20 Years Later, Daredevil and Elektra Make A Perversely Fun Double Feature

Marvel’s Cinematic Universe is no longer too big to fail, but this isn’t the first time the company has struggled to bring the world of the comics to the big screen. Before Iron Man, the franchise was scattered to the winds, with nearly every major studio trying its hand at a big blockbuster, and few fully achieving it. Aside from a few bright spots, like Blade and X-Men, Marvel’s cinematic history was checkered, to say the least. And for a long time, it didn’t get much bleaker than Daredevil or its spinoff, Elektra.

Daredevil and Elektra are two sides of a very strange coin. The former is the kind of film that’s truly impossible to take seriously, and 20 years later, is regarded as one of the worst superhero films of all time. It’s a far, far cry from the grounded, calculated adventure we’d later get in Iron Man, and even from the campier joys of its most successful predecessor, Blade. Every choice reads as either accidental comedy or try-hard melodrama, but its now-infamous “Wake Me Up Inside” needledrop is just one of many moments that make this perversely brilliant in hindsight.

Affleck doesn’t make the best Matt Murdock, but he can’t be totally to blame for the character’s stilted depiction. He’s fighting against a bloated script every step of the way; barely treading water in a sea of baffling stylistic choices. Not unlike a vampire, his Daredevil spends each night in a coffin-like sensory deprivation tank. It’s a very dramatic way to control the powers he inherited after he was exposed to radioactive waste as a child. The accident rendered him blind, but cranked up the rest of his senses to supernatural levels. By day he’s a pro bono lawyer, but by night, he puts his powers to use as a masked vigilante.

Daredevil mostly follows the title hero’s struggle against Kingpin (a formidable Michael Clarke Duncan) and Bullseye (a scenery-chewing Colin Farrell), his top lieutenant — but don’t expect the same grounded crime thriller depicted in Netflix’s 2015 reboot. Jennifer Garner also joins the fray as Elektra Natchios, a capable assassin on the hunt for revenge after the suspicious demise of her father. It all connects to the Kingpin and his criminal empire, which, in a more grounded story, would have made for the perfect conflict. Daredevil, however, was too bogged down by the pressure to deliver a “big,” bombastic superhero film — something with effects and set pieces to rival Spider-Man, which premiered just a year before it — which totally distracts from the film’s more promising elements.

Elektra would run into similar problems just two years later. The 2005 film finds strength in its grounded moments, and by focusing on Garner’s ruthless assassin — inarguably the best part of Daredevil — it’s a great improvement on its predecessor. Her cool streak continues in her solo film, which puts greater emphasis on her tragic backstory and her wavering moral code. When she’s tasked with assassinating a mysterious father and daughter (Goran Višnjić and Kirsten Zien), Elektra finds herself going to battle with the syndicate known as the Hand. Again, they’re almost nothing like the group we meet in Netflix’s Defenders series.

It’s with their introduction that Elektra follows in Daredevil’s footsteps into pure, cartoonish cringe. The film features ninjas who dissipate into greenish dust when they’re defeated, and a henchman whose animal tattoos come to life and literally jump out of his body to launch attacks. It’s all held together admirably by Garner, who sells every silly turn (and fights every strange CGI invention) with the utmost conviction. It’s a shame she didn’t get the standalone movie she deserved back in the 2000s, as she really is a great Elektra. Still, there’s plenty to like: for a franchise that now seems averse to any risk, it’s refreshing to watch big swings like these, even if they whiff on occasion.

Daredevil and Elektra are now streaming on Prime Video.