Sci-Fi Glamour
Ultraviolet Radiates Beauty But No Brains
I first took notice of Milla Jovovich when she appeared as the scantily-clad, orange-haired heroine in the sci-fi action movie The Fifth Element. Since then, she has become well-known as Alice, the heroine of the game-inspired action movies Resident Evil and Resident Evil: Apocalypse. I think it's safe to say that Jovovich is making a career of playing action-oriented babes. But is there any acting going on?
Written by: Kurt Wimmer
Starring: Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund, and William Fichtner
Rated
(for
sequences of violent action throughout, partial nudity and language)Running time: 88 min.
FilmGuru's Rating : 3 out of 10.
Ultraviolet begins with a narrative about a government experiment to genetically manufacture super soldiers, which becomes a lethal plague. The disease affects a good portion of the population, giving them increased speed, stamina and strength. But at a price: most of the infected only have a dozen years to live. The government segregates these "hemophages" (read "vampires") from the rest of society. The result is not a civil rights riot but a widespread fear of the disease.
Intelligence has surfaced that the government has created an "antidote" for the hemophage problem. But the cure is worse than the disease. It will kill every hemophage. Enter Violet (Jovovich). She is a hemophage warrior, working with an underground movement to fight back against the establishment. Her job is to get the antidote and destroy it. While getting the antidote involves a lot of violence and bloodshed, Violet finds herself unable to destroy it. The "antidote" is -- in fact -- a nine year-old boy named Six (Cameron Bright).
Sadly, it appears that writer/director Kurt Wimmer didn't want to wait three years to make a sequel. So, he condensed the first movie (everything that would have set up the back story, including Violet's origin) into a dense opening narration. The result is a film that hints at a history but doesn't have one. The plot begins as nothing but one fight or chase scene after another. By the time the story slows down to consider the next step, the audience realizes that the narrative is secondary to the action. The film has a few twists and turns concerning the true nature of Six, but they are not so much intriguing as confusing.
Adding to this disastrous train wreck of a film is an unrequited love story between Violet and her co-conspirator Garth (William Fichtner). Garth is a Q to her James Bond, giving her vast amounts of weapons and the technology she uses to hide them. Unfortunately, the story tries (with various lingering glances and awkward pauses) to introduce a romantic storyline. Garth, it seems, is not in this for the revolution. He is doing it to save Violet from the hemophage plague. The fact that Garth, too, is infected doesn't seem to bother him.
The film, for all its stylized action and ridiculous violence, tires easily. It seems to be made with the gaming market in mind. "Follow Violet as she works her way through the various levels of the game, killing everything in sight!" For Jovovich, this is probably becoming second nature. Watching the action, however, is only slightly more entertaining than watching someone else play a video game. The special effects are similar to those seen in any number of movies since The Matrix. The bad guys (who die by the truckload) are made into faceless, impersonal enemies by gearing them in shock troop uniforms and gas masks. The only villain we can identify is Daxus (Nick Chinlund), who seems more like a bad CEO than a master of genocide.
A few "sci-fi" moments make the film cool, although most of the gadgets are passed off without an explanation. Violet uses "flat space" technology to hide a multitude of guns, ammo, and a rectangular sword. Both she and her motorcycle are equipped with gravity devices that allow her to walk (or ride) up walls. More interesting, though, are the nearly plausible inventions like hologram projections on phones and disposable cell phones.
The opening of Ultraviolet shows a montage of mocked-up comic book covers, as if to suggest that the heroine comes from a well-known comic book with a long history. The idea is a clever one, and the covers range from old school science fiction comics to the latest in independent comics. The makers of the film must think comics are vapid entertainment if Ultraviolet is supposed to be inspired by them. The lack of a background story and paper-thin characters brings down the entertainment factor of this film. It's action-packed, but it lacks everything else.
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