10 Truly Awful Superhero Movie & TV Love Interests

For some reason, it's really important for a lot of superhero films to give the main protagonist a love interest. To be fair to the genre, this is very common in most films, where producers seem to feel like they won't be engaging without a bit of romance. In addition, for the most part they're staying true to the original source material, where every superhero had to have a love interest, because what's a male fantasy without a beautiful women to follow them around like a puppy dog?

At any rate, having a lady friend seems to be pretty much a requirement for superheroes in their film adaptations. But it's not necessarily a choice that always gels well with the general tenor of the film.

And the female characters are put in this really tough position, where they either can't live up to the popularity of the original character from the comic books and automatically pale in comparison, or they're purposefully written to be so unobtrusive to not interfere with the action elements that they basically just come off as wallpaper.

To be sure, when the love interests are done well and are properly integrated into the rest of the film, it can really elevate the material. But more often then not, they're stuck in an awkward holding pattern where a lot can go write, characterization wise.

To be honest, it sort of feels a little unfair to single out Elektra here, as though she's any worse than any other element of this genuinely terrible superhero film. There are plenty of subpar superhero movies, but its rare to find one that doesn't seem to have a single redeeming quality. That's Daredevil. The reveal of Elektra feels sudden and disjointed in this film, almost to the point where it makes no sense.

And while Jennifer Garner has done a great job in other films, she doesn't feel quite right for this role. Elektra is supposed to be a mysterious foreign ninja type, whereas Garner, despite her Alias pedigree, falls squarely into the sweet girl next door type. It just doesn't work for this.

And ironically, although Affleck and Garner would go on to get married and have three children together, their chemistry isn't that great here. The long and the short of it is that there probably wasn't anything either of them could have done to save this film, but Elektra definitely stands out as a particularly terrible romantic interest.