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Only Garner elevates ‘Elektra’ above mediocrity

By Jon Niccum - | Jan 13, 2005

In the grand scheme of things, Elektra doesn’t rank in the top 50 Marvel Comics superheroes deserving of their own big-budget feature. She probably sits in the 100s, somewhere between Nighthawk and the Scarlet Witch.

But Elektra, and specifically Jennifer Garner who plays her, proved popular enough as a supporting character in 2003’s “Daredevil” to warrant her own flick. Her solo shot results in a rather dark, uneven action film that doesn’t feel anything like a sequel.

Garner’s Elektra is a lethal martial arts warrior with abilities that extend into the ethereal plane. (She can sense future events and move with unnatural speed to appear as if she were in two places at once.) Unfortunately, for her soul — and her enemies — she has spent recent years as a remorseless assassin for hire. This has helped turn her into an obsessive-compulsive who enjoys popping pills more than eating.

When Elektra is asked to take an assignment that lodges her at a summer lake house, she is introduced to her neighbors, a widowed father (Goran Visnjic) and his teenage daughter, Abby (Kirsten Prout).

Soon Elektra discovers that the family has run afoul of the Hand, a Yakuza-ish group of Japanese criminals whose power goes far beyond guns and swords.

An array of disturbing villains is sent to dispatch Elektra and those in her protection. Among them is Tattoo (Chris Ackerman), who can summon the inked images on his body — falcons, wolves, snakes — into real-world creatures that do his bidding. And there’s Typhoid Mary (Natassia Malthe), whose touch brings decay to anything she comes into contact with.

Along the way, Elektra discovers that father and daughter have secrets of their own.

Among the many obstacles that “Elektra” stumbles through is it never settles on a tone.

It starts of promisingly, with the magnetic Jason Isaacs (“Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets”) giving an uncredited performance as a pensive target of Elektra. Then the film turns introspective, with the assassin getting all mopey about her conflicting morality.

Perhaps one scene best sums up the picture. Midway through the story, Elektra finally meets up with the Hand’s elite during a battle in a forest. It’s energetic and weird, and shot with some artistic flair. Then, out of nowhere, a deus ex machina element is dropped in that stops everything cold and drains the momentum the film had been desperately trying to build.

Three authors are credited on the script, most notably Zak Penn who scribed “X2,” one of Marvel’s most successful film adaptations. But with opening narration like, “Since time began, a war has been waged in the shadows between the forces of good and evil,” maybe the production could have added a few more writers.

Two aspects help keep even the goofier aspects of the movie palatable. The first is Garner, who makes a compelling lead out of an underwritten character. The 32-year-old may be one of the few major stars whose physique is more finely toned than any of her stunt doubles. This athleticism is crucial to a comic-book hero in which the audience must accept that she is superior to all sorts of rival warriors. Plus, her girl-next-door quality is always welcome.

The other factor is the confident performance by newcomer Prout. She and Garner develop a chemistry that speaks to the connection their characters also share. The dialogue gets a whole lot more tolerable when this pair is talking.

Abby: “So you really kill people for a living.”

Elektra: “Yeah.”

Abby: “Why?”

Elektra: “Because it’s what I’m good at.”

It’s unclear exactly what “Elektra” is good at, however.

The film has passable fight scenes, but nothing comparable to movies such as “Hero.” It’s usually too dour to be much fun, but its seriousness is occasionally laughable.

In terms of comic-book flicks, it’s way better than “Catwoman” and nowhere near as good as “Spider-Man.”

This is the definition of an average movie, even though its female stars flirt with being exceptional.