Elektra -
Widescreen
Picture: A-
Sound: A- Extras: B- Film:
C-
You know I was just thinking the other day, “Boy, we sure
could use another comic book-based movie,” and behold Elektra was born! Hollywood
reminds me of a kid who just figured out how to make armpit farts and with his
recent amusement decides to do it constantly day and night until it drives
everyone nuts. Likewise once Hollywood
makes a film that does some good business they over saturate until everyone
wants to puke. This is not to say that
some of the films have been good or entertaining, but the inconsistency is what
is frustrating. Fact of the matter is
that filmmaking today is a lot like the automobile. Cars today are more expensive, faster, made out of cheaper parts,
and designed to make you think you are getting more than you end up with. Similar older films (not all) were once made
with good parts and while they weren’t about special effects and trickery they
were more interested in the consumer getting a quality product of
entertainment.
It became abundantly clear to me somewhere about halfway
through Elektra (2005) why American action films of late are tired,
boring, redundant, and actually go out of their way to be uninteresting. You know it’s bad when all you wait for is
the next action scene and then it comes along and then you count the seconds
until the next one comes along. If the
fight/action scenes are boring, well than you have a dud on your hands and
ladies and gentlemen Elektra scores
high on the dud-o-meter.
Each major studio is getting their hands though on the
Marvel franchise, including Columbia TriStar taking on the Spider-Man films, Universal made the mistake of doing The Hulk, New Line has been quite
successful with the Blade series,
Lion’s Gate is doing all their smaller characters and Paramount just forged a
distribution deal with Marvel for the rest of their major characters. Fox is basically batting .500 though, but
when they choose to do Elektra there
is no doubt that they were resting their efforts on the hope that people will
flock to see Garner more than anything else, similar to Tomb Raider’s fan base, which relies on Angelina Jolie luring in a
few extra viewers desperate for another good glimpse of her bod. If you don’t think that’s true just look at
the advertisements for these films and you won’t have to go far to find out
just how they market them.
Elektra suffers
for a few reasons, most of which are blatantly obvious. For one we have Rob Bowman behind the wheel
directing this film into the drudges of idiocy. He failed to impress most audience members with his PG-13 film Reign of Fire, which was not very
memorable as you can tell by the dust that is lying on top of most copies
scattered around any video store you find.
Bowman seems to have a knack for turning just about anything interesting
into an over-the-top special effects nightmare that makes each scene less
interesting then the next. Our story
bounces back and forth and the narrative itself is so poorly told that most viewers
will be confused to the point of no return, which can be blamed partly on the
writers, but the director takes the blame.
If you can actually follow this mess and still care then you have
succeeded far past the majority. This
is not to say that those watching are clueless, but the entire story could have
unfolded a bit better, but oddly enough like I said it was halfway through that
I realized why American action films are just painful.
The reason for this is the way in which everything is done
with intention and motivation that never once lets the audience think. Everything must be made so obvious for us,
like who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. We have seen these films so many times before and their formula
is so familiar that anyone could probably predict the entire film and even
guess what half the dialogue will be. I
was refreshed after seen House of the Flying Daggers (reviewed on this
site) at the remarkable leaps and bounds that Foreign cinema takes on as it
makes action films that are poignant, insightful, witty, charming, daring,
entertaining, and for the most part they are crafted with such deliberate
intentions to make the audience feel like they witnessed such artistic beauty
and magic.
So Elektra is an assassin and is hired to kill people, but
that all changes when she becomes personally involved with her next target,
which happens to be a father and daughter.
They happen to have some secrets of their own and are running from more
than their own fate. The bad guys after
her also have a vendetta after Elektra
and will not let her interfere with their plans to bring down the target. Even the villains like Tattoo and Typhoid
are boring and the fight sequences are downright absurd and uninvolved.
The biggest advantage that Elektra has going for it are some good moments with Terrence Stamp
and the fact that it is short in length.
Other than that…you are taking a big chance on this one. However, Fox has supplied the goods for the
DVD release in a valiant attempt to lure in some consumers who did enjoy the
film or those that if you could call it missing out on the film at the
theater.
Let’s begin with the 2.35 X 1 anamorphic transfer, which
looks very solid and does its best to give a pleasing quality to the relatively
dark film. I did not particularly like
the ‘look’ of the film, which reminded me of episodes of the X-Files, which explains it all since
Bill Roe was the director of photography for Elektra and for mostly TV programs including the X-Files. Colors look sharp and detailed and like Daredevil the color red is very prominent.
While I may not be a fan of the look of the film I
certainly enjoyed the sound design, which is available here in both Dolby
Digital 5.1 and DTS 5.1 mixes. The DTS
mix allowed for a slightly more enjoyable experience watching some of the
fighting scenes with bullets or swords making the surrounds become quite
involved. Dialogue is also well
executed and this is one of the few films that managed to get both the bigger
sound design and the smaller design segments to gel together well. Often times we have great sound during the
big moments, but then it becomes too quiet and uninvolved during the down
times, but not the case here. You can
also notice some really well articulated sound moments that shine through the
mix with exceptional quality.
If you have survived the film and are feeling quite
ambitious than you will want to venture through some of the extras featured on
the DVD. There are a few deleted
scenes, which could have brought the story together a bit better if inserted
correctly. There is also a ‘making of’,
which features Garner and Bowman exclusively and is nothing really that
in-depth nor does it really need to be in this case, because I don’t that many
people really care how this film was made.
There are a few editing room featurettes as well provided, which brings
me to another point about the film and that is the poor editing. When we see an
action film nowadays it seems like we are being short-changed in just about all
aspects, but the biggest breaking point is the use of editing.
Editing Elektra must
have been like cutting up carrots. The
film has way too many edits and all of which are in the wrong places and put
together with all the wrong segments.
For instance, notice how the fight scenes decide to cut out just about
everything interesting about them and insert all the boring moments, or for
that matter is rushes the cuts together so fast that you have no clue what you
just saw. This technique is really getting
annoying, yet Hollywood seems to keep supplying us with this junk. The best example of this is in a scene where
Garner faces her opponent with white sheets being slashed around and whipped
around in the air, which reminded me of the film Hero (another film from
the director of House of the Flying Daggers). However, all the cuts and the use of this scene become more
infuriating as the scene wears on.
There is also a Comic-Con presentation from Jennifer
Garner located in the extras, which I would speculate would satisfy most. It’s really sad when some of the worst films
receive the best extras or try to add extras just as a gimmick into making you
think it must be good. Anymore they
just try to find as much stuff laying around to throw on these discs that it is
starting to become a junk format, and more especially with all the ads, promos,
and trailers that are put on them.
Elektra gets a
“C” in my book, which stands for curious and that is exactly the reason to see
it…curiosity. Hopefully you are not
expecting must of else you are setting yourself up for a real letdown. The film sells itself as a Superhero genre
film, but like Warner’s Keanu Reeves disaster Constantine, is really a
Supernatural film in hip clothing.
Luckily Fox has done stellar work in the presentation department for
this DVD, which will at least assist in trying to tolerate the film.
- Nate Goss
