Ultraviolet

Starring: Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund
Directed by: Kurt Wimmer
Running Time: 88 Minutes
Rated: PG-13 for sequences of violent action throughout, partial nudity and language.

Totally Purple!

That was my favourite interpretation of the title of the movie on account of it is one of those wicked smart titles with double meanings. But in reality the colour purple only made a cameo appearance in the movie and this made no difference. Even Barney couldn't have saved this movie.

Ultraviolet was written and directed by a group of 10-year-old boys who spent at least one afternoon dreaming this movie up. Well, not really, but it sure felt this way. Remember when you were young and you made up scenarios you thought would be cool? They involved a mash of martial arts, hot babes, big guns and lots of ass-kickery? Well someone made a terrific movie that included all those things. That movie was called The Matrix.

Ultraviolet also includes all those things but the writer and director, Kurt Wimmer seemed to have run out of ideas after dreaming up the big guns that reminded me of industrial staplers and the leather outfits that showed off Milla Jovovich's great curves.

The film takes place in the future and some people have been turned into vampires and some other people want to wipe them out. Violet (Jovovich) is part of the vampire resistance fighting the humans. She steals a weapon created by humans to wipe out the vampires and has to go on the run when her conscience gets the best of her. Apparently after killing 45 people in the first 10 minutes of the film she gets squeamish about letting a young boy (Bright) die. That's all I really understood or cared to understand.

Jovovich is an impressive physical presence in the movie and certainly does a good job with the punching and shooting and swords. I also give her credit for trying so hard to do something with the lame dialogue during the moments when people aren't dying around her. It's really not her fault there is no story to back up the fighting scenes.

Speaking of which, the movie does deliver some good, if somewhat over the top fights and choreography. Nothing here is ground breaking and you don't have that "wow" moment like in The Matrix with the freeze frame action, but it is good. I think that if it were a 3-5 minute short film it would have been impressive. But to watch even someone as hot as Jovovich fighting for an hour and a half without any real purpose can get tedious.

Ultraviolet was filmed mostly against a blue screen with most of the visuals added afterwards. When done properly you get a breakthrough film like Sin City. When handled poorly you get something that looks like it was filmed against a blue screen with visuals added afterwards. One scene of Violet talking to someone on the phone while riding a motorcycle reminded me of the Saturday Night Live skit with that cat that could drive.

If you want to see this movie just watch the commercials a few times and you will have pretty much seen all there is to see, unless you want to see Jovovich's naked booty, in which case you need to rent this one.

2 out of 5 stars
© 2005 Review by Son Tran