cpudsey

Ultraviolet is one of those movies that should appeal to genre fans (sci-fi, action, horror), but instead, fails miserably.

It borrows heavily from movies such as The Matrix, Equilibrium, Kill Bill, Aeon Flux and even Sin City, but fails to capture anything that made those movies good. Instead of taking a deeper view of what was engaging about these movies, it jams all the aspects of "Wow, that looked cool!" together in a mish-mash that simply does not work.

The story is simplistic and uninspired; the dialog seems to have been written by an eight year old; and the special effects, while passable in some places, are simply put together in a hodge-podge mess. Ultraviolet embodies why movies that are created foremost as a showcase for SFX and visual extravaganzas, with the plot and script tacked on afterward, invariably fall short.

Simply put, this movie is awful. Save yourself the aggravation, and watch something like Equilibrium instead.

Having just finished watching this movie, I must say it was nowhere near as bad as most of the reviews would have had me believe. I suppose the most misleading thing about this movie is the title – it really has very little to do with Samurais at all. Basically, Samouraïs is mix of martial arts, supernatural action, cop story and techno thriller. I'll be the first to admit, the story is far from perfect, being very simplistic, and outrageously silly in a few places. Nevertheless, I did enjoy it. Anyway, let me break it down into pros and cons:

Pros – great fight scenes (for the most part); some truly fantastic visual effects and CGI; great "video game" sequences; and some clever (if bizarre) story elements.

Cons – the Nadir character is a truly stupid and annoying "bumbling sidekick", on a par with Jar Jar Binks; the fight scenes and violence were strangely sanitized in many ways, much more so than I would expect given the genre and subject matter; every attempt at humor and/or comic relief fails miserably (extremely unfunny and insultingly stupid); and as had been pointed out, the plot is very simplistic, and very implausible in many areas.

All in all, Samouraïs is worth a watch if you are a fan of martial arts action and/or supernatural action movies, but please don't see it with expectations of epic cinema or brilliant acting. Also, if you are looking for a "Samurai" genre movie, this certainly is not it. All that aside, an entertaining and easy to watch B-grader.