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Elektra brings the audience down the beaten path of the fight between good and evil. The struggle between good and evil is an infamous theme in storytelling, as it teaches moral values that emphasize kindness, forgiveness, and compassion. Despite being a frequently recurring theme, it has a solid value to its audience, as it provides new perspectives of the wolf in sheep’s clothing and continues to foster goodness in people. Elektra tries to offer such a lesson through a troubled woman, who still lives in the past, as anger clouds her thoughts. ***

The good are represented by an organization led by the blind martial arts master Stick (Terence Stamp) who once taught the main character, Elektra (Jennifer Garner), to become a lethal killer that she is. This might sound counter-productive, but the good side once tried to turn Elektra to one of their leading fighters against the ancient battle against evil. This evil is led by Roshi (Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa) who is the leader of the feared organization called the Order of the Hand. Yet, they are not as fearsome as one wishes in order to generate a suspenseful atmosphere. ***

Once the audience settles down with the main theme, the film introduces a myriad of side plots. For example, Elektra has a troubled past, her obsessive-compulsive disorder seems like a way of survival, her job is as a hired assassin, and other character’s have secrets. There is also the Hands’ pursuit for warriors to tip the balance in their favor such as Elektra while puzzlement surrounds Stick’s relationship to Elektra. These are many of the plots provided in the film, which reminds the audience of a crossroads with several directions to choose. ***

Unfortunately, the director does not develop these side plots or the characters. Instead, the filmmaker brings the audience through a rapid succession of images that are supposed to suggest ideas, thoughts, or something. It feels as if much of the potpourri of thoughts diverges into a messy conundrum where much makes sense, but does not finish or offer any kind of message regarding how Elektra reaches her final solutions. Much of it feels as if it is grabbed straight out of the air leaving the audience with a hollow and fabricated idea. In addition, Elektra’s choices occasionally seem to go against her character, and she does not seem to be the strong person that she is supposed to be. This truly hurts the cinematic experience, as it does not provide a vision or meaning behind Elektra, the Hand, or others in the film. ***

The films is nicely shot with some intriguing cinematography, yet some of it will remind the audience about films such as Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004) by Yimou Zhang. There is also a little of Matrix (1999) slow motion in the film, which does not provide any real unique experience. Ultimately, Elektra will make the audience experience a trivial super hero film while the character Elektra deserves a much better developed story that does not feel cluttered, or borrowed. *** ---

Crisp and clean anamorphic 2.35:1 aspect ratio will come across vividly in visuals to the viewer that is spectacularly well done. Black levels are solid as shadows and darkness are as close as possible to pitch black when intended, and the gray tones are equally impressive. The audience will also be impressed by the colors on the DVD as greens and reds are solid without any bleeding. No artifacts, or edge enhancement was present during the viewing. ***

The DVD comes with a DTS, Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0, which can be heard in English, Spanish, or French. The DTS version can only be heard in English, which is solid during the action scenes when the rear surround sound can truly be appreciated. Nonetheless, there is not much difference between the DTS and the 5.1 soundtracks, which have no noise that hurts the auditory experience. The sound tracks are clean and will elevate the cinematic experience for those with a good home theater system. ***

The DVD has some extras of variable quality that range from good to poor. The content of the extras varies from deleted scenes to production extras, as it also has trailers and previews. Overall, it does not have an abundance of extras, but enough to get one’s feet wet into how Elektra came about. ***

Deleted Scenes – There are three deleted scenes, Sai Approach, “Come Back to Me”, and Rounding Up the Troops. None of the deleted scenes bring the film more value, which makes it understanding to why the scenes are not in the film. There is an interesting cameo with Ben Affleck, but the scene does not belong in the film. ***

The Making of Elektra – This feature does not really offer a feature of why the film was shot, but rather more information on the actors’ and the filmmakers’ view of the mythology of Elektra’s world. Jennifer Garner provides most of the information, which is natural as she has the main part in the film. Some of the insights are shot on location while others seem to have been shot in after making of the film. There are also some scenes where the audience gets to see Garner and others in action while not using stunt doubles for the shots, which Rob Bowman deeply appreciated as it helped generate a genuine atmosphere. ***

Comic-Con Presentation – A short trailer shot during the making of Elektra with Jennifer Garner providing information about the film. Interjectionally the audience gets to see scenes from the film, which was interesting when the film still was in the making. ***

Inside the Editing Room – Rob Bowman offers an invitation to his editing room, which provides information to how four different scenes were created. These scenes are Only a Warrior, I Died Once, The Way, and Don’t Force It. It is the most intriguing feature on the disc as it brings the audience to understand how some of the scenes were made and the amount of work it took to shoot these scenes. Unfortunately, these short clips are no longer than 2 minutes and do not have any extended information into the scenes, which could have made this feature a little more interesting. ***

Theatrical Trailer, Theatrical Teaser, and Soundtrack – The teaser and trailer simply show the audience a little about Elektra and what the audience can expect from the film. The soundtrack is nothing more than an advertisement for the soundtrack of the film. *** American Guy and Family Guy – Two previews of the animated TV shows on the Fox network, which encourage some to see the TV shows. ***

Inside Look – Provides two previews from coming attractions, Fantastic Four and Mr. & Mrs. Both films seem to be interesting, hopefully they are better than Elektra. *** ---