"She's an urban legend"
Before watching this movie I did not know much about this character from the Marvel comics. Elektra died in "Daredevil", but she was brought back from the dead by the Masters. The problem is that now both sides, good and evil, seek her out. She is currently working as a gun-for-hire and is asked to go to an island and wait for instructions regarding her next mission. While she is waiting, she meets a father and daughter living in isolation and trying home-schooling. As soon as Elektra starts to get close to this people, she finds out that they are her target!

Compared to "Daredevil", I would say that "Elektra" walks more into the fantastic side, with elements of future seeing, the use of animals to see distant events and other supernatural powers. In this sense, it is more in line with other Marvel comics, like X-Men. The action scenes are not at the level of "Daredevil" though, which is a shame, since Jennifer Garner is the perfect choice for this type of scenes.

Elektra has flashbacks from her childhood and we also get to see some of the events that developed between the time she was brought back from the dead and the current moment. This gives us some information that is helpful for understanding this character, but the development stops there. I would say that overall the film is OK, and allows us to spend some time entertained; but that is all there is to this production. If you are a fan of Marvel, then you definitely have to see it, but for the rest of you I would say do not bother.

ELECTRA?? COME ON YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING!?
First off the fact that this movie got made before an Iron-Man, Thor,Captain American and The Avengers, and the list goes on movies is ridiculous!I thought Daredevil was good, it could have been better,but I was fairly happy with the end result. I bought the director's cut ,but have not gotten around to watching it yet.I have heard it is much better than the original. OK now back to Electra. This movie is boring, stupid, poorly acted and.....do I need to continue? They should have worked on Daredevil 2 instead of this piece of garbage! Unless your a completest Marvel movie nut,avoid this one at all cost!

Save Your Money
If you liked the theatrical cut of Elektra, you might be wondering: is it worth the money to buy the director's cut? I would say no. Differences in the two cuts are minimal. If you've seen one, you've pretty much seen the other.

Director Rob Bowman writes that he spent approximately 14 weeks "personally handcrafting the movie [director's cut] for home theatre" in that he "re-color-timed every shot, changed some of the music, added in new footage, added visual effects" and remixed the sound specifically for a home theatre system. Maybe when you're as close to the work as Bowman all that makes a great difference, but as the end recipient of all that effort, honestly, I can barely tell the difference.

So if the director's cut itself isn't worth the price of admission, what of the special features on the second disk? They're fairly lame. I was especially disappointed by the history of Elektra in comics. On several Marvel movie DVDs lately an "extra" has been an in-depth history of a particular comic book/character, from its beginning to the present, and interviews with many of the creative folk who've worked it over the years. In particular the retrospectives on the Punisher and Avengers were both excellent.

That is not the case with the Elektra retrospective. The interviews with important creators (Frank Miller, Klaus Janson, Bill Sienkiewicz, Brian Michael Bendis, Greg Rucka) are all there, but the material is presented in an extremely disjointed fashion, and there are many obscure references to other creators, other storylines, other industry personnel spread throughout that are never followed up on or explained. This will all be horribly confusing to anyone but a long-term, hardcore comics fan. I've been collecting comics for decades and have read most of the stories featuring Elektra so I was able to follow what was said; actually there was little here that was new to me. But as I watched this thing I was struck, again and again, by the thought that, had I been simply the average, non-comics-geek moviegoer, there were so many moments when I would have had no idea what they were talking about.

As to the Elektra movie per se, I liked it. And that surprised me because I despised everything about the Daredevil film including Jennifer Garner's Elektra. The Elektra movie is much better. I have to give Garner credit, after the critical drubbing and mediocre box office response accorded Daredevil, for having the guts to revisit the character. Having now watched her play Elektra in a decent movie, I realize that in Daredevil, along with everyone else in the film, Jennifer Garner was simply the victim of a bad script and director.

I give the theatrical cut of Elektra four stars. Not a great movie, but a pretty darn good little super-hero flick. I give the director's cut one star, not because it's any worse than the theatrical cut, but because it's not significantly different, thus can't justify its own existence.

Exceeded expectations
I put off seeing this movie for over two years because it had been so widely panned by both critics and moviegoers. But, I rented it as part of a two-for-one deal at my local videostore and was glad I did.

Is Elektra a great movie? No. But it's good. Make no mistake, Batman Begins was a better film all the way around, but Elektra had similar elements, particularly in the back stories (both heroes lost parents when they were young, both were trained in ninjitsu and other martial arts.) Elektra was a bit darker, for lack of a better term, than other Marvel comics-turned films such as The Hulk, X-Men or The Fantastic Four.

In essence, Elektra is a martial arts film. It has many asian elements and themes. While many comic book superheroes acquire their powers by mutation, radiation or some other technological disaster or circumstance, Elektra's powers are mystical and learned, giving the story an eastern, not western, flavor.

The action sequences are well done. The scenes are nicely shot. Very little of what takes place is so unbelievable as to be silly or ridiculous. Jennifer Garner brings much of Alias to this role but it works.

I'm not sure I would buy this movie but it's worth a rental, especially if you like action/adventure films.

Quiet possibly the worst movie ever
Not even Jennifer Garner in tight clothes could make this movie worth a second watch or first watch come to think of it. AVOID AT ALL COST.