Arguably the most interesting character from DAREDEVIL gets spun off into very own movie, naturally called ELEKTRA. Too bad the movie—directed by THE X-FILES’ Rob Bowman—isn’’t as good as DAREDEVIL. It’s good, alright, but could’’ve been much better if not for one obvious misstep.

ALIAS’ Jennifer Garner reprises her role as Elektra, despite having died toward the end of DAREDEVIL. She’’s brought back to life thanks to the healing hands of Stick—a blind, mystical martial arts mentor played by Terence Stamp—and makes her living as a freelance assassin.

While on a remote island waiting for her next assignment, she reluctantly befriends a young girl and her father (newcomer Kirsten Proust and E.R.’s Goran Visnjic, respectively) over Christmas, and then receives word of her next target: the girl and her father.

Despite being an emotionless hermit, Elektra decides not only to not go through with it, but to serve as their protector from all the ninjas and whatnot turning up at their log cabin. It turns out the family is marked for death by a sinister organization called The Hand, which has its own five-man team of black-magic warriors to help finish up the job. The Hand is comprised of Kirigi, a master swordsman; Tattoo, whose animal-kingdom scrawlings on his skin come to life; Stone, a black man with a rock-hard body; Typhoid Mary, whose kiss and breath spell death; and Kinko, who specializes in overpriced copies and poor customer service.

Why does The Hand want these kindly folks killed? To reveal that would spoil the “surprise,” but let’s just say that’s where ELEKTRA really stumbles. The focus of the film is then taken off our heroine and switched to a plot you might see played out on a made-for-Disney Channel movie.

But all is not lost. Garner is terrific, and the action and fight sequences are great. I sure didn’t expect to see our protagonists being chased through the forest by—shades of ZARDOZ!—a flying, flaming wolf head. I did expect the climactic showdown – in which Elektra picks off The Hand’s fingers one by one to resemble a MORTAL KOMBAT sequel, but in my book that’’s not necessarily a bad thing. Hey, at least it’s 100 percent Affleck-free.

Review by Rod Lott.