Elektra

A none too Marvel-lous spin-off from ‘Daredevil’, with willowy Garner reprising her role as sexy assassin Elektra. She died in ‘Daredevil’, but is resurrected by her blind ex-sensei and mentor, Stick (Stamp). Initially a nihilistic loner, Elektra gets to show her touchy-feely side when, instead of slaying Mark Miller (Visnjic) and his bratty 13-year old daughter Abby (Kirsten Prout), she saves them from The Hand’s acrobatic Ninja assassins. Elektra sees herself in the troubled, rebellious Abby, who also lost her mother at a young age. Aaaah. Apparently, director Bowman wanted the audience to ‘root for Elektra to triumph over her own inner darkness.’ Big mistake. What they want to see is Elektra beating the shit out of villain Kirigi (Yun Lee) and his X-Men-style side-kicks: disease-dealing Typhoid, man-mountain Stone, bendy-boy Kinkou and the animalistic Tattoo. Instead, the kick-ass gets sidelined while Elektra battles with her emotions. The influence of Far Eastern martial arts movies is everywhere apparent: the forest scene in which multiple assassins glide down from the treetops is lifted directly from ‘House of Flying Daggers’.