2008 Woodie Awards
'Ultraviolet kicks butt and little else
'Ultraviolet' favors action over plot, giving more screen time to Milla Jovovich's abs than acting.
Dotty Burns
Issue date: 3/20/06 Section: Features
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New age films such as "The Matrix" garnished with stunning virtual camera tricks and philosophical allusions have had me on the edge my seat in recent years and always left me wanting for more films like it. But who knew films that strive to live up to its brilliance could be so bad? The new film "UltraViolet," starring every one's favorite zombie-killing L'Oreal cover girl Milla Jovovich is so laughably inane, it devastates the science fiction genre altogether.
"Ultra Violet" is ostensibly a case of bad-filmmaking rather than bad writing, for what director Kurt Zimmers has to work with in terms of plot is somewhat compelling. Somewhere in between senseless high tech sword fighting and gunfire he allows a potentially intriguing film to deteriorate rapidly.
The film's enthralling inception is where most of the story unfolds, but it develops so quickly I found it hard to follow at times. Based on what I've managed to grasp, a disease titled "hemophagia" that is evidently engineered by the government of the late 21st century has infected a subpopulation and caused them to mutate into "hemophages." As hemophages they are endowed with vampiric capabilities, but unlike conventional vampires hemophages have a limited life span.
Aside from being altogether doomed, during the initial outbreak of the disease hemophages are ostracized by human society and eventually subject for extermination by the government.
The film revolves around Violet (Jovovich) who has evaded eradication and has risen as the hemophage crusader. During the eve of "the blood war," which is more or less where the story begins, Violet manages to trick her way into a heavily guarded facility run by Daxus (Nick Chinlund) and get her hands on the "secret weapon."
After Violet engages in a heart-stopping chase with Daxus' men on her sleek BMW motorcycle, she peeks into the white briefcase that allegedly contains the "secret weapon" and discovers a young boy (Cameron Bright). No, it isn't a typo, the boy was actually in the briefcase.
"Ultra Violet" is ostensibly a case of bad-filmmaking rather than bad writing, for what director Kurt Zimmers has to work with in terms of plot is somewhat compelling. Somewhere in between senseless high tech sword fighting and gunfire he allows a potentially intriguing film to deteriorate rapidly.
The film's enthralling inception is where most of the story unfolds, but it develops so quickly I found it hard to follow at times. Based on what I've managed to grasp, a disease titled "hemophagia" that is evidently engineered by the government of the late 21st century has infected a subpopulation and caused them to mutate into "hemophages." As hemophages they are endowed with vampiric capabilities, but unlike conventional vampires hemophages have a limited life span.
Aside from being altogether doomed, during the initial outbreak of the disease hemophages are ostracized by human society and eventually subject for extermination by the government.
The film revolves around Violet (Jovovich) who has evaded eradication and has risen as the hemophage crusader. During the eve of "the blood war," which is more or less where the story begins, Violet manages to trick her way into a heavily guarded facility run by Daxus (Nick Chinlund) and get her hands on the "secret weapon."
After Violet engages in a heart-stopping chase with Daxus' men on her sleek BMW motorcycle, she peeks into the white briefcase that allegedly contains the "secret weapon" and discovers a young boy (Cameron Bright). No, it isn't a typo, the boy was actually in the briefcase.