A follow up to the 2003 movie Daredevil starring Ben Affleck, the Elektra director’s cut provides a bonus scene answering how Elektra cheats death from her confrontation with Bullseye above the rooftops of Hell’s Kitchen. Released in January of 2005, a month when studios feel a movie has a better chance at the box office as opposed to a cluttered summer season. Elektra begins with a double opening sequence, the first being an animation. The animation is narrated by Terrance Stamp as his character of Stick, delivering an exposition of good versus evil. Stick explains that this Evil was given a name ‘The Hand’; and a girl who was destined to tip the balance of power in the war between good and evil. The second exposition is provided by Jason Isaacs as Mob boss DeMarco – to illustrate how relentless and efficient a contract killer Elektra is. Both exposition are intentionally vague and misguides the audience until a revelation halfway into the story and at the end of the movie.
The introduction does provide one valuable piece of information, that forces of good can master the art of Kimagure. The ability of precognition and resurrection being it’s the most powerful attributes; the idea that Jesus Christ could be a master of Kimagure did not escape me, but exploring the idea of a known pacifist and a secret martial arts master sounds more of a thesis instead of a blog; so I’m going to just accept the ground rules as told to us at the beginning of the movie.
In context of other Marvel properties of its time, the trilogy of Blade movies had concluded, Xmen and Xmen United had their theatrical release and Xmen Last Stand was slated to be release the following year of 2006. Spiderman 2, the most critically successful of the Tobey Maquire and Sam Raimi series was released into theatres in the summer of 2004, existing between Daredevil and Elektra’s theatrical runs, and as such the audience expectation for a resurrected assassin based on a Frank Miller creation was very high; Compounding the expectation was a heavily promoted Sin City which was set to release in April of that year, that Miller help Co-direct with Robert Rodriguez and concluding chapter of the Star Wars saga with Episode 3 Revenge of the Sith, set to be released in May. The 2000’s was no doubt a decade of big budget special effects and action set pieces. The Original Matrix Movie and the first Brendan Fraser’s The Mummy movie debuted in 1999, and had elevated a level of theatrical going experience for an action flick; the appetite for more sensational storytelling and epic special effects was in the air as both the Lord of the Rings Trilogy and the Matrix Trilogy had their saga close out in the summer of 2003, thus it was not too surprising that fans were taken a back from a more toned down and character driven movie that was Elektra.
Producer Avi Arad who was present at all Marvel properties while in production before their theatrical releases, has championed the concept of character to drive the motivation of the movie. The film must reflect the comic book characters, and their 10+ to 40+ year history. That history shapes what we see on screen and pleases an already vetted fan base. This is why the films we see contain memorable moments or lines of dialogues that stay with fans for decades. Director Rob Bowman pitched a character driven story over an action movie, and producers Gary Foster and Avi Arad who were instrumental in both Daredevil and Elektra jumped at Bowman’s proposal. Stuart Zicherman and M. Raven Metzner had drafted the initial script and Zak Penn took over the writing and did all the re-writes while the film was in production.
The movie, in the end under performed at the box office and critics and most fans panned the movie. Its star Jennifer Garner was the only shining highlight. Her performance as the title character and talent as an action star were attributes the audience were positive about, and as such Garner walked away from the movie relatively unscathed. As shooting began on May 4th and lasted for 62 days, Garner was also in her second season of Alias while filming the movie, Starting in Vancouver and finishing in LA. The shooting was choreographed mostly around Garner’s already established Alias schedule. That compounded Bowman to work around re-writes, scouting, and preparation. So his entire crew would shoot from 8 to 12 different locations in one day to maximize Garner’s availability. The scheduled reshoots was clearly defined once the film was largely edited; and began final preparations in fall of 2004, and the movie was ready one month before it theatrical launch.
The filmmakers under estimated the audience of the time, and now removed over two decades later the film is not as bad as it was first perceived amongst the noise of big budget motion pictures. An analogy to compare is Solo- A Star Wars story, the movie is wonderful movie when taken on its own value, its was doomed to fail because it’s based on an established story and beloved character. If the movie was called Cowboy Troy and the space pirates, it would have a better reception and lovingly being compared as giving homage to star wars. Elektra is not too different; it’s an established character about an assassin tempered to a pg-13 rating, with fewer action set pieces normally considered for the genre. As an independent movie like Sci/fy channel or Netflix, the film would find its niche audience, there are choices made both on screen and on the written page that can be argued. The movie is a step up from Daredevil, by the charisma of its lead, and not as over the top in its portrayal of its characters. It’s a colorful palette and host of unusual characters brings a curiosity, but just not enough bite.
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