Movie Review: Elektra

In this Daredevil spin-off, Jennifer Garner returns to the role of tortured-soul-turned-assassin Elektra, in which Elektra must protect a father and daughter from the Hand while also trying to conquer her own inner demons.

I have to say that Jennifer Garner should get most of the praise for this movie and in bringing Elektra alive on the screen. She maintains the same physical prowess that Alias fans love while juggling with the range of emotions Elektra stumbles through in the course of the movie, though she does retains enough of her usual good-girl image that makes her less believable as a cold-hearted assassin iat the beginning of the film.

I have to praise Terence Stamp who really makes an awesome Stick, the blind mentor of Elektra and Daredevil. Other obscure Marvel characters who appeared in this film are Stone, one of the Chaste, who is now a bad guy with similar powers, and Typhoid Mary who bears little resemblence to her comic book alter-ego, Daredevil's multiple personality/telekinesis foe. And let's not forget everyone's favorite clan of evil ninjas, the Hand.

I like the "homages" at the beginning of the film to various issues/themes from the now-canceled Elektra series. The scene when Elektra defeats the security team and kills the man in the chair seemed to come almost straight out of one of Robert Rodi's first stories. The movie also attempted to capture Greg Rucka's idea of Elektra's restlessness between jobs.

But this movie's anything but perfect. The whole idea of kimagure seemed vaguely explained and just an excuse to give Elektra a "super power." The movie doesn't seem to care to explain how Kirigi and his gang got their powers or how Elektra contacts him for their final fight. (Ninja telepathy?) It also brings up this idea that Elektra has OCD, but does nothing with this which could have put an interesting slant on the character.

Like its predecessor, movie cliches and sloppy writing mar an otherwise promising film. I don't know exactly what Elektra fans will think of the film, but Jennifer Garner fans will love this movie. C

Support Jon Stewart!

Comedy Central's showing the movie "Death to Smoochy," a chilling depiction of children's television. Actually, I've never seen it, but it always looked interesting in a deranged sort of way. Anyway, Daily Show anchor Jon Stewart, whose movie resume is frightfully too short, stars in this film.

Also, Elektra's out in theaters. Anyone seen it yet? Is it any good? (Has to be better than Catwoman, right?)

Elektra Score To Be Released

Music from the Movies reported that Varese Sarabande will be releasing Christophe Beck's score to Marvel's Elektra movie on January 11th.

Beck's score is described to have "experiment with unusual sounds and textures." The web site stated that 'Beck says that he wanted to "create textures and music beds and edit and manipulate them to create both strange and familiar musical elements."'

The talks of prerecorded orchestral tracks and abstract sounds made me very curious about this score, and I'm interested in hearing it when it comes out.

Beck's other credits include movies like Taxi, Little Black Book, and The Perfect Man.

Fantastic Four Movie Update

The new picture of Doctor Doom has been circulating the web for awhile. It looks good; Doom's got his traditional green robes and metal mask. Meanwhile, I heard that we might see a teaser trailer as soon as January, just in time for the Elektra movie.

Speaking of...

The Elektra movie official site's now up with new wallpapers, an image gallery, and a couple of behind the scenes movies. No word yet on the soundtrack, though I hope that there'll be a score CD.

In other news...

Hopefully by the end of the week, I'll have some more new chapters typed up for my novel. But I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.

Elektra Movie Update

I was impressed by Jennifer Garner's protrayal of Elektra in the Daredevil movie, so I've been keeping a close eye on the new spin-off movie, hoping it doesn't end up like Catwoman.

The new movie site, elektramovie.com, has just opened this week, with a synopsis, wallpaper, and video clips. The American synopsis is pratically useless, mainly namedropping who's in the cast, though it mentions that Elektra has "kimagure," the limited ability to see into the future. (What?)

The European synopsis actually says a lot more of the actual plot. Elektra's haunted by the death of her parents as well as her own death, and becomes an assassin to sate her rage, but she needs "something more than a reason to kill... a reason to live." It also mentions Typhoid Mary, but I doubt she'll be anything like DD's schizoid nemesis.

There's been very little hype or advertising out yet for this movie, despite it coming out in January. The costume looks okay, but I liked the DD costume better. I remain optimistic and hopeful that the movie will be cool. Just think: Terence Stamp as Stick!