ELEKTRA

US, 2005, 100 minutes, Colour.
Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yun Lee, Cary- Hiroyuki Tagawa, Terence Stamp.
Directed by Rob Bowman.

Rob Bowman is best known as the director of The X Files. He is still dealing with material where fiction is stranger than fiction and brings quite a visual flair to a story that does not always make logical sense but is hurrying on to the next episode.

Elektra appeared as a character in the film version of the Marvel Comics, Daredevil. She seems to have been despatched to her eternal reward. But, no, we find that she did die but has achieved a lively resuscitation – with empathy for those who have died violently. However, her new profession is as a paid assassin, so she does not mind too much despatching her marks. When she finds that a sympathetic neighbour and his daughter are her next targets, she wisely uses her intuitive powers, her contact with a group of supernatural power-hungry martial arts experts known as ‘The Hand’, and the Master who seems to have rejected her from the kind of training establishment that Uma Thurman and Daryl Hannah attended in Kill Bill Volume 2. The Master is an elegantly enunciating Terence Stamp – who seems to have the ability to appear out of nowhere, even in battle fatigues for some reason.

Elektra is Jennifer Garner looking spectacularly fit in exotic costumes and, despite the dangers and her previous death, coming off best against The Hand assassins who can be hurled into eternity at the swipe of a sword.

So, this is what Elektra is all about, a daft mixture of action, romance, comedy and special effects (and a somewhat obnoxious teenager who turns out to be the key to everything and will be the Elektra of her generation).

This review may not have given the right impression. Despite its being preposterous, let yourself go and it is a guilty pleasure.

1.The popularity of comic-strip heroes and heroines? Action film? Good versus evil, right and wrong? Heroics? Violent solutions?

2.Marvel Comics, their stories, the human and the heroic, heroes with extra powers?

3.Elektra as a female hero, audience response, the paid assassin? Her seeming failure in her training? The appeal to her emotions? Change? Stick and his blessing on her?

4.The visual style, light and dark, shadow, the colour, action, editing and pace? Musical score?

5.The prologue, Stick and the training, good versus evil, the history of the struggle, the visuals and tapestries? The Hand? The good versus the evil? The Treasure tipping the balance? The quest to get the treasure?

6.De Marco, sitting in his room, telling the story about Elektra, her pursuit, his waiting, the atmosphere, his protectors dying? The confrontation with Elektra? His death?

7.Elektra in herself, appearance, clothes? The domestic scenes, cleaning everything, having everything in order? Her agent, the discussion about cases and fees? The flashbacks to her training, Stick dismissing her? Her worries?

8.Terence Stamp as Stick, the sage, his sayings, blind? The pool match and his prediction? His later coming to Elektra’s rescue? His change of heart towards her?

9.Elektra going to the next mission, completing the order in the house, the swim – and the memories of her struggles to swim as a little girl? The encounter with Abby, her stealing? Meeting Mark, the concern about the theft, the invitation to Christmas Dinner? The talk? The information that they were the targets? Her inability to kill them?

10.The importance of the childhood memories, Elektra as a little girl, the difficulties, her mother?

11.The alternate killer, the rain, Mark and Abby talking, Elektra and the fight, saving their lives? The assassin vanishing in the smoke? The meeting of the Hand? The crow spy and getting information? The family and the escape? Elektra taking them to Stick, the pool, his rejection, talking about her atonement?

12.The ambitious martial arts hero, assassin, with the superior of the Hand? His magic, the birds, the attack on the house? The fight in the woods? The former Treasure? The symbolic animals and the fights?

13.The blind Stick, his minions, arriving to rescue Elektra? The training? The revelation of Abby as the Treasure?

14.Elektra and her deal with the assassin, the deal to beat the Hand and save Abby? The confrontations, the fights, the swords, the room with the sheets? The hero defeated, down the well? Restoring the balance?

15.The happy ending, Elektra continuing on her mission, not going with Mark and his daughter? The role of this kind of hero/heroine?