'Ultraviolet' ** Movie Revuew 050406
(2005)

The Work = **
Maybe it is just me but the hair annoys me. Violet (Milla Jovovich) is a would be, kick butt, super hero like, vampire. She is able to change the color of her outfits and hair on the fly. She can walk (and drive) on walls, materialize weapons out of thin air and take on hords of bad guys. She may look sexy and daring but darn it if she doesn’t have bad hair. It was a troubling sign that I spent a lot of time thinking about Violet’s hair while I was watching the film 'Ultraviolet'.

The movie is a futuristic, post Matrix, sci-fi action flic, that opens with the narration by Violet: “I was born into a world you may not understand.” She neglects to add that you may not understand it because there is not enough plot to fill an infomercial and what plot there is can be a bit difficult to follow. 'Ultraviolet' attempts to be a sort of comic book brought to the screen but it fails because it lacks what some of the better comic book films have: story, character, and action that has some sort of impact and weight to it. 'Ultraviolet' simply has none of these things.

The film takes place in the future where a virus has turned half the population to vampires. They have fangs and seem to have superhuman physical abilities but they die off quickly. (Oh and the fangs are for show, they don't seem to drink blood.) Humans have quarantined themselves off from the vampires and are fighting to eradicate them. The vampires are fighting to infect the humans and find a cure (although more of the infecting and less of the curing.)

The humans are led by Daxus (Nick Chinlund.) Daxus’s plans seem to involve just doing a lot of things to make himself appear like an evil controlling prick. What his motivations are, I will leave for you to discover, though it doesn’t really matter in the end. The plot being so thin and the action being flashy but ultimately lacking much impact left the movie seeming long and boring. (This at only about 90 minutes.)

It is a real shame because 'Ultraviolet' is written and directed by Kurt Wimmer who wrote and directed the low budget, action flic’, 'Equilibrium'. I’m a big fan of that film and was looking forward to this one but I have to say anyway I cut it, I cannot recommend 'Ultraviolet'. There is simply not enough to recommend. There are flashes here and there of the ability Wimmer showed in 'Equilibrium' but it never builds to anything. Perhaps, making the film a PG-13 flic' instead of an R rated one drained some of the intensity from the action and working with all the computer generated effects shots took a toll on the story. Whatever the case, I can’t recommend 'Ultraviolet'.

PS. Had I not been such a fan of 'Equilibrium' the review would stay as it is above but 'Ultraviolet' seemed so weak that I wondered if there weren’t problems during production. Surfing on the web I found an 'Equilibrium' fan site (linked below) and on its message board my suspicions were more or less confirmed. Nothing is official so this all could be just rumor but it seems to be credible since Wimmer himself has gone quiet about the film. From trolling the boards and the web it seems somewhere during production and/ or post production relations went bad between Wimmer and the studio making 'Ultraviolet'. I can’t say how bad but the rumors are the film was taken away from him (or he stepped down) and the cut, music, and effects are not ones he approves of. It is possible that Wimmer’s version of the film would be an enjoyable one and based on 'Equilibrium' I would tend to think so. Until that version comes out, 'Ultraviolet' is one to skip.

-Nate

'Ultraviolet' Links:

IMDB

Equilibrium Fan Site