20 years later, a superhero failure reveals the empty nostalgia of Deadpool and Wolverine

Last year, Deadpool and Wolverine surprised comic book fans when it was released and proved to be – more than anything else – a eulogy for the 20th Century Fox era. Marvel Movies. The film pays homage in a humorous and sincere manner to everything from Logan And X2: X-Men United has Blade and the years 2005 Fantastic Fourand he even manages to recognize the unrealized, directed by Channing Tatum Gambit. Tatum, Wesley Snipes and Chris Evans all make appearances in the dead Pool suite, just like Jennifer Garner.

The latter actress reprises her role as Elektra in Deadpool and Wolverineappearing as one of several Marvel variants created by Fox that was unceremoniously removed from its alternate timeline and sent to the Void. Garner’s cameo allows Deadpool and Wolverine to refer not only to the years 2003 Daredevilin which she made her big screen debut as Elektra, but also in 2005’s Electraa spin-off that proved even more disastrous than its predecessor. As is the case with all Marvel films produced by Fox, Deadpool and Wolverine asks viewers to come back to Electra with a bit of rosy, nostalgia-fueled appreciation.

But just watching the movie again is a reminder that not every movie is worth picking up. The blockbuster, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month, is still as much of a failure today as it was when it hit theaters in 2005, and no amount of empty nostalgia can change that.

The premise of Elektra

Picking up years after 2003 Daredevil, Electra follows its resurrected heroine as she grows closer to a father (Goran Višnjić) and his young, prodigious daughter (Kirsten Prout), for whom she was hired to kill. When she chooses to spare them, other assassins emerge from the shadows. Garner’s Elektra is consequently forced to protect the two innocents from a team of killers, including a venomous assassin named Typhoid Mary (Natassia Malthe) and a supernaturally powerful swordsman named Kirigi (Will Yun Lee). If that seems like an odd story to tell with a character like Elektra, whose ruthless nature is what makes her relationship with Matt Murdock so fiery and interesting on the page, then you’ve already landed on one of the many reasons why Electra it just doesn’t work.

The film doesn’t do much to explore its protagonist’s past, and it fails to meaningfully delve into his out-of-character decision to take responsibility for the safety of two strangers. years 2003 Daredevilfrankly, does a better job of delving deeper into Elektra’s inner rage and fighting, often vengeful spirit. This says a lot, given that Daredevil made the unforgivable mistake of turning Garner’s sai-wielding warrior into first a lover, then a damsel in distress, later an insulting, overmatched vigilante, and finally a dead-wife type character for Matt Murdock by Ben Affleck take revenge. Electra However, somehow it falls even further and fails at all to capture the ferocity and physical power that make its eponymous heroine such a striking comic figure.

It’s not Garner’s fault, he’s doing his best Electra to convey a level of strength that suits his character. It is, however, repeatedly undermined by a superficial script full of clichés, as well as extremely poor editing and camera blocking, both of which make ElectraThe fight scenes are flat and often incomprehensible. There are very few sustained wide shots throughout the film. Director Rob Bowman instead constructs Electra‘s action sequences come in shaky close-ups that often make it difficult to tell whether we’ve just seen Elektra Roundhouse kick an opponent or hit them with one of her trademark sai. The film’s fight sequences are further hampered by visual effects that look bad and dated from 2005. (Watch the clip below to see all of these problems crammed into a single two-minute showdown.)

What went wrong?

It’s a superhero movie that should be forgotten, and that just makes Deadpool and Wolverinethe desire to profit from the good memories people might have of Electraas well as its attempts to redeem the film’s reputation, all the more frustrating and confusing. Nostalgia can be a powerful tool in film, one that should be used with more consideration than Deadpool and Wolverine do. The least we can ask of a superhero movie like this is not expect us to ignore the quality of the things it wants us to think about again. However, this is exactly what he does with Electraa film that in no way deserves the valorization decades later Deadpool and Wolverine tried to give it away last year in the name of nostalgia alone.

Electra is streaming now Max..