Elektra: Director’s Cut

Let’s get it out of the way right now: we’re total suckers for super hero movies. Heck, we even liked Daredevil and The Punisher, which weren’t particularly good.

Elektra is what happens when you take one of the lamest Marvel characters ever, and give her her own movie.

After having been killed by Bullseye in Daredevil, Elektra has been brought back to life by supernatural powers of some kind. Now she’s an assassin, legendary for her ruthless and emotionless approach. So legendary, in fact, that most people don’t believe she really exists.

Her next assignment finds her living next to a father-daughter combo that befriends her, and makes her feel like a real person again. When they turn out to be her next assignment, she must ask herself what is truly important in her life. Naturally, she antagonizes her bosses, who then send out a group of equally ruthless assassins. Elektra has to team up with her newfound friends and stop the approaching forces before they destroy her and everything she now holds dear.

Even for a bad super hero movie, this is pretty bad. The writing is poor, the acting is either wooden or way too serious, and the story is not the least bit interesting, at least from the perspective that it’s essentially a series of scenes from other, better, movies. Normally, if a movie is as maligned as Elektra, it’s because of the overreactions of snotty film critics everywhere. In this case – as much as we hate to say it – they’re right. This movie sucks.

Riding on her recent successes, Jennifer Garner proves unable to anchor the film herself. She’s a good actress, but not for this kind of role (we thought she was horribly miscast as Elektra in Daredevil, too, just for the record). Sure, she’s a fine looking lady, and her body looks great in the various Elektra garb, but it’s not enough. We need someone believable as a ruthless assassin who can be turned to the light side by a few simple acts of kindness.

The villains are pretty lame (though not so much as in The Punisher), the main character is pretty lame, and the movie itself is one great big misfire. There are worse ways you could kill 99 minutes, but not many.

Having not seen the original theatrical version of the film, we couldn’t tell you what’s different about the director’s cut. It advertises “more eye-popping action, added visual effects, and a rocking sound remix.” We’ve seen all three points advertised before, and usually all it means is that deleted scenes were incorporated back into the film that the director was previously forced to cut. More often than not, this results in slower pacing and completely unnecessary scenes of dialogue (and rarely anything that helps the film). Take into account, also, that these days the term “director’s cut” has been bastardized, and you have a very cynical view indeed. Based on the final product, it’s hard to imagine the original cut of the film being any better, or for that matter, worse. If Daredevil and The Punisher didn’t gain the honor, Elektra will certainly be known as the film that began the decline of the super hero genre.

The new DVD is pretty darn solid, however. Presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen, the picture looks great. Colors are rich and deep, details are spot-on, fleshtones look perfect, and there are only one or two shots that feature any grain. The audio comes in both Dolby Digital and dts 5.1 tracks, and is also excellent. Director Rob Bowman uses the surrounds at the perfect times, such as when Elektra is sneaking her way through a “job’s” house, or when she is being pursued through the jungle by the bad guys. The panning effects used are perfect, and the overall separation of sound effects, dialog, and score is very nicely done.

The director loses much credibility in his audio commentary, in which he’s joined by editor Kevin Stitt. While they should be apologizing, they actually still want us to believe they’ve made a masterpiece, and there is way too much ass-kissing. Although, as a result, there are a few laugh-out-loud moments. Disc one of the two-disc set also includes the theatrical trailer.

Disc two kicks off with a two-part making-of documentary entitled “Relentless.” Right off the bat, you want to somehow get word to the crew that the movie is going to suck, and save everybody a lot of time. Unfortunately, you sit helpless and watch as they follow through with all of their bad decisions.

To be fair, it’s a very good documentary that gets more extensive than the film deserves. Anything you wanted to know about how to make a bad movie can easily be learned here. We also get some multi-angle dailies, some photo galleries, storyboard galleries, a couple of featurettes about Elektra and the mythology of her stories, and our personal favorite extra: the deleted and extended scenes. These are so bad they’re hilarious. Almost to such a point that you can understand why the filmmakers thought they had a good movie: because, by comparison to these scenes, they did. ‘Nuff said. But it still doesn’t excuse it all.

Elektra: Director’s Cut, from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
99 minutes, anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) 16x9 enhanced, Dolby Digital & dts 5.1
Starring Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Will Yun Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa and Terence Stamp
Produced by Arnon Milchan, Gary Foster, Avi Arad
Written by Zak Penn and Stuart Zicherman & Raven Metzner, Directed by Rob Bowman

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