Critics Scoreboard
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Average Critic Score:
34
(35 sources)
34
(35 sources)
-
75
Baltimore Sun
Electric as Elektra, Jennifer Garner does a high-powered, blade-thrusting star turn as Marvel Comics' ninja-inspired superheroine, bringing such unbridled energy and sexuality to her performance, one barely notices the movie itself. Read Full Review » -
60
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50
The Onion (A.V. Club)
The role needs a steely, inhuman reserve, and Garner's innate likeability works against her. Read Full Review » -
50
Village Voice
The pedestrian Elektra offers no surprises, and whether or not you'll appreciate its modest charms depends entirely on whether you too have been anticipating Garner's new outfit. Read Full Review » -
50
Dallas Observer
The fights are mostly cool, save the final one with too many quick cuts, and the morphing graffiti and tattoos are nifty. If only the rest of it weren't so stupid. Read Full Review » -
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
For the better part of this movie, Elektra appears to be a sensible, stylish young superhero. Read Full Review » -
50
ReelViews
One of the least effective comic book-to-movie stories to have come along in the past few years. Without a viable screenplay, there's nowhere for the character to go, and no way to avoid making her look silly. Read Full Review » -
50
Variety
Elektra proves no more than fitfully satisfying, a character-driven superhero yarn whose flurry of last-minute rewriting shows in a disjointed plot. Read Full Review » -
50
Charlotte Observer
Watching this is like sitting by a pinsetter at a bowling alley. That's too bad, because the picture had potential. Read Full Review » -
50
Philadelphia Inquirer
"Kill Bill" without irony, and without Quentin Tarantino's flair for cool dialogue and chop-socky action (and without Uma Thurman, for that matter), Elektra is a pretty-looking, pretty dull adaptation of the Marvel Comic about a dishy, deadly assassin. Read Full Review » -
50
USA Today
Her (Garner) grace and mystical abilities make for a lonely burden, and we are supposed to feel her pain. Instead, we feel our own for having to sit through this silly movie. Read Full Review » -
50
Chicago Reader
This doesn't exactly set the world on fire, but I was charmed by its old-fashioned storytelling, which is refreshingly free of archness, self-consciousness, or "Kill Bill"-style wisecracks. Read Full Review » -
50
New York Daily News
An adequate but none-too-thrilling star vehicle for Jennifer Garner in flame-colored bustier and low-riding pants. Read Full Review » -
42
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
A poorly written collection of comic-book movie cliches that offers nothing new to the genre, generates very little in the way of action thrills and plays like a self-important, humorless rip-off of "Kill Bill." Read Full Review » -
40
-
40
The New York Times
No question, the film's best special effect is Ms. Garner, especially when she's in costume. Read Full Review » -
40
-
40
Salon.com
What's missing -- apart, of course, from a plot -- is any character development. Read Full Review » -
40
Empire
Enormous plot holes and a script that's fatally light on character mean there's few selling points beyond Jennifer Garner's corset... Read Full Review » -
38
Chicago Sun-Times
Plays like a collision between leftover bits and pieces of Marvel superhero stories. It can't decide what tone to strike. Read Full Review » -
33
Portland Oregonian
We end up with a piece of B-grade junk in which Elektra exchanges "banter" with the unexceptional Prout between fight scenes so badly shot that even Garner looks like a stunt double. Read Full Review » -
33
Entertainment Weekly
Just as all regular models can't be supermodels, so all action chicks can't be superheroines. Elektra Natchios turns out to be walled off rather than mysteriously alluring; blank rather than deep. Read Full Review » -
30
LA Weekly
When a movie makes you wish you were watching Halle Berry in "Catwoman," something is most definitely wrong. Read Full Review » -
30
Washington Post
What it suffers from most is the sense of offhand storytelling that lies halfway between creative laziness and cost-cutting sloppiness. Read Full Review » -
30
The Hollywood Reporter
Along comes Elektra to effectively lower the bar for Marvel Comics page-to-screen transitions. Read Full Review » -
30
Wall Street Journal
Long on cutlery and décor (including, of course, the marvelously decorative Ms. Garner, of the TV series "Alias") and woefully short on narrative. Read Full Review » -
25
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25
Boston Globe
As she sashays, mirthlessly, from one thankless confrontation to the next, it's unclear why anyone would find Garner any more deserving of stardom than certain mannequins. Read Full Review » -
25
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25
San Francisco Chronicle
Another inert, soul-dead action drama that turns actors into zombies...It's garbage. Read Full Review » -
25
Miami Herald
Part of the problem is that Garner, so irresistible on television and in last year's "13 Going on 30," just can't pull off the cold-hearted killer routine. Read Full Review » -
25
Premiere
Lacks thrills, narrative, emotion, believability, character development--and frankly--watchability. Read Full Review » -
25
-
20
-
20
Film Threat
Elektra isn't just poorly executed, it's emotionally false and makes absolutely no narrative sense. Read Full Review »
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