Leading Ladies: January 14, 2005

Heading to the movies this weekend? Find out what's worth your time according to the top women film critics at the nation's best publications. Every Friday morning we'll give you the female perspective on what to expect when the curtain rises.

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Elektra
Stars: Jennifer Garner, Goran Visnjic, Terence Stamp
Director: Rob Bowman
Rating: PG-13

Anyone who thinks female movie critics might cut some slack for a movie revolving around a butt-kicking heroine needs only take a spin through the Elektra reviews by our Leading Ladies to disavow themselves of that notion. In fact, the pundits find little to like about Jennifer Garner's spin-off action babe (yep, she was reincarnated after her Daredevil death), though it did give the women a chance to unleash their sharpest barbs.

Says USA Today's Claudia Puig: "We are supposed to feel her pain. Instead, we feel our own for having to sit through this silly movie." The Los Angeles Times's Carina Chocano finds Garner's step down from Alias "dispiriting." Meanwhile, Entertainment Weekly's Lisa Schwartzbaum says, "Just as all regular models can't be supermodels, so all action chicks can't be superheroines."

Forget Sydney, says LA Weekly's Kim Morgan, Garner "lacks the feral intensity that an Angelina Jolie or a Milla Jovovich would naturally bring to the role." And those costumes... "It's worth noting that whenever Elektra slips on her satiny outfit, she also puts down her long hair, which you would think would impede her warrior skills. It never does. That must be some kind of superconditioner," says Manohla Dargis of the New York Times.

Female consensus: Maybe Elektra was better off dead.