In theaters

ELEKTRA, directed by Rob Bowman, written by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman and Raven Metzner, 96 minutes, rated PG-13.

The last time we saw Jennifer Garner tarted up as Elektra, the brunette bombshell in the sadomasochistic superhero suit, it was 2003, she was slicing and dicing her way through “Daredevil,” Ben Affleck was just her co-star and not her boyfriend, and her character had a last name – Natchios. Elektra Natchios.

Since that sounded to many like a high-voltage Mexican appetizer, this new movie from Rob Bowman shrewdly drops Elektra’s last name. It also drops Ben Affleck from the story, a masterstroke and a blessing that’s the best news I can share in a film that regrettably and ironically forgot to supply the electricity.

As written by Zak Penn, Stuart Zicherman and Raven Metzner, “Elektra” behaves as if “Daredevil” didn’t exist, which is understandable considering that that movie was such a dim bag of assorted chicken parts. Still, in ignoring the movie, other problems are at hand here, beginning with the ending of “Daredevil.” In it, Elektra died.

For Bowman and his writers, that’s about as much of a problem as it is for the daytime soaps, which have been resurrecting the dead for years. And so, in “Elektra,” they just bring her back to life, in this case thanks to the help of Terence Stamp’s character, Stick, an all-knowing, blind martial arts master whose skin is such a fluorescent orange, there are moments when he looks like an Oompa Loompa.

Since the plot of “Elektra” doesn’t matter to the filmmakers, let’s not make a fuss of it here. Safe to say that in the film, Elektra must fight evil, first the evil boiling in herself (she begins the movie as an assassin), and then, as she softens, the evil threatening to kill the family (Goran Visnjic, Kirsten Prout) she herself was hired to kill.

That evil comes in the form of The Hand, a nasty group of toughs seeking a treasure that leads them to Elektra. Much fighting ensues, none of which holds a machete to the gripping, inventive swordwork unleashed in the recent “House of Flying Daggers,” “Hero,” or, for that matter, the “Kill Bill” series, which “Elektra” tries to emulate.

Though the movie improves as it unfolds, what “Elektra” can’t escape is the ongoing feeling that Bowman shot the rehearsal; the actors deliver their dialogue with all the passion of a line reading.

This is especially true of Garner, a normally charismatic actress whom Bowman has reduced to a furrowed brow and a long face. She’s allowed none of the snap Elektra enjoyed in “Daredevil,” none of the playfulness. Instead, she’s the glummest of superheroes, which kills the fun and pulls the plug on the movie.

Grade: C-

On video and DVD

THE VILLAGE, Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, 120 minutes, rated PG-13.

Forget the dead people. M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village” sees trees. Lots of trees. The director can’t stop filming them, racing through them, or watching them sway in the breeze. And yet curiously, in spite of all of this arbor, the film breaks the moment Shyamalan goes out on a limb.

This is the director’s weakest effort to date, a predictable plunge into the forest damned by a plot that falls apart in ways that his exemplary “The Sixth Sense” didn’t.

Set in what appears to be 19th century rural Pennsylvania, a small community fears what lurks beyond the forest that circles their land. Known by the villagers as Those We Do Not Speak Of, these unseen, snorting beasts form a physical and emotional barrier most dare not cross.

The village elders (William Hurt, Brendan Gleeson, Sigourney Weaver among them) are steadfast in their refusal to allow anyone to leave the village and go into the woods. But since some of the younger villagers are tempted, it leads to a chain of events that finds the blind Ivy Walker (Bryce Dallas Howard) racing through the woods in an effort to find medicine for her ailing intended, Lucius Hunt (Joaquin Phoenix).

In her yellow, hooded cloak, Ivy rides a rail of faith as she speeds toward a town she does not know and cannot see. Following her is The One That Causes Audience Laughter, a bizarre cross between a boar, a porcupine and a wolf, who is remarkably decked out in a red cape.

As we’ve come to expect, everything in a Shyamalan film builds to what the director hopes will be the big gasp, the defining moment when audiences discover that all isn’t what they were led to believe. That’s just the case in “The Village,” but six years out from “Sense,” it’s all become boring and repetitive.

At some point, maybe he will break free from the trappings that bind him and try something different – perhaps a comedy, maybe a romance, anything to clear his head. After all, sometimes one has to get away from The Thing That No One Knows in order to rediscover why The Thing That Once Worked, Worked So Well.

Grade: D+

Christopher Smith is the Bangor Daily News film critic. His reviews appear Mondays and Fridays in Style, 5:30 p.m. Thursdays on WLBZ 2 Bangor and WCSH 6 Portland, and are archived at RottenTomatoes.com. He may be reached at BDNFilm1@aol.com.