Post by Mr.HoRrOr on Mar 5, 2006 1:05:54 GMT -5
Plot:Set in the late 21st century, a subculture of humans have emerged who have been modified genetically by a vampire-like disease (Hemophagia), giving them enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence, and as they are set apart from "normal" and "healthy" humans, the world is pushed to the brink of worldwide civil war (a war between humans and hemophages) aimed at the destruction of the "diseased" population. In the middle of this crossed-fire is - an infected woman - Ultraviolet (played by Milla Jovovich), who finds herself protecting a nine-year-old boy who has been marked for death by the human government as he is believed to be a threat to humans.
Cast:
Milla Jovovich
Cameron Bright
Nick Chinlund
William Fichtner
Sebastien Andrieu
Ida Martin
Ricardo Mamood
My Thoughts:Interesting movie with potential, half of which it uses, and the other half it wastes.
Review:"Ultraviolet" works on the concept of stringing a bunch of amazing action sequences together with a thin and complex plot. Now I'm sure you're asking yourself how can a thin plot be complex? Believe me, in this movie it is. Milla Jovovich is introduced early on in the film as Violet, a woman who is suffering from a vampire like disease created by the human government. She and others like her are called "Hemophages", and they have almost been completely exterminated by the human government agents who are led by Daxus played by Nick Chinlund. Chinlund is one of the films weak spots, as he is the typical villain for these types of movies. He has an endless army of men at his disposal, and doesn't take up arms against Violet until she has sliced and diced her way through all of his soldiers. While he does have a cool sounding voice, his character is rather one dimensional and is just in the movie because well, every futuristic sci-fi movie needs a villain right? The jist of the movie is that Violet gets a transporter sort of deal which kicks everything into motion. For those of you who saw or haven't seen "The Transporter", basically a transporters job is to transport a package from point A to point B, with one of the main rules being he or she not open the package during transport. Violet fronts as a human to get her hands on a weapon Daxus plans on using against the hemophages. But when she discovers the weapon is a human boy who might hold the key to killing every last hemophage and also curing the disease which creates hemophages, she ends up protecting him. What follows is awe inspiring action sequence after awe inspiring action sequence. The problem is, the action sequences get less and less impressive as the movie goes on. The chase sequence where Violet is evading Daxuses men after managing to escape with the mystery weapon is a pretty awesome 10 minutes or so. But everything after that pales in comparison, and when a few attempts are made at tossing us some twists to the story, it just works to further complicate things. We eventually learn the boy is not what he seems, and Daxus the main bad guy of the movie is kept to the way side much too often. That also tongue ties the plot seeing as how when he shows back up again, he injects new plot points into the story that the audience wasn't informed of prior to those scenes. It seemed "Ultraviolet" was heavily trimmed which explains the plot gaps. Whether it was for pacing or to get a PG-13 rating, is the question. The chemistry between Daxus and Violet is one sided which hurts the movie a bit. As the movie goes along, Violet despises him more and more, but we don't get that same "I want to terminate you" vibe from Daxus until the end of the movie where him and Violet go at it in very stylish and entertaining fashion. William Fichtner (ABC's Invasion), shows up in the film as Violet's sidekick Garth but with his screentime being so limited if you blinked during his scenes you probably missed him. Fichtner is about as interesting as it gets when it comes to supporting cast members, and he teases a possible romantic flame between him and Violet, which fizzles out pretty quickly when she lets him know shes not interested. I guess if you can make mince meat out of platoon after platoon of soldiers without getting a scratch on you, who needs a relationship right? A crew of vampires are tossed into the movie as Violet's running mates but that lasts for about 3 minutes when she betrays them to protect the boy, and they pop back up later on only to meet their demise at Violet's hand seconds later. Nothing comes too hard for Violet in this movie...whether it be a platoon of 100 or so soldiers, 50 vampires with guns, or a gang of vampires with swords. That's just one of "Ultraviolet"'s problems, the heroines lack of being in peril which would cause any viewer to lose interest quickly. However it is fun to watch the silly, insane, and plotless mayhem unfold on screen to a techno soundtrack. Which is pretty much "Ultraviolet's only saving grace. It has style, flash, and flare, and it seems the movies director Kurt Wimmer with such a shoddy script, and untouchable heroine...knew those three things were essential if this dreck was going to even land a compliment or two.
Pros:Pretty good action scenes, nice futuristic set pieces.
Cons:The plot is extremely thin, some of the twists don't make sense, alot of scenes also seemed to be missing. Maybe I'm being too generous, but I refuse to believe that some of the twists that took place were just added in without a few scenes to explain them. The action scenes also become very repetitive by act 2. Not enough on screen friction between Daxus and Violet.
Overall:Not as good as advertised.