Ultraviolet

Ultraviolet was embarrassingly terrible on so many levels. My husband and I usually really dig the comic book and action movies, so I think that our expectations were reasonable for the genre. The kinds of movies that Ultraviolet tried to channel were X-Men, The Matrix and Underworld. Unfortunately, this movie failed to do so.

1) Dialogue was laughably bad. One of Milla's lines was actually "Because these beautiful moments turn evil when they're over." What?? This was regarding a romantic pass made at her. Totally incongruous with the setting. 2) Excessive use of CGI is a personal irritant. Additionally, the motorcycle chase scenes were only one step above TRON. I might as well have been watching my 11 year old neighbors play some video game. 3) Zero character development. I didn't care about Violet, the french guy, the scientist guy, the pretty boy, or the evil nose filter guy. I didn't care about their individual goals (mainly because they weren't very clear). I didn't care about characters dying, and I didn't care about the revelation at the end; the only indicator that I had that it was important was her somewhat awed reaction.

To be fair, Milla Jovovich has an incredible face and body and is well-suited for fight scenes. If all-CGI, all-the-time is your thing, then you'll be thrilled with the loads of glossed-over fight scenes involving Milla and hordes of green screen baddies. If you're like our entire theater, you're bored. Really, fake fights just don't impress me.

Look, let's be serious. The movie is flashy and fantastic, buried in cgi and special effects, and the plot is rather obscure and strange. What makes the movie good is that it does go over the top. This movie dazzles.

If Mila catches your eye, this movie may be the finest piece that she did around this time. So beautiful.

The opening few minutes of Kurt Wimmer's Ultraviolet is a rip roaring, pulse pounding set up of action sequences and chases. Then the film calms down for a little breather until the next amazing fight sequence.

Following a holocaust some humans have become Hemophages, a sub-species with enhanced physical abilities. Violet, must protect a nine-year-old boy who has been marked for death by the human government.

In the wake of 2005's disappointing Aeon Flux, underrated Kurt Wimmer director of Equilibrium (2002) writer of The Recruit (2003) and Salt (2010) set about creating an up-to-the-minute Sci-fi.However, after shooting wrapped Kurt left after being pressured to deliver less emotional PG-13 rated film. In turn, Ultraviolet was completely re-edited by the studio and apparently this marred the finished product significantly.

Acting wise, William Fichtner puts in an unusual performance, Sebastien Andrieu and Nick Chinlund both seem unsure what's going on. With an abundance of forgettable bad guys, Milla Jovovich excellently plays Violet who has enhanced speed, incredible stamina and acute intelligence. Her character at first seems very one dimensional as she plays her usual Resident Evil kick-ass self. But even in the short running time her character develops, you're given glimpses into here past, as she bonds with 'Six' played well by Cameron Bright.

There's great effects, stunts and a thumping score. A lot of reviews have criticised the CGI usage, however, it's stylised, hyper-real and sleek. It's not meant to be faithful representation of a real world. Holograms, swords, a new invented language, gun-fighting and martial arts. It's science fiction entertainment, set in the 21st century, nothing more, nothing less.

It's fast, it's fun - Ultraviolet is an pleasing sci-fi action but possibly could have been so much more if Wimmer was allowed to deliver his cut.

After having been given repeated warnings about how bad this film is, I went ahead and watched a borrowed copy. About thirty minutes into the film I had reached a decision: I was enjoying it. While certainly not Oscar-winning material, most people apparently were expecting some kind of cinematic masterpiece rather than what they got, an over-the-top comic book-like action set piece with a modicum of plot to tie together the action sequences.

The gunkata sequences, closer to Wimmer's original idea of the form, do not approach the stark and yet orgiastic death-art of Equilibrium, but they're fun all the same. The movie is full of neat, if improbable, gadgetry, from gravity manipulators to disposable paper cell phones. Nick Chinlund chews a satisfactory amount of scenery without stuffing himself down the viewer's throat. Milla Jovovich herself manages to use a two-dimensional role to display probably the most range I've ever seen her give outside of "The Messenger", and she was certainly much more attractive in this movie than in any of the others I've ever watched her in. All these things contribute to what amounted to a popcorn bowl of a film: not something you'd eat for every meal, but a nice snack for a change of pace when you don't want something too substantial.

The problem seems to be that most people can't just shut off their brains and enjoy a romp once in a while. Would this film ever seriously contend for Best Anything? No. But it certainly does not deserve the almost universal slagging it has gotten since its release. Ignore what you've heard, don't expect too much, and you might just find yourself being entertained for an hour and a half.

In the future research into a rare blood anomaly has gotten out of control, making it more infectious and deadly than nature ever did. It spreads. The world become split between the uninfected humans and those infected who have developed the traits of the vampires of old. Known as Hemophages, they fight back in a war led by Daxus as head of the new totalitarian world. In the middle of this war is Violet, a Hemophage whose infection lost her child. Violet steals a secret weapon from Daxus to return to her people. However when the weapon turns out to be a human child with a mutation in his blood Violet hesitates. She goes on the run with the child but both sides seem determined to kill her and her ward.

This film got roundly harsh reviews when it came out in cinemas and it maintains an equally low rating on IMDb but, arrogant as I am, I thought it might be a piece of mindless fun. Well, I'm sad to say that my hope proved to have no founding in reality. It isn't that the film is really bad, because it isn't. It is more than it doesn't really follow through on anything or do anything that well and the result is a rather messy and inconsequential film that I really struggled to feel anything strong about whatsoever – not a sense of fun, excitement, interesting or even hate.

The plot is the first obstacle to get over as it exists in a world that, as Violet first says, is hard to understand. On the surface it is a typical totalitarian state with disease and war at its core and thus surely would offer some potential for commentary on our modern society (OK maybe not V for Vendetta but perhaps something). Sadly no, nothing like that is to be found and instead the world is one of assumptions and half-baked ideas from other sources. This is a minor problem compared to my main issue with it though. Others have picked holes in the specifics but for me it all falls over because it simply takes itself too seriously. On one hand it is a comic book movie with excessive action and loads of (rather obvious) CGI but on the other we get loads of heavy moments that just clunk their way across the screen.

It could have gone either way and have been better for it. It could have been more fun and a bit less full of itself – embracing the comic book style and making the CGI look part of the "unreal" effect rather than leaving them to stand out by looking a bit cheap, like they couldn't match everything else due to budget constraints. Conversely it could have gone more adult, properly explored the maternal theme and developed the characters beyond the one dimensional but then I guess that would have risked the teen action crowd. However by trying to do neither and both at the same time the end result is a bit messy. I could go on but I'll leave others to tell you about the clunky script, roundly flat acting and disjointed story but suffice to say they are correct – nothing is really done well here.

Even the action, which surprised me. Some scenes offer excitement but mostly they are all overdone and full of too many baddies and an inability to keep the camera still for longer than a second to let us enjoy what we are seeing or feel close to it. The one scene I did think was well done was the conclusion; not brilliant because it still suffered from excess but the darkness and the 1-on-1 (as opposed to 700-on-1) did at least make me get into it a bit. Jovovich has a good body and is not a "bad" actress here but really she does offer little more than the basics. Any vague attempt she does make to find the person in her character is either misjudged or ignored and all we are left with is the sight of her in tight clothes killing people while looking sexy; perfect for the teenage boy market but those days are a decade or so behind me and I just felt bored. Bright is dull while I can only assume that Fichtner hoped for a franchise and took a role that would potentially give him an expansion potential in later films (yeah William, drop me a line and let me know how that's working out for ya). Chinlund at least has the good taste to furiously ham it up; maybe it is because he is a ham or maybe it was a decision but either way at least he has a bit of fun and his character never gets sucked into being dry and serious like the rest of the film (he's still not great though).

Overall, not as bad as some would have you believe but certainly no earthly good either. The approach is mixed and mostly fails to inspire, excite, engage or even interest. I would have liked to see it try to do something in particular – be silly, be clever, be childish, be adult – something. Hell, I might even have liked it if it had been such a shambles that it became fun to mock. As it is though it is just totally mediocre, boring, flat and uninspiring. Even teenage boys deserve better.