Today’s recording starts with the end of an episode of Wife Swap.
Then we have Elektra. I’m sure I must have watched this before, but I have no memory whatsoever of it. Maybe I just think I did because I watched Daredevil.
The film opens with a bit of a surprise, and it’s Hello to Jason Isaacs, although it took me a minute or so to recognise him as he was doing his American accent, which is pretty good.
I perked up at this, before realising the nature of the film I’m watching, and it’s obvious that he’s the target of an assassin here, as he’s got lots of security, none of which appears to help, as the eponymous Elektra arrives, and makes short work of them. She’s played by Jennifer Garner, and her first appearance looks like she’s in a shampoo commercial. I’m sure having your hair blowing around like it’s just been Timotei’d can’t be practical, neither can the skimpy red costume, but that’s how Frank Miller designed her, so what can they do?
And pretty soon it’s Goodbye to Jason Isaacs. (I stole that joke off my daughter.)
There’s a mysterious organisation called The Hand, run by Cary-Hiroyuki Tanaga, who are look for “The Weapon”.
There’s a lot of flashback in this movie. Here’s Terence Stamp as Stick, who was teaching her the ability to stop time and see into the future, until he chucked her out of the school. We also get a glimpse of her father, who appears to be rather strict and controlling.
While she’s staying in a house on a lake, she meets a young girl called Abby, who broke into the house.
She meets Abby’s father, and tells him about his daughter breaking into the house. Then Abby comes back to ask her to join them for Christmas (yes, weirdly, this is a Christmas film). Her father, Mark Miller, is played by Goran Visnjic, and he wasn’t expecting a guest for Christmas, but welcomes her anyway.
She finally gets the assignment she was waiting at the house for, and in a shock twist, she’s supposed to kill both Mark and Abby. I guess the person paying for the hit didn’t ask for it to look like an accident. But Elektra can’t bring herself to do it, and tells her agent she’s not doing the job.
But there are other assassins on the way, so Elektra also has to help the Millers. She kills one on their roof, which then vanishes in a puff of green smoke, which for some reason was the moment when I lost some interest in this film. I haven’t read enough of the comics to know if this is commonplace, but for some reason, here I found it a bit tiresome, because you’ve got no idea how all these different powers work or not, and therefore how much of a threat anyone is. I have the same problem with ghosts.
Kirigi, the son of the leader of the Hand has his own group of assassins, and after the other assassins were killed by Elektra, he asks to be allowed to obtain the treasure.
Elektra takes the Millers to see Stick, who, despite being blind, is also a pool hustler, sinking four balls with one shot.
Outside the club, as they leave, a graffiti bird becomes real, watches where they’re going, then returns to one of the assassins as a tattoo. The assassin’s name is Tattoo.
I’m trying to figure out why Colin Cunningham, who plays Elektra’s agent, looks familiar. I’ve looked at his iMDb listing, and nothing leaps out at me that I might know him from.
The magic assassins don’t waste too much time. This one appears to be invulnerable.
Tattoo sends magical wolves after them.
Another of them drains people’s life. In this case not fully.
Just in the nick of time, a lot of white ninjas appear, led by Stick.
Back at Stick’s training camp, Elektra learns that Abby is The Treasure, a prodigy.
There’s a big fight in an old house with lots of billowing sheets. So many billowing sheets. It’s all exquisitely shot, but it’s doing absolutely nothing for me, and I can’t tell why.
There’s a big maze outside the house, and Tattoo sends in a lot of magic snakes to catch Abby.
Elektra finally kills Kirigi.
She also kills the Kiss of Death woman, but not before she’s already killed Abby. Lucky that Elektra knows how to bring people back from the dead (Stick did that for her).
I feel like I should have enjoyed that a lot more than I did. I think it’s the supernatural elements, where the rules are unclear, and seem to be applied haphazardly. These assassins (including Elektra) seem to be able to hop from place to place instantaneously, so I don’t see what’s stopping any of them killing people immediately. So it’s hard to gauge the stakes in any of the fights. There’s an underlying incoherence here that I think is undercutting my enjoyment. Shame, really.
Media Centre Description: Martial arts action drama. A warrior assassin is charged with killing a man to pay for the sins of his grandfather, but switches sides to protect him from the supernatural team of ninjas who hired her.
Recorded from Channel 4 on Sunday 7th October 2007 21:00
After this, the recording stops just as Alien is starting.
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