When filmmakers announced that Elektra was spinning out of Daredevil and into her own movie, it sounded like a great idea. Jennifer Garner's stardom is still rising, and she was the best aspect of Daredevil. Wow, Garner showcasing her Alias talents in her own movie! Sounds great, right? After watching, or more fittingly, suffering through Elektra, the answer is a resounding NO. This movie is horrible. It is a dreadful bore that is an orgy of quick editing. Worse, Elektra is a dull rock. One of Garner's (13 Going on 30, Daredevil) best attributes as an actress is her irresistible charm. The filmmakers of Elektra made the unwise decision to gut her personality takes away all of Garner's charm. Giving her OCD does not count as personality.

Elektra takes place a few years after her 'death' in Daredevil. She is now alone, searching for her place in the world. She is again an assassin, taking jobs with ruthless precision. Her current job requires her to kill Mark Miller (Goran Visnjic, Close Your Eyes, Ice Age) and his daughter Abby (Kristen Prout, Rudolfa's Revenge, Mindstorm). However, their predicament reminds Elektra of her childhood, and her mother's violent death, so she decides not to take the job. The Hand, a group of ninjas, want the Millers dead, so Elektra must now protect them. Helping her is her blind mentor Stick (Terrence Stamp, The Haunted Mansion, My Boss's Daughter). Elektra discovers that the Hand is after Abby because she has a secret.

See, Elektra's got daddy issues, and sees a smaller version of herself in Abby. There is also a reason that Elektra is such a mopey grumpypants, but it takes most of the film for the reason to come out, and but it still doesn't feel like realistic. The story credits go to Raven Metzner, Frank Miller (who created the character), Zak Penn (Suspect Zero, Incident at Loch Ness), and Stu Zicherman (2000 AD). That's a lot of people to come up with a lot of nothing. There are some super baddies who do things like martial arts, have tattoos that come to life, and can kill with kisses. Most of the film is a jumble, with Garner trying to look angry, and a lot of bad fight scenes.

These are not just bad, they are exceptionally bad. Director Rob Bowman (Reign of Fire, Airborne) refuses to stay with a shot for more than a few seconds. Each fight scene is a quick succession of cuts jumping from one view to another, usually shot extremely tightly with a mess of CGI mixed into the bag. By cutting so quickly from one move to another, Bowman effectively ruins the effect of watching the fight. It looks like a bunch of random disconnected punches and kicks rather than a complete fight. When he does back off to show the entire view, he overkills on slow motion and high wire stunts. Why watch Garner fight Will Yun Lee (Torque, Die Another Day) with billowing sheets around them when they can watch a much better rendition in Hero? The climactic fight scenes take place in a maze of shrubbery. Yes, a maze of shrubbery. It sounds dumb, and does not fail to disappoint on this aspect.