asset — perhaps the one to decide the outcome for that generation.
A young girl named Abby Miller is such a Treasure in our generation. The Council of the Hand have sought to control her talents, but her father spirited her away. Now they have put out a contract on her and her father, determined that if they cannot have her neither will the forces of good. Elektra was once a child with similar potential, but the murder of her mother filled her with bitterness. Now she is a professional assassin, and her agent gets her the contract. Abby and her father, Mark, have rented a house on an island in the Pacific Northwest; Elektra takes one nearby. But when she draws her bow to send a shaft into Mark Miller's heart, something quails within her. She cannot complete the task; she calls her agent and pulls out.
This puts her on a collision course with the Hand. They send a team of ninjas; Elektra wipes them out. But she knows there is worse to come: Kirigi. She and the Millers go on the run. With timely help from an old man named Stick, representing the forces of good, they defeat an assault by Kirigi and his team of supernatural warriors. Kirigi withdraws, outmatched by Stick and his team. Elektra knows there must be a final confrontation with Kirigi, and they agree to meet in the abandoned house where he killed her mother. For Elektra, it is more than the chance to save Abby; it is her opportunity to redeem her own soul.
Elektra is a tale drawn from the world of comic books. It continues the story of the film Daredevil, in which the character Elektra was killed. Elektra died in the universe of this film too, but was resurrected by Stick and trained with him until he decided her hatred made her unworthy and cast her out. Since then she has attained quite a fearsome reputation in the underworld. She demonstrates this early on against mortal opponents. But going up against the magic wielded by Kirigi and his team members is another matter. It is this magic that forms the heart of the film, shown very effectively in a dazzling series of special effects. But character too is at the heart of the film, as Elektra joins forces with Mark and Abby, all three developing and revealing new aspects of their natures.1 On one level the premises of this film are hokey: a woman whose mere touch blasts and blackens everything living? A man who can free the animal tattoos on his body as actual wolves, eagles, and snakes to rampage against his enemies? But the film is very well acted and has something useful to say about love and redemption. If its message is shallow and tends to get overwhelmed by the combat scenes and by the physical beauty of Jennifer Garner, still it is there. A film also has to entertain, and this one does.
Going on memory, I recall the special effects in the theatrical version, especially the tree-felling scene, as more hokey and obtrusive than in this director's cut. I would recommend the director's cut in Blu-ray as the most watchable version. It has a long special feature on the production of the movie that, as with Angelina Jolie in Tomb Raider, shows the dedication Jennifer Garner brought to the role and the remarkable work needed to bring those special effects to the screen.
Both Jennifer Garner and Goran Visnjic shot this film while on summer hiatus from their television series — respectively Alias and ER.
In the first half of the production special feature, Will Yun Lee notes that the swords he used in the climactic fight with Elektra had been long, but were reduced in size to avoid accidents. He knows whereof he speaks; during rehearsals for that fight, he sliced Jennifer Garner twice in the same spot on her knuckles.
Director Rob Bowman has stated in an interview that the original director's cut was rated R, but that contractual obligations made him change it to meet a PG-13 rating.2
Promotion for this film sought to tie it to the X-Men franchise rather than to Daredevil, which was less popular. Even so, its cumulative worldwide gross came well short of making back the production budget.
My Rating:
8 out of 10
Capsule review: The various magical special effects dominate this film, but it is redeemed by good pacing and by character development which gives the main characters, and especially Elektra, a vulnerable, human quality.
| IMDB Rating: 4.7 | Raters: 86,982 |
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