Elektra Review

(As a manga otaku, not a comic otaku, I will strive to reflect on connections to the comic canon or lack thereof in the films I review, animated or live action. I owe that much to the real fans)

Elektra as a film is not a direct sequel to Daredevil, more of a spin off. Supposedly the film barely made enough in the box office to necessitate the sequel, but I do remember it coming out in theatres, though I didn’t get the DVD until probably a year after its release. It advertises itself as an action fantasy adventure, owing to Elektra’s more mystical background as an assassin/ninja. As usual with any adaptation, there are discrepancies with the canon, but I’ll get to that as we progress. So onto the even less popular Marvel Comics film, Elektra.

We’re told of an ancient war between Good and Evil (because capitalization makes things really important) that has been waged for millennia. The conflict can take place between countries or in the soul of an individual (hinting at Elektra no doubt). The narrator also mentions a special woman who is meant to be used as a weapon, called the Treasure. An unnamed man hides at an undisclosed location, trying to avoid Elektra, which he has managed to do for some time, even being protected by the Hand, the present manifestation of the Evil spoken of in the introduction, but Elektra still manages to defeat every bodyguard the man puts in front of her. Elektra’s new look is shown and she quickly kills her target. We shift to a meeting headed by Roshi, the leader of the Hand, where it’s mentioned that they are looking for the Treasure and trying to keep it out of their enemy’s hands. Kirigi, Roshi’s son, notes that he is better suited for the job, Roshi sending another man and urging Kirigi to be patient. Elektra is approached by her manager, McCabe, about a new job, which she notes is quite expensive and must be specifically for her, which McCabe confirms. She accepts and en route to the location, she flashbacks to her being resurrected by her previous master Stick, and her training in Kimagure, the art used by the Good to combat the Evil that is the Hand. Elektra is told she does not understand the way, but only pain and violence which was what led her there before and after her resurrection. Elektra has another flashback to training with her father as she swims following her OCD organization of the house (involving fruits and toiletries). She comes in and catches Abby, a girl who was stealing a necklace of Elektra’s, sending her off. She’s woken up by a nightmare about her mother’s death and after training for most of the morning, meets Abby’s father. Later, Abby comes to invite Elektra for Christmas dinner, Elektra reluctantly accepting. At dinner, Elektra notes Abby’s Indonesian warrior beads after becoming adjusted to what is no doubt something uncommon for her (socializing with people not related to business). She observes Abby and her father’s interaction, reflecting her commonality to Abby (both being motherless and Elektra in particular orphaned, though pressured by her father in training) and disappearing abruptly. The next morning, Elektra gets the information from her clients, indicating that she’s to kill Abby and her father, a shock that she doesn’t take very well, going against her duty for once and stopping herself from killing them just as she has a clear shot. After realizing she can’t do it, Elektra nearly leaves, turning back at the last moment and stopping two assassins from the Hand (who explode into green smoke; must be a Hand ninja thing, because that’s what they’re dressed like, stereotypical ninja). Kirigi and his other fellow “ninjas” Stone, Typhoid, Tattoo and Kinkou (Kinkou a random character not based on any Marvel character in the slightest, the others based off of Marvel or Elektra characters) are given the task to find the Treasure and if they succeed, Kirigi will lead the council in Roshi’s place. Elektra finds Stick at a pool hall (bringing Mark and Abby along to protect them), but Stick refuses to help them. Elektra says she can’t help them either, but goes against this to take Abby and Mark to a safe place. Tattoo’s bird tracks them, allowing the assassins to continue to hunt Abby and Mark for reasons still yet unknown. Elektra brings them to McCabe’s place to lay low for a while, Abby changing her appearance and bonding with Elektra a bit, while Mark and Elektra hit it off in a more romantic direction (not like one shouldn’t expect such a subplot in any such movie to draw in females, even though the film’s protagonist is a female). Kirigi’s group manages to find them thanks to Tattoo’s eagle and McCabe holds them off, to no avail, as Kirigi finds out where they’re headed already and then kills McCabe. Typhoid, Stone and Tattoo, along with Kinkou, chase the three, Stone and Kinkou eliminated. It’s shown that Abby can actually fight and Kirigi reveals that she is the Treasure they’re searching for, though what that is has not yet been revealed. Stick and some white ninjas save the group from Kirigi as they retreat, Elektra saved from Typhoid’s poisonous lesbian kiss by Stick. Abby is revealed to have been a prodigy, which is why the Hand wants her. And unless she stays with Stick and the Kimagure clan, she isn’t safe. Abby and Elektra train a bit and Elektra sees a bit of herself in Abby. She then calls a single battle between her and Kirigi, going back to her family’s house to finish their conflict once and for all. The fight goes badly for Elektra until Abby comes in. The two escape and after being chased by Tattoo’s snakes, Elektra manages to kill him as he’s in the trance summoning them. Abby is caught off guard by Typhoid who poisons her, while Elektra finally gains the edge against Kirigi and slays him, quickly killing Typhoid afterwards. She then finds Abby, on the brink of death, but after a sudden enlightenment, she gains a new perspective on things and manages to revive Abby. Abby and her dad leave, while Elektra is inspired to pursue her new perspective on life by Stick, leaving her house as the film ends.

Jennifer Garner does Elektra very well, just as she did in Daredevil. Her personality this time was changed drastically, less sassy and more emotionless, cynical at best (since she died and came back to life and all, I’d bet she’s kind of moody). Her background is extended further as well, but still portraying a ninja assassin in red clothes excellently. Terence Stamp as Stick is good as well even if he is minor in his involvement. His role as a master to Elektra is crucial to really understanding the position Elektra came from and why she has to suffer in order to learn from her mistakes and redeem herself as a person. Kirsten Prout portrays Abby Miller, starting off as a teenager with authority issues and advancing into something of a mini clone of Elektra, though much more outgoing and suffering less than Elektra has in her short 13 years so far. Even losing her mother and being pressured as a prodigy is not nearly as much as Elektra has gone through and she makes you hope that she won’t go through so much in the future. Will Yun Lee is Kirigi, the one villain I found to be compellingly evil and someone that you can see virtue in with his respect for the divisions between the Hand and Kimagure as well as his slow and methodical way of fighting through the film. His ambition to control the Hand is admirable as well, albeit one might think he would’ve been willing to kill Roshi, but his father’s role was minor and actually unresolved as to what his fate was, though perhaps Roshi expected Kirigi to fail since he was not taking his advice to be patient. The other enemy ninjas are interesting as side characters, as is McCabe, all dying relatively uneventfully. Kirigi is not the last to die, Typhoid dying last probably since she said she was originally the Treasure, not revealed beforehand or even indicated. The flatness of these minor characters is a flaw the film suffers from in leaving so many plotlines unresolved or not delved into enough, such as Roshi’s fate and why Typhoid was originally the Treasure and not Kirigi, which would reinforce his desire to take her as his student. Daredevil is only referenced in the Director’s Cut in a single scene, when his background with Elektra might’ve served a useful role in the narrative.

The primary theme is the battle between good and evil (on the various levels: Hand v. Kimagure and Elektra’s internal struggle esp.) and how Elektra demonstrates that even the truly good must sometimes resort to violence to combat the truly evil. Elektra advances as a character, understanding herself and that her true nature is not evil or cold hearted, but feels and suffers and can therefore recover. Her recovery takes place through the film, connecting with Abby and her father and even reconnecting with Stick through his sagely, albeit vague, advice. There is also the relationship between Elektra and Abby in particular, both being pressured in some sense to face a destiny that they don’t want. Elektra was shown to have been trained by her father harshly (though in Daredevil she said it was the various sensei that made her strong, so already the continuity of the films is ruined) and Abby is a natural prodigy, possessing enough potential to be hunted down by the Hand and also pressured into staying with the Kimagure to stay safe, even though she herself doesn’t want this life. Her eventual resurrection by Elektra mirrors Elektra’s shown through flashbacks. Both of these revivals serve as focal points for the characters to pursue a new path and improve themselves. Elektra’s path took much longer, though she worries for Abby as well, but there is also the possibility that since Elektra influenced her, Abby may turn out even better.

The film progresses at a decent pace, but the action is less exciting than I recall. The fights against the two assassins are either nonexistent or Elektra dodging darts. And concerning Kirigi’s thugs, Stone is killed by the tree he knocked down, Kinkou by his own knife, Tattoo by his neck being broken as he sits in a trance, Kirigi by getting stabbed in the gut by Elektra as he rushes at her and Typhoid by a carefully thrown sai. The fight scenes seem to rely too much on the special effects and less on real choreography for hand to hand or even weapon to weapon combat. Kirigi in particular is an example of a failure on both parts, the weapon fighting scenes too short for what they could be and the use of the illusion of the flying tablecloths also ruining what could’ve been a good fight, now more visually confusing than necessary (his super speed effect already a challenge to Elektra). The progression of Elektra’s personality and relationships with Abby and Stick I can view as necessary (along with the general build up to the epic final battle between the representatives of the Hand and Kimagure), but for all the fight scenes promised, the film disappoints heavily. Even Daredevil had more in depth fight scenes than this and that had its own distracting problem with the romantic subplot which had some value regardless. This film would get one of my lowest ratings so far in hindsight after being so enthralled in it as a teen (possibly by the kunoichi appeal of Elektra and just seeing Jennifer Garner in a much more skimpy outfit). The star rating would be a 3 out of 5, due to the imbalance of a fair plot progression with a fantasy/ninja theme of good versus evil on the one hand and short lived or anticlimactic fight scenes and poor advancement of plotlines, such as the Treasure, etc, on the other. The recommendation would be around 50%, since it is some exposure to Elektra, even if they reversed at least one character’s role (Stone was originally a good guy in the comics) underpowered Kirigi as well (he could regenerate and was super strong, near invincible, in the comics) and even raped the continuity established in Elektra (since her father was not only changed to a direct training role, but the actor changed to a younger male, her father in Daredevil a white haired elderly man). I can’t take this movie as much more than pulling Elektra from Daredevil and trying to put her in a sequel film to cash in on her sex appeal and potential draw to female fans of comics, neither of which works especially well. It falls on both accounts: her sex appeal is subtle and not nearly what you’d expect even with her outfit redesigned, and her appeal to females hinges on her clairvoyant powers and also the use of what might be understood as a more female weapon in the sai, not to mention her physical toughness is less than expected. Disappointing on the one hand, but still possessing potential on the other. This could be extended into a television series and I would watch it, especially if you progressively introduced Elektra’s backstory as well as slowly intertwine her story with that of Abby’s as the Treasure, hunted by the Hand. All in all, this was a somewhat depressing but still heartening endeavor. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha.

Daredevil Review

(As a manga otaku, not a comic otaku, I will strive to reflect on connections to the comic canon or lack thereof in the films I review, animated or live action. I owe that much to the real fans)

Daredevil is my second favorite Marvel character besides the Punisher. The fact that he is a disabled character and yet able to fight off much stronger characters already makes him stand out; plus he’s one of the few noteworthy blind heroes that people can name from memory. It might be the costume that reminds you of a devil with the horns, it might be the weapon combat with billyclubs combined with the acrobatics that are less than believable with a blind character feeling it the whole way, but the character from Hell’s Kitchen in New York has persisted through the decades and this live action film attests to it (however much many may not enjoy it). I know I didn’t think much of it initially, seeing the ending fight between Daredevil and Kingpin and thinking it was cool, but not to the extent I’d want to buy the film. And about 4 years later, I watched the film and promised myself I’d review it soon in the future. So now I’ll make good on that promise.

The credits open with what are apparently Braille versions of the main four actors’ names, changing to regular characters, which is a nice start. We have a flash forward to events much later in the film with Daredevil falling into a church, bleeding profusely and being found by the priest there. He then begins to flash through his life, beginning as a child of a semi-retired boxer, Jack “the Devil” Murdock. Living in the slums of Hell’s Kitchen, Matt was bullied, but his father taught him that he can do anything if he’s not afraid. He finds his father beating a guy up for protection money, discovering he is working for Falen, a crime boss in the city. Running away, he is involved in an accident and is blinded by an unknown chemical. He wakes up with enhanced hearing to the point he has sonar like vision, his initial exposure showing his great weakness of sharp and sudden loud noises. He and his father then began to work towards their goals. His father gets back into boxing and Matt begins to self-train himself to adjust to his blindness with the aid of his “Daredevil vision”. Stan Lee makes a short appearance at 13 minutes in as the story progresses into Murdock Sr. being pressured to throw a fight, which he rejects. But afterwards, he is beaten to death by Falen’s goons, orphaning Matt, but pushing him to two goals: to become a lawyer to defend the less fortunate, but also becoming the crime-fighter alias, Daredevil. We shift to Matt as an adult, sleeping in a water coffin to guard against the sounds of the night, living cheaply and frugally as a lawyer. He fails to convict a man of rape, the guy getting off because of his status in contrast to the woman with a history of drug and alcohol abuse. His frustration is justified and he proceeds to take justice into his own hands later, Quesada (the man in question) falling onto the subway tracks and being summarily run over. An investigator into Daredevil’s urban legend, Ben Urich, reveals Daredevil’s interesting mark he leaves at the scenes of his “crimes”, overlapping D’s. Matt returns home to reveal his failing love life, which we’ll get into later. He goes to confessional, speaking to his priest about his being Daredevil, the priest reflecting that his path of violence is only going to hurt him in the end (also indicating he knows he is Daredevil). Matt and his partner Franklin run into an unknown woman whom Matt pursues. The two turn out to both be quite skilled fighters, Matt learning the woman’s name is Elektra Natchios. We shift to Kingpin, speaking with who appears to be Elektra’s father about business issues. Elektra and Matt hit it off after their fight and Kingpin sets a plan in motion to make Elektra’s father out to be the Kingpin. He also calls for the assassin Bullseye, an Irish expert in turning anything into a throwing weapon, including a paperclip and a peanut in two different situations. Meanwhile, Daredevil chases down another of Kingpin’s thugs, scaring the crap out of a kid in the process, Matt insisting he’s not the bad guy. The next day, Matt finds he’s been invited to a party at the hotel Elektra’s dad owns, but he insists he shouldn’t even bother going since she’s out of his league. He later meets Elektra and their relationship takes a turn for the better, no doubt motivating Matt to go to the ball. Though he is pressured by Elektra to stay with her even though the audience knows he hears a man being roughed up by Kingpin’s thugs elsewhere. At the party, Matt and his partner meet Wilson Fisk, the real Kingpin, but Matt’s adherence to his code of justice makes him something of an enemy already. Matt meets Elektra and the two speak on their relationship a bit, Elektra scared at how her meeting Matt seems too good to be true and Matt feeling bad that he can’t see Elektra all dressed up as she is. Bullseye obtains a motorcycle, while Kingpin puts a rose in Nikolaos Natchio’s breast pocket, indicating that he has been marked to be killed. He and Elektra leave Matt at the party. Bullseye finds the Natchios’ limo and takes out the drivers, fighting against Daredevil (missing for the first time) and then using Daredevil’s club to impale Elektra’s father, making Elektra think Daredevil murdered him as Bullseye gets away. Elektra meets Matt at the funeral and insists she must seek revenge, Matt pleading with her to stay with him and forget vengeance, which she rejects as she leaves. Ben Urich is shown that the Daredevil club recovered at the murder scene resembles Matt Murdock’s walking cane. Kingpin then sends Bullseye to kill Elektra, allowing him to kill Daredevil if he can as well. Ben Urich tells Matt that he thinks Natchios was set up by the real Kingpin, while elsewhere Elektra trains to kill Daredevil. Elektra ambushes Matt and eventually manages to overwhelm and injure him with one of her sai. After realizing she killed Matt, she is stunned. Then Bullseye shows up and begins to turn the tables, killing her with her own sai. Daredevil escapes and we shift to the scene from the opening as Bullseye bursts in to fight and kill Daredevil in the church. The two fight up the organ and into the upper belfry, where Bullseye uses stained glass shards as weapons after running out of his own supply. Daredevil is then disoriented by Bullseye striking one of the bells and causing other reverberations, also discovering that Fisk is the Kingpin but fate strikes as Bullseye’s hands are struck by a sniper’s bullet through Daredevil’s use of his radar vision, allowing Matt to knock him out of the top of the building onto a cop car. Elsewhere, Fisk tells his security to go home and prepares to fight Daredevil himself. Kingpin’s brutal style (created to take advantage of his size and strength) initially gives Matt a difficult time, but with creative use of the sprinkler system, he defeats Kingpin, disabling him by taking out his knees. Kingpin threatens to reveal his identity, but Daredevil retorts that he doubts he’d be bragging about getting beaten by a blind man. The next day, after leaving the coffee shop, Matt finds evidence that Elektra may still be alive. Also, Ben Urich reveals he knew Matt’s identity and leaves him to continue to protect the city, his alias safe.

Ben Affleck portrays Matt Murdock and Daredevil both very well. The attitude as a smooth talking lawyer raised in the slums is excellent and the Daredevil stunts, while not all done by a person (some in CG) are reminiscent of Spiderman’s moves. Jennifer Garner as Elektra is great as well, the depiction accessible to a non-comic audience with her attire adjusted, her personality and brutality from her training still maintained. Michael Clarke Duncan plays one of the two more controversial characters, Wilson Fisk/Kingpin. The original character is white and a bit more heavyset than Duncan, but I find that Duncan brings a good portrayal of what was his favorite character as a child. The important part of Kingpin is not his race so much as what he stands for, a heavyset businessman willing to go to blows to protect his reputation and economic status. Colin Farrell does Bullseye, another somewhat objectionable character in relation to comic canon. He had no Irish accent originally and the outfit was adjusted significantly, the bullseye on his forehead now an imprint/brand instead of part of his black full body suit from the comics. The insane demeanor and malice directed towards his targets is done just as well and I think that’s what’s important to his character. Joe Pantoliano does the minor character Ben Urich, who I feel has importance in a similar way that Detective Soap did to Frank Castle in Punisher Warzone, as a person who develops into a confidante for the character. Urich’s position as a reporter does differ from Soap’s, who is more in the police force than Urich, who is only indirectly involved, but he still stands out as a pseudo sidekick to the horned avenger.

One theme runs through the film: justice as blind and yet able to hear (as Matt puts it). The blindness of justice is reflected in Elektra’s character, that she seeks out revenge in a Punisher fashion and it gets her killed. The blindness of love is also part of this since Matt and Elektra would have been happy had the Kingpin and Bullseye not gotten involved. The whole tragedy of their romance is a subtheme in itself and a subplot that many find distracting. The director’s cut does have a subplot that I imagine delves more into the dark nature of Daredevil, but I’d have to look into that in the future. Justice being able to hear is reflected with Daredevil and his initial weakness to the various sounds, eventually maturing to be able to focus on particular sounds to find his targets and using the understanding he has of his radar sense to defeat Kingpin. The fact that he has to slowly understand that justice should not resort to killing people is also related to his premise that justice can hear even if she is blind. Initially we see Matt as heartless in his quest for justice as Daredevil, but slowly realizing that he must not become the bad guy or even appear as such. He must be firm against evil, but not resort to evil as it is. His Catholic background reflects on this in a sense with the popular understanding of Catholic exorcists as having understanding of evil, but not using evil to cast it out to use the Biblical turn of phrase.

All in all the film deserves a good rating, even if it doesn’t reflect the exact tone of the comics, which was close to Punisher without becoming excessively violent. Not to mention there is the masked aspect of this comic, making Daredevil a good comparison in Marvel to DC Comics’ Batman. The conformity to the canon of the comic is altered with regards to Matt’s father not being the indirect cause of Matt’s blindness, since in the comics Matt saved a blind man, which then initiated the spill of the radioactive substance in his eyes. There was also a subplot I read about involving Daredevil’s first girlfriend Karen Page, which was included in the Director’s cut in more detail. At least they did that, unlike in Spiderman where Gwen Stacy is cut out completely as a character. A decent 4 out of 5, because of the difficulty of really getting into this cut with the distractions of the romantic subplot and less emphasis on the crime-fighting as Daredevil, but still an 80% recommendation since it does introduce people to what is no doubt one of Marvel’s popular underdogs. Until next time, Namaste and Aloha.