Elektra: I’m reasonably surprised
March 22nd, 2008
I don’t think that I would be saying anything too controversial if I were to suggest that the 2005 film Elektra is not considered to be the greatest comic book film ever. In fact I’ve heard remarkably bad things said about it, but then I heard a lot of the same things about the film Daredevil and to be honest I don’t hate on it so much.
So when I threw down my loosely earned twelve dollars to purchase Elektra sight unseen (no this is not a Daredevil joke) I wasn’t that worried that I’d never see that twelve bucks again and that the film could be as bad as everyone said.
Here at Quit Your Day Job we’ve been recently talking about a range of comic book film movies and everyone has had mixed reactions to them. One of my themes throughout these discussions has been that if I’m carrying no baggage to these films I often find my expectations aren’t too high and enjoy the film despite it not being a masterpiece and frankly a masterpiece about some of these characters is not even vaguely realistic to expect or even appropriate.
So a lazy Good Friday was as good a time as any to have a look at Elektra. I’ve actually tried to watch it before but got stuck watching the documentaries that come on the DVD which gave a nice background look at a character that I’ve never been passionate about and are extraordinarily interesting.
When I read the Elektra graphic novels it was without any real enthusiasm and whilst I appreciate them, they weren’t something that I got really excited about.
Which brings me to the film which I also held no great warmth for, I wasn’t dying to see it otherwise it wouldn’t have sat on my shelf six months unwatched. The character was OK in Daredevil but I wasn’t yearning for the story to continue.
It’s a bit of mixed bag, the visuals are really nice and in flavour with the comics I’ve read. The costumes in my mind are spot on especially Elektra’s and they portray motion really well. Some people have said how Garner was the wrong person to portray her on screen and I disagree. She handles the character well with what she has to work with dialogue wise and anyone who’s even seen the ads for Alias knows that she can move.
Terrance Stamp (Zod in Superman 2) is always a welcome addition in pretty much any film and I’m happy to see him show up here. I’m really glad they didn’t dwell too much on how she was resurrected which I admit I was a little lost about in the comics.
I really liked the way they did the flashbacks which are an unfortunate necessity it would seem in comic book origin films. Especially appreciative of the treading water sequence as it cut into the past in a wonderfully confusing way that added to the mind state of our heroine.
The story is nothing to get into too much of a dither, it’s simple, much simpler than say your average comic book film. There is little sense of the epic that is hinted at throughout. This isn’t to say that this is a bad thing either, I can see why people would criticise it but I didn’t mind a compact little story especially compared to the ‘this is epic because we tell you it is’ mess that was X-Men 3: I’m So Very Confused and Underwhelmed.
Elektra is watchable, probably more watchable than a lot of the fare they serve up on a Friday afternoon and given the general comments I read about it and its ten percent good rating at Rotten Tomatoes watchable is an absolutely glowing review.
Twelve bucks well spent.
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Categories: Comics, Movies | Tags: comic book, comic book movies, Daredevil, Elektra, Jennifer Garner, Review, Terrence Stamp
I completely agree with you: “watchable” is a glowing review for that one.
Jeff’s last blog post..Limits of Responsibility - ASTD’s Big Question for March
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The film had its moments, was shot wonderfully, had a couple of new ideas in there, drew some great concept pieces from the graphic novels, all in all it’s a fair film that wouldn’t set your world alight but as I say I’ve seen much worse and this is more than passable.
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hmm haven’t heard many good words on this film, but now I’m inclined to at least watch it once
Arjan’s last blog post..Dexter the score (tv series, not Dexter’s lab)
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Arjan, pick yourself a nice slow afternoon, where maybe it’s raining or the weather is the type that encourages being anywhere but in it.
That’s the afternoon to brew up a nice pot of coffee, grab some cookies, curl up and watch Electra.
Of course none of this is required but I think it is a nice way to watch a film like this. It’s not going to rock your world but it’s entertaining enough for an hour and half or so.
Maybe listen to the soundtrack…
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I thought it felt like the pilot episode to a TV show… one that might get much better given a few more episodes. As a standalone movie though, that’s not really what you want.
On the other hand, I consider Daredevil to be very underrated. They tried to do too much (telling about 30 years of comics in one film), but it’s very enjoyable - particularly the Director’s Cut.
Rol’s last blog post..Where Dracula came ashore…
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Rol - a pilot episode is probably the best way to describe this actually. It’s probably the best description I’ve found to sum up the limitations of it.
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