Killer of a costume!

Evening Chronicle (Newcastle, England), May 27, 2005

Elektra (Cert 12, 92 mins, Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, Action/Thriller/Romance, also available to buy DVD pounds 15.99/VHS pounds 12.99).

Starring: Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout, Will Yun Lee, Colin Cunningham, Terence Stamp, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa.

Almost two years after the comic book adventure Daredevil, svelte and sexy heroine Elektra (Garner, pictured right) rises from the grave.

Left for dead, Elektra is mysteriously resurrected by blind martial arts master Stick (Stamp), who hones her prowess and martial arts skills.

However, there is a dark rage inside of Elektra, fuelled by the brutal murder of her parents. Abandoned by her mentor, she reinvents herself as an assassin for hire, with middle-man McCabe (Cunningham) brokering the deals.

Elektra's newest target, feisty 12-year-old Abby Miller (Prout), has a marked effect. The assassin sees much of herself in the fiercely independent girl and she vows to save the youngster and her father Mark (Visnjic), who are on the run from a syndicate known as The Hand. Elektra hopes that saving Abby and Mark will provide some sort of personal redemption. Unfortunately, first she must overcome master swordsman Kirigi (Lee) and his freakish henchmen.

Elektra is a hotch-potch of half-baked themes and ideas. The screenwriters struggle to mesh the central surrogate mother-daughter storyline with a romantic subplot and all of the usual, gravity-defying action sequences. Lovey-dovey interludes between Elektra and Mark add nothing to the film; Garner and Visnjic don't share enough screen time to catalyse any kind of sexual chemistry.

Garner is luminous: She brings a grace and emotional depth to her role, which far exceeds the film's limited scope. Physically, she also fits the bill magnificently.

Unfortunately, supporting characters are strictly two-dimensional and the most thrilling aspect of the stunt work is Elektra's skimpy red costume ( an S&M-like vision of red ribbon ( which seems highly unsuitable for covert work in the rain-swept outdoors. Director Rob Bowman directs with the minimum of flair or brio.

DVD Extras: "Elektra Incarnations" featurette, "Making Of" featurette, three deleted scenes with optional director commentary, Inside Look: fantastic Four, Inside Look: Ice Age 2.