Jennifer Garner as Elektra: worst casting ever

[Orrex]

Honestly, Gilbert Godfrey as Batman would be no worse. I watched Daredevil again last night and simply can't get over how wrong she was for the part. I have nothing against her personally or as an actress, the character of Elektra is (or should be IMO0 entirely different from her portrayal.

Granted, much of this is due to the writing, but the casting is all wrong. None of the character's intensity or torment comes through, and instead we're left with a pretty woman who can work in a wire harness.

Granted, Colin Farrell was an odd choice for Bullseye, too, but at least he nailed the murderous sociopath aspect. I didn't even mind Ben Affleck as Daredevil, and Michael Clarke Duncan was an unexpected but effective choice for the Kingpin, too.


Anyway, I really do like the film. It was pretty heavily criticized at the time of release, but it caught the flavor of the comic very well, specifically Miller's interpretaion of Daredevil, which IMO remains the best treatment to date (earning Miller a cameo with a pen in his forehead, of course!). The bar fight early on is a very faithful adaptation of a scuffle at Josie's, and when Bullseye kills Elektra? Positively mythic! A great portrayal of that long-ago moment from issue 181.

Of course, I found the voiceover narration to be a trifle heavy handed, but YMMV.

[PetrusMonsFormicarum]

1. As I recall

the original story (and the amazing Bill Sienkiewicz miniseries) emphasized a strong Mediterranean look to the character. As soon as i saw the casting, before the film had come out I was unimpressed. They were just capitalizing on Garner's work on the TV show Alias.

I still insist that the best superhero films are cast with unknowns.

[Orrex]

2. RE: Unknowns

I'd say that you are entirely correct. Sure, it's a big gamble, but that's better than winding up with a known quantity being shoehorned into a role. And you're right about Garner--if she hadn't been in Alias, she wouldn't have been in Daredevil, either.

I retract my earlier assertion about the worst casting ever, though. In fact, John Rhys Davies as the Kingpin in the Daredevil made-for-tv movies was arguably a lot worse.

Another easily missed aspect of Elektra's early characterization (aside from the brief spelling as "Elecktra") is that she wasn't intended to be pretty in any conventional sense. Even Garrett in Elektra: Assassin notes that she's "too damned stringy" or something to that effect. Miller/Jansen often portrayed her with a sort of hard-sculpted beauty, but not Garner's dimply, cheerful look.

I remember thinking years and years and years back that the woman from Bryan Adams' Cuts Like a Knife video would have been visually a good choice to play Elektra, but that was 25 years ago...

[Mojambo]

3. Jennifer Garner is a terrible actress. Just brutal

She's like Julia Roberts without the talent.

Which is strange because I thought Julia Roberts was Julia Roberts without talent.

[Orrex]

4. Okay, so I was wrong

Everything posted in this thread so far is correct except the OP's subject line. Garner might be the second worst casting, but not the worst.

Who is the worst? Hasselhoff as Nick Fury.

Now excuse me while I clean the vomit off of my tv screen.

[wyldwolf]

5. I thought she was ok in Daredevil, but the Electra movie was awful... still...

...Jessica Alba was up for the role at one point and would have been my choice.

[Orrex]

6. She'd have been good, though too young to play opposite Affleck IMO

Of course, if Ms. Alba wants to get onscreen and read passages from an old seed catalog, I'm there.

[Orrex]

7. Sorry to keep beating this horse, but I finally saw the Elektra movie

Craptacular, that's for sure. And it was a goofy choice to cast Dr. Kovach with someone named "Abby," because of the silly overlap it creates with ER, but I digress.

Having now seen the film and been generally underwhelmed by all of it, I have to say that casting Terrence Stamp as Stick was also an abyssmally bad choice. Stamp is a fine actor and a phenomenal screen presence, but he was all wrong for this role.

Stick IMO should be much more like Burgess Meredith's portrayal of Mick in Rocky: hard-edged and a constant bastard but ultimately a force for good. And certainly he shouldn't have Stamp's accent.