A common observation among those who saw the Marvel Comics-inspired “Daredevil” two years ago was that Jennifer Garner “stole the movie” from co-star Ben Affleck. I'm not so sure. Certainly, something stole “Daredevil” from Affleck, but whether it was Garner, Colin Farrell or the eye-pleasing design of the wallpaper in the cafe scene, who can say? The point is, it got stole. That's no idle Affleck-bashing.

“Daredevil” was a uniquely dysfuctional film, with a hero we didn't want to cheer for and villains we did. Ergo: “Elektra,” a spin-off project in which Garner (TV’s “Alias”) resurrects the slinky, blade-wielding vigilante who once upstaged Affleck's blind, sonar-equipped vigilante. And if “Elektra” weeds out some of the more obnoxious qualities of “Daredevil,” it also loses some of its vigor. The lows aren't as low, the highs aren't as high, and Garner — though absurdly sexy in her red leather tactical boustier — seems destined for better roles.

Elektra is more, well, complex in “Elektra” than in her previous incarnation. Retrieved from death by an enchanted blind sensai named Stick — played by the supremely austere Terence Stamp (“The Limey”) — the character now lives in emotional isolation, making ends meet as a killer-for-hire. Lightning-fast (she moves a bit like the immortal aesthetes in “Interview With a Vampire”) and deadly with her three-pronged sais daggers, Elektra makes quick work of any bodyguard detail put before her. Like many hyper-focused career-women, she's also very lonely.

To be sure, Elektra seems quite the cold, heartless killer — until she meets Mark (Croatian actor Goran Visnjic) and 13-year-old Abby (newcomer Kirsten Prout), father/daughter fugitives marked for death by an evil ninjitsu cabal known as The Hand. Ultimately, Elektra is presented with a moral dilemma: Be a good assassin and kill the family, or save them and set herself on a collision course with a gang of paranormal villains. Decisions, decisions.

Often, director Rob Bowman — he of “X-Files” fame and the dragon tale “Reign of Fire” — seems as interested in making a character study as a razzmatazz comic book thriller. He also invests Elektra with a host of obsessive-compulsive tics — none of which seem to serve any narrative purpose other than giving the heroine an eerie psychic connection with Abby, who we understand to be some sort of reincarnated Elektra.

Suffice to say, “Elektra” tends to feel benighted and dramatically labored, and never fully affords the audience the pulpy comic delights it promises. Variously, Elektra fights a 400-pound rock-hard behemoth named Stone (Bob Sapp), a tattooed fakir (Chris Ackerman) who can summon live beasts from his skin and a poisonous lipstick seductress named Typhoid (Natassia Malthe) whose mere presense makes plants wilt. As villains go, they're an adequately colorful lot, but none of them are as interesting as, say, Garner was in “Daredevil.” Though visually splendid, “Elektra” suffers the opposite affliction of its predecessor: There's no one around to steal the show.