Elektra (2005) – Jennifer Garner

This movie gets off to a great start, with a funky yet chilling opening delivering vibes reminiscent of The Matrix or Equilibrium which both came out just a few years prior. It’s a relatively simple opening scene but sets the atmosphere very nicely – not perfectly, but not far off either – it’s got to be one of the best opening scenes ever made in an action hero movie I think. You could call it an understated masterpiece thus far.

The following scenes are quite interesting and captivating, and carry an element of the same vibe from the opening scene, but to a lesser degree, as the antagonists pose a real threat to Elektra, and the movie turns out to be Decent but not nearly as good as it could have been. I would rate this movie just one level down from the best action hero movie with a female lead (such as Wonder Woman which has a better plot as well as better peak adrenaline moments, but a similar level of horror and drama creeping in).

Jennifer Garner stars as Elektra in this movie – she’s an assassin with subtle superpowers. Aside from lacking the animalistic side, her character has a lot in common with Halle Berry’s Catwoman which came out the year before this movie, and the year after Daredevil where Elektra was also featured as a major character. That’s three years running of this type of lethal female action movie heroine. There was also Æon Flux in 2005 and Ultraviolet in 2006 – both respectable female assassin movies from around the same time, with similar levels of martial arts and athleticism too, although not on the same level as Marvel’s Elektra and DC’s Catwoman production-wise.

Elektra has some kind of Spidey Sense, like Daredevil’s super hearing ability, giving her an early warning when anyone potentially dangerous is approaching from very far away. But much more than that, she has the ability to see the near future, giving her the chance to change it and catch people by surprise.

That’s not even the height of unrealism in this movie – there are also demons taking the form of ninjas (within the antagonist ninja clan called The Hand) who turn to smoke when they die. And there are some weirder demons looking like oddball mercenaries, having special powers to do certain magic tricks. For example, one called Tattoo, played alright by Christopher Ackerman, has tattoos of animals that come to life. Another, called Typhoid Mary, played adequately by Natassia Malthe, blows kisses and waves hands that suck the life out of plants and people. Then another, called Stone, played alright by Bob Sapp, is big bulletproof black man, like Marvel’s Luke Cage, while also throwing sticks powerfully enough to chop down big trees. This team of weird demons is led by the boss’s son (from The Hand), played adequately by Will Yun Lee whose scenes work well in a way, but he’s also a bit too fresh faced for the role, like some kind of K-Pop boyband member, unlike his father played more convincingly by the scorched face of Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa. Fortunately, they’re still not quite good enough to kill Elektra.

Garner pulls off the lead role pretty well. She’s a talented actress and is not terribly unattractive either (although the beauty contest in this movie is won by Norwegian-Malaysian actress Natassia Malthe playing Typhoid Mary). Garner’s a bit of a tomboy, but no more so than most female leads of action hero movies. She’s is quite athletically built and this makes her well suited to the role of Elektra – a martial arts expert and assassin who moves like few others in the world can (due to camera tricks).

It’s also good to see Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (Shang Tsung from the 90s Mortal Kombat movies) playing the leader of The Hand (the ninja clan that’s been trying to kill or capture Elektra for a long time). He does a great job as usual.

Croatian actor Goran Višnjić (with vibes of a cross between Charlie Sheen and Matt LeBlanc, minus the comedic touch) does a good job as the father of a teenage girl who is being hunted because she’s “the treasure” – the main prodigy child within her generation showing great potential to be a top assassin. Kirsten Prout plays the girl adequately – she’s a decent young actress who has plenty IQ for the role but not nearly so much athletic talent as would be ideal. She has a puffy goldfish face, poor coordination and a gormless bratty demeanour – the sneaky, impatient bratty side of her seems intentional but her lack of athletic poise stands out when she’s meant to be a top ninja prodigy with partly established skills.

Terence Stamp does an alright job as Elektra’s former ninja clan master, called Stick, who comes to her rescue when she’s on the verge of defeat, and takes her back to the dojo along with the father & daughter she was sent to kill but decided to protect – her contract was sponsored by Stick, somehow knowing Elektra would protect them instead of kill them. These are some cool scenes to enjoy – from the near assassination to the protection to the rescue to the training back at the dojo and the feeling of it being a safe place for a while.

In stark contrast to the awesome opening for action movie junkies, the last 5 or 6 minutes of this movie is little more than an extended soppy mess for drama mushes. What a missed opportunity and switch up of genres. These drama-loving directors just can’t help themselves, even when they have 95% of a good action movie completed already. Given the lack of depth to the plot, the excessive dose of horror genre creeping in as the movie matures, and the undesirable soppy ending, I have to rate this movie no better than Decent, on a par with movies like Daredevil (which came out 2 years prior and also featured Jennifer Garner as Elektra in a major supporting role). Just one level down from the best female-led action hero movies of all time (like Wonder Woman), even though from the outset Elektra clearly had the potential to be so much better – it just went gradually downhill as the movie progressed and unfortunately shifted genres from smooth action to borderline horror to soppy drama in the end.

Die Another Day (2002) – Pierce Brosnan and Halle Berry

This is the last of Pierce Brosnan‘s four James Bond movies, and the one which made the production team conclude that something needs to change. I don’t disagree that something needed to change, but they changed it in totally the wrong direction for my taste. I can’t stand Daniel Craig personally. Brosnan makes a great Bond compared to him. Still, the mass market of soppy drama fans seem to approve of Craig, even if they are a totally new audience and the loyal niche market of slick action hero movie fans who tolerated Brosnan in the hopes of someone better coming soon have become completely disenchanted by the whole Bond brand now.

Die Another Day gets off to a poor start, with an awful attempt at remixing two classic Bond tunes into one piece of deafening noise within the first 30 seconds of this movie. This sets the tone for the rest of the movie, since the musical direction is pretty wack throughout.

This leads straight into an extravagant surfing scene that’s hard to understand the context of until it’s all over. This makes a change from the popular ski chase scenes, such as the one that opened one of Roger Moore’s best movies, The Spy Who Loved Me. I’m not saying there’s anything terribly wrong with not knowing what’s going on until an action scene is over, but it’s a bit unusual for a Bond movie, and probably not the best idea for this genre. We can’t even see anyone’s faces while they’re surfing, so it could be anyone (although obviously Brosnan didn’t get his feet wet in the filming of that scene). I guess we’re just expected to admire the surfing for a minute while waiting patiently to find out who it is and why they’re doing it. There’s a much better surfing scene 90 minutes in, as Bond escapes an avalanche designed to kill him, and rides the tsunami wave that follows.

Fortunately, this soon turns into some interesting scenes, as James steals a suitcase full of diamonds and impersonates the previous owner, pretending to be an arms dealer in North Korea. James’s disguise is unsuccessful, so he attempts to escape, wrecking a bunch of hovercrafts and seemingly killing the general’s son, so he gets taken in for waterboarding & interrogation. General Moon is played adequately by Kenneth Tsang, his son (Colonel Moon) was played alright by Will Yun Lee, his son’s main assistant (Zao) who Bond goes after once released (since his freedom was traded for Zao’s) was played alright by Rick Yune.

Then we get the theme tune by Madonna, who also takes a on minor role in this movie (as a fencing instructor called Verity). It’s not the best James Bond theme tune by any means, but is certainly one of the catchiest. It’s basically just a cheap uncultured pop song that’s liable to stick in your head sometimes, especially if you’re a James Bond fan, and I dare say that makes it about equal to Madonna’s best work.

We meet a few good characters in the first half an hour, then we meet the main woman in this movie – Halle Berry. She immediately spends the night with James and their romantic scenes are quite classless, inkeeping with the poor humour throughout the Brosnan era of James Bond. The following and preceding scenes are not bad though. A lot of fuss was made on TV around the time of this movie coming out, about the appearance of Halle Berry as she comes out the water and meets James Bond for the first time. Don’t get me wrong, she’s not unattractive – she’s above average for a Bond girl, and not terribly far from the best of them – but the only reason she swings her hips so wildly is to compensate for the lack of natural width in her hips which would roll plenty within her natural unexaggerated stride if there were really anything to rave about.

Brosnan is also noticeably carrying a belly in this movie, while looking generally worse for wear due to his age and his untoned physique – I’m guessing this contributed to him being let go in favour of Daniel Craig who was younger and trained hard to achieve a good physique even though his personality is nothing like what Bond should be. Brosnan’s demeanour is a bit closer to the mark, in how it’s not the polar opposite of what we want, but it’s a bit dead & dry still – far from ideal for this role.

A third of the way in, as James enters Zao’s new lair, we see a rotating mirrored wall, probably inspired by Bruce Lee’s Enter The Dragon from 1973, much like the similar set in Roger Moore’s The Man With The Golden Gun in 1974 – since that one came out just one year after Enter The Dragon, the similarities are clearly far from coincidental.

The swordfighting scene was pretty good, after James joins the fencing club and meets Madonna’s character Verity agrees to a challenge from the main man in the club which starts off quite sporting with all the kit then comes lethal with real swords and no protection. It’s quite obvious sometimes where the stuntmen fill in for Pierce Brosnan though, as the faster scenes are very fast with his back to the camera then become terribly laboured when we see his face. This reflects his lack of real swordfighting ability of course, and probably also his lack of general martial arts acumen and even athletic capability.

Half way in, we get better acquainted with the second Bond girl in this movie – Miranda Frost played by Rosamund Pike (who also played the main baddie’s wife in Jack Reacher), who we briefly met earlier at the fencing club where Madonna’s character (Verity, the instructor) said Miranda was the most talented fencer in the club. Rosamund Pike has to be one of the least attractive Bond girls of all time, although due to her very prominent jawline I’m sure she appeals very much to certain types of people. To call her a tomboy would be an understatement. She also has a very bland demeanour and a face full of whitewashed makeup which creates a certain style that probably matches the role she’s playing quite well, however unappealing it may be. Having said that, she does make an interesting contrast with Halle Berry.

James’s car in this movie goes a level beyond any Bond car before, by being completely invisible. He can even sit inside it, and watch things happen around him, with people nearby being oblivious to his presence.

We know a James Bond villain loves a satellite weapon, and this movie’s villain is no different. The main villain, on the brains side, is Sir Gustav Graves, played alright by Toby Stephens, and he has a satellite that he uses to shine light on certain parts of the world, which can be used to assist agriculture in poor countries, but it can also be used as a deadly heat gun. According to the plot, Gustav Graves is actually Colonel Moon after a DNA changing operation.