Apr6Written by:Will
4/6/2005
I just watched Elektra on DVD last night. Although I didn't pay attention when grabbing the DVD and I grabbed the Full Screen copy - I still enjoyed it. I fully intended to see it in the theater, but it proved to not be my fate. Instead, I watched in the leisure of my home with my family and our wonderful surround sound. As Tim Allen would say, "Oh-oh-oh..."
I just watched Elektra on DVD last night. Although I didn't pay attention when grabbing the DVD and I grabbed the Full Screen copy - I still enjoyed it. I fully intended to see it in the theater, but it proved to not be my fate. Instead, I watched in the leisure of my home with my family and our wonderful surround sound. As Tim Allen would say, "Oh-oh-oh..."
Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I had one major disappointment with it though. Time. One of the main themes underlining the plot is time, and this is just what the director didn't pay enough attention to. The film runs 96 minutes long - and it seems like you were rushed through the movie all the way until it ended. I will give it credit though - its (kind of) prequel, Daredevil practically pushed you out the door because of how fast it moved you through the movie. Elektra could have easily used another 20-30 minutes to elaborate more on the character development.
Now, the action scenes were excellent. Jennier Garner proved to be quite capable of performing many of her own stunts - like we didn't see that coming from a proven spy-actor in Alias. She trained extremely hard to put herself in the action scenes as much as possible. Her efforts are definitely a pay-off. One scene in particular stands out is when she begins walking with her Sais. She flips them in circles in her hands. Normally, you would see something here reminiscent of a spaghetti western where there is a close-up of a hand performing the actions with the weapon, except we keep full-frame with Jennifer in this scene. Wow!
You should not discredit her from the fight scenes either. She held her own against a professional martial artist and enemy, Will Yun Lee (Kirigi) in their final fight scene.
If you want to rate this movie in with its other Marvel blockbusters, this one lies closer to the X-Men than Daredevil, but a sequel could definitely use some changes. Spider-man and X-Men have proven that the main component to a successful comic movie is character development and the plot.
Elektra on IMDB