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Elektra
EMAILPRINTTwentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 35 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 47 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Action | Adventure
Written by:
Raven Metzner
Stu Zicherman
Zak Penn (also story)
Frank Miller (character)
Directed by: Rob Bowman
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 14, 2005
DVD: April 5, 2005
Running Time: 95 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for action violence
Starring Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yun Lee, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp, Natassia Malthe, and Bob Sapp
Jennifer Garner returns as Elektra, a lethal synthesis of grace and power with the mystical power known as kimagure: a limited ability to see the future. She has purposefully severed all ties with the world and lives only for her next assignment. Elektra's latest job forces her to make a decision that can take her life in a whole new direction -- or destroy her. (20th Century Fox)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Daredevil Reign of Fire The X Files The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
Electric as Elektra, Jennifer Garner does a high-powered, blade-thrusting star turn as Marvel Comics' ninja-inspired superheroine, bringing such unbridled energy and sexuality to her performance, one barely notices the movie itself.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
The role needs a steely, inhuman reserve, and Garner's innate likeability works against her.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Benjamin Strong
The pedestrian Elektra offers no surprises, and whether or not you'll appreciate its modest charms depends entirely on whether you too have been anticipating Garner's new outfit.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Luke Y. Thompson
The fights are mostly cool, save the final one with too many quick cuts, and the morphing graffiti and tattoos are nifty. If only the rest of it weren't so stupid.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Leah McLaren
For the better part of this movie, Elektra appears to be a sensible, stylish young superhero.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
One of the least effective comic book-to-movie stories to have come along in the past few years. Without a viable screenplay, there's nowhere for the character to go, and no way to avoid making her look silly.
Read Full Review >Variety Brian Lowry
Elektra proves no more than fitfully satisfying, a character-driven superhero yarn whose flurry of last-minute rewriting shows in a disjointed plot.
Read Full Review >Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Watching this is like sitting by a pinsetter at a bowling alley. That's too bad, because the picture had potential.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
"Kill Bill" without irony, and without Quentin Tarantino's flair for cool dialogue and chop-socky action (and without Uma Thurman, for that matter), Elektra is a pretty-looking, pretty dull adaptation of the Marvel Comic about a dishy, deadly assassin.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Her (Garner) grace and mystical abilities make for a lonely burden, and we are supposed to feel her pain. Instead, we feel our own for having to sit through this silly movie.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum
This doesn't exactly set the world on fire, but I was charmed by its old-fashioned storytelling, which is refreshingly free of archness, self-consciousness, or "Kill Bill"-style wisecracks.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
An adequate but none-too-thrilling star vehicle for Jennifer Garner in flame-colored bustier and low-riding pants.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
A poorly written collection of comic-book movie cliches that offers nothing new to the genre, generates very little in the way of action thrills and plays like a self-important, humorless rip-off of "Kill Bill."
Read Full Review >The New York Times Manohla Dargis
No question, the film's best special effect is Ms. Garner, especially when she's in costume.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Charles Taylor
What's missing -- apart, of course, from a plot -- is any character development.
Read Full Review >Empire Helen O'Hara
Enormous plot holes and a script that’s fatally light on character mean there’s few selling points beyond Jennifer Garner's corset...
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Plays like a collision between leftover bits and pieces of Marvel superhero stories. It can't decide what tone to strike.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
We end up with a piece of B-grade junk in which Elektra exchanges "banter" with the unexceptional Prout between fight scenes so badly shot that even Garner looks like a stunt double.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Just as all regular models can't be supermodels, so all action chicks can't be superheroines. Elektra Natchios turns out to be walled off rather than mysteriously alluring; blank rather than deep.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Kim Morgan
When a movie makes you wish you were watching Halle Berry in "Catwoman," something is most definitely wrong.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
What it suffers from most is the sense of offhand storytelling that lies halfway between creative laziness and cost-cutting sloppiness.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
Along comes Elektra to effectively lower the bar for Marvel Comics page-to-screen transitions.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Long on cutlery and décor (including, of course, the marvelously decorative Ms. Garner, of the TV series "Alias") and woefully short on narrative.
Boston Globe Wesley Morris
As she sashays, mirthlessly, from one thankless confrontation to the next, it's unclear why anyone would find Garner any more deserving of stardom than certain mannequins.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Devotees of awful filmmaking can't go wrong with this one.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Another inert, soul-dead action drama that turns actors into zombies...It's garbage.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Peter Debruge
Part of the problem is that Garner, so irresistible on television and in last year's "13 Going on 30," just can't pull off the cold-hearted killer routine.
Read Full Review >Premiere Aaron Hillis
Lacks thrills, narrative, emotion, believability, character development--and frankly--watchability.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Pete Vonder Haar
Elektra isn't just poorly executed, it's emotionally false and makes absolutely no narrative sense.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 5.9 (out of 10) based on 47 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
[Anonymous] gave it a7:
I think that the movie coulda been better and nowhere as good as Daredevil, but it was actually entertaining.
David V gave it a1:
Boring, god awful movie. It's on par with Catwoman and Batman & Robin. Even Garner's performance was pretty bland.
Someone gave it a3:
The problem with this movie is it doesn't know what it wants to be. The first half has potential, going the way of an action-drama type film. But after the supervillians come in, it just turns into a dumb superhero film (and not just any dumb superhero film, this one attempts to redefine the meaning of the word dumb). It tries blending the two styles together but it doesn't work, they should have gone with one or the other. Also, while the story in the first half is good, the second half makes no sense and the whole thing just falls apart. The only reason to watch is Jennifer Garner.
Susan M. gave it an8:
I held off seeing this because Daredevil was so bad, but I actually ended up really liking it. I think the acting and story and great and there will be a sequel for sure!
Harvey C. gave it a3:
Boring. Almost no plot, very little character development. Action remarkably unentertaining.
Sam gave it a2:
It's a terrible movie, but I give those who made props for trying to make an artsy martial arts movie out of it. But it lacks the one thing that made Daredevil (in my opinion) enjoyable. Daredevil was a gritty action flick. it wasn't Sin City or Batman Begins gritty, but it was still gritty. There was a review that I agreed with most, and it wasn't recorded in metacritc. It was a plasma magazine, saying that it could've been a great, gritty, gory, and R-rated action flick, and it went with fantasy. That, other than the lame effects, action scenes, and performances, is what ruined the movie.
Anthony V gave it a1:
Gave it a chance, but it turned out to be one of the worst movies I've seen in a while. Garner's performance was the only decent thing about it.
