Elektra

rated PG-13

Going in to Elektra, I was sure of two things. First, no matter how bad the movie might be, Jennifer Garner would still be incredibly hot. Second, the movie was going to be pretty bad. And so it was a bit of a surprise to find when I left the theater that the movie actually didn't suck that badly. Elektra treads the line between offensively bad and passably good, sort of a cinematic speed bump that neither raises ire nor puts joy in a viewer's heart.

Following her "death" in 2003's Daredevil, Elektra (Garner) was resurrected by a clan of good ninjas and became an assassin. This movie starts with Elektra, decked out in her very un-assassin-like red outfit, killing some random bad guy. But the murder trade has got Elektra down, and she's starting to have doubts about her career path. During her next assignment, Elektra meets Abby Miller (Kirsten Prout) and her father, Mark (Goran Visnjic). Abby and Elektra bond, Mark falls for Elektra, and all's well until Elektra discovers she has to kill her new friends. She leaves, but quickly figures out that Mark and Abby are targets of The Hand, a cadre of evil supernatural ninjas. Elektra rushes back to save them and, courtesy of her former master, Stick (Terence Stamp), learns that Abby is "The Treasure," a chosen one who will tip the balance between good and evil.

Frank Miller, the comic book writer best known for gritty epics like "Sin City" and "The Dark Knight Returns," created the character of Elektra during his seminal run on "Daredevil." But the Elektra on film isn't nearly as dark and dangerous as her comic book counterpart. Instead, Garner's Elektra is afflicted with obsessive-compulsive disorder and has flashbacks to her childhood, when her mother was murdered by ninjas for reasons never explained. By all counts, Elektra should be great. It's got ninjas, Jennifer Garner in red leather fetish gear, and a fair amount of violence. But somehow, it's just kind of boring. The ninjas are nothing but fodder for Eleketra's sais (a three-pronged knife-like weapon) and the various sword fights and kung-fu showdowns don't have the same kind of pizzazz found in Kill Bill. And then there are the bad guys, with clever monikers like "Tattoo" and "Stone." The villains are dispatched quickly, and despite their cool look, don't seem to do anything to move the plot along. The film is just entertaining enough to cover up some of director Rob Bowman's more annoying visual tics, including an over-zealous use of wind machines and slow-motion shots. The big fight scene between Elektra and main bad guy Kirigi (Will Yun Lee) is done almost entirely in slow motion while some invisible hurricane blows white sheets around and keeps Elektra's hair in disarray. After the tenth time Elektra falls down in slow motion, you might wish you had brought some knitting or a book with you to the theater, though you probably won't be angry enough to walk out. Elektra merely exists, a piece of flavorless eye-candy that doesn't remotely satisfy.