It’s really not as bad a film as it seems: even after the first twenty times you’ve checked your watch, wished the obnoxious little tweener was dead and begged for merciful death yourself. No really. The problem with the flick is inherent to Marvel Comics and requires an exceptionally skilled director to avoid: the film – and most Marvel comics – takes itself entirely too seriously. The same pitfall nearly damned the X-Men franchise but was avoided by skillful direction and relatively good acting. Spider-Man could have fallen into the same trap but that director kept things whimsical and made us empathize with the hero.
Elektra doesn’t do anything to try to avoid a deadening seriousness. It’s all sturm und drang, very important people doing very important things and so forth. In a superhero movie, that’s the kiss of death. It makes things boring and nobody wants to see a boring superhero movie.