"look me in the eye and tell me you liked the film"
Elektra (12A)
Dir. Rob Bowman
Reviewed by Matt Adcock
Her name is Elektra; she moves without sound, kills without mercy and looks absolutely fantastic whilst doing it!! Unfortunately her film is sloppy, tame and unremittingly average – and the question has to be asked, “How has this been allowed to happen?”
Elektra: Assassin, the original comic book by Frank Miller with artwork by Bill Sienkiewicz is my all time favourite graphic novel. Elektra the film does not live up to the amazing source material - at all... She has been laid low by the idiots of Hollywood who seem to work on the principle: “why bother making an awesome, clever, explosive action film when we can churn out any old rubbish?”
Elektra of the comic is brutal, cool, efficient, sexy and rock hard. Whereas Elektra in the film is still admittedly sexy but also sweet, emotional and often unforgivably wimpy... I lay a lot of blame at the festering feet of director Rob Bowman - he is the master of taking potentially explosive material (dragons vs humans in Reign of Fire / a hot babe ‘death dealing ninja’ in Elektra) and working his ‘average magic’ on it until the film comes out looking like an identikit 12 year old boy’s dream...
So the bad guys - The Order of the Hand, your average ninja collective, are looking for average bloke Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic) and his annoying but average daughter Abby (Kirsten Prout). At the same time Elektra is paid $2 million to kill the same father and daughter but for some reason ends up fighting to protect them. The limited ‘action’ is weak, the tone and style are vapid throughout, the baddies are just laughable and the script sucks – think Catwoman and unfortunately your not too far off. Even then I could let all this go if it was just some new and doomed to fail action franchise - but NOT when the Elektra source material deserved so much better.
Yes the sight of Jennifer Garner in her "so tight I couldn't wear underwear underneath" outfit is a thing of beauty that you won’t forget in hurry, but the film is utterly soulless. The highlight for me was the full on kiss between baddie Typhoid Mary (model Natassia Malthe), who goes about giving her foes a ‘kiss of death’, and Elektra. But nothing can really save this from struggling to even hold a candle to the much-maligned 2003 comic book effort ‘Daredevil’, which featured Elektra in a cameo role…
Darkmatt Rating: ΓΆΓΆ (poor) - but worth watching because Garner is so hot!!
Read other film reviews by Matt Adcock:click here
"The Elektra workout video - great for the stomach..."
2 comments:
tee hee... that's the word on the street, for sure. nice writing.
thanks for the link, buddy
Jennifer Garner is 32 years old, and she's already a house-hold name. It's hard to remember a Garner before the first season of Alias (01) - except for "James Garner" - and then I think I remebered her from Dude, Where's My Car? (00, yes I have seen this film) and maybe a small role here or there (Deconstructing Harry, Washington Square, both from 97) and now she's got herself a couple of nice little franchises. Unfortunately, with the exception of an unnecessary cameo in Catch Me If You Can (02) and an unnecessary starring role in 13 Going On 30 (04) - a couple of nice little franchises is about all she has. They'll be riding Sydney Anne Bristow into the ground for decades to come (in syndication) but the series will eventually end - and where can they honestly take the Elektra character from here? I guess what I'm trying to say is: the girl may be hot - but she's average at best when it comes to showing her acting chops. Still, I'd rather see her up there kicking ass then the phenominally over-rated Angelina Jolie. And could you please tell me Matt, why weren't there any "real" Brittish actresses at the try-outs for either of the Paramount Tomb Raider movies? I mean, wasn't this girl's schedule empty?
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