I really am speechless in trying to describe how I felt about Ultraviolet.
In some respects, I think I truly wasted ninety-plus minutes of my life watching this movie.
In others, I am just terribly disappointed with Kurt Wimmer, who gave us the excellent cult film Equilibrium just four years ago.
But Ultraviolet, well, Ultraviolet attempts to clone the successful points of any number of science-fiction films that have come before it. Only it fails miserably in all respects. Yes, it could easily be pinned on Sony for tampering with the film and taking out so many vital plot points. But even with what's left, I cannot fathom how this movie could have been all that great to start with.
The film is just an incomprehensible mess. Explaining it here would just waste even more time, but suffice to say, Milla Jovovich is Violet, a member of a mutant race that has practically been wiped off the face of the planet. She is sent to illegally intercept a weapon that is being touted to further destroy the race, and is told not to open it. Being a rebel, she does, and finds a human boy named Six (Cameron Bright). Everyone seems to want him dead, so she takes it upon herself to try and protect him from just about everyone.
Original? Far from it, and this is the problem. The material has been done before, and has been done much better. Everyone involved seem to know it, and they are just seemingly trying to deliver something that does not totally reek of being clichéd unoriginal filth. But that is exactly what this is. Jovovich for one reason or another, is invincible, and just kills everything in sight without batting an eye. And since she can do this, she can save the boy from just about any situation. So at a crucial moment when he needs to be saved, what is the audience to think? That she's going to fail? How are we supposed to feel sympathetic for characters who are so unoriginal that we can tell what is going to happen miles before it actually does?
But therein lies another problem - the film does not make any sense. In their infinite wisdom, the editors took out more than a handful of vital plot points needed to really flesh out the characters and the story. As it is, the characters involved seem to have ongoing relationships that the audience only can grasp mention of, they never know the specifics. They just kind of go place-to-place, and it is assumed that the audience will just forget the fact that there is little to no mention of what anyone is doing, just that Jovovich is kicking ass and taking names almost every five minutes. There is no real cohesive storyline to follow at any point. We just get pieces of what was once Wimmer's script, and the film just kind of assumes that those who truly want to make sense of the movie, will just use their imaginations. Is this a good enough reason to blatantly miss key points needed to fully grasp the later actions and events involving some characters? No, and whoever thought so needs to get their heads examined.
On top of a story with no sensical values, the acting and dialogue is pretty terrible too. The few lines within the film are short and sweet. And they do nearly nothing to move the plot. Some of Jovovich's voice-overs do indeed work, but only sparingly (albeit much better than some of her "classy" one-liners like "Watch me", which she repeats about five times). At least with the voice-overs, we do not get to see any acting. When we actually see her physically speaking, Jovovich is just totally unenthused with everything. She has no excitement in her voice, and she has a total lack of any caring for even attempting to make her desire to protect Six look real. Indeed she is not that great an actress to start, but she is only continuing to perpetuate that notion with her deplorable acting here.
Bright is not all that much better. He has a whole total of three minutes of dialogue in the film (but plenty of screen time), and it is all delivered with the intensity of a gargoyle statue. It is so bland and so wooden that you begin to wonder why they even bothered to cast anyone in this role in the first place. Nick Chunland and William Fichtner are not all that much better, but at least the majority of their acting is delivered with some sort of inclination of attempting to act. Sorry to say, they do not appear all that much in the film.
The visuals for the most part, attempt to save the film from complete annihilation, but only work to a point. Yes, they are vibrant and exhilarating, but they never really pique interest. Some of the costumes and sets are downright ridiculous looking, and only continue to beat the film down into being worse. The special effects are titillating in one respect, but in others, they just look like a bad rip-off of something else. What is worse is the fact that the majority of them look like they are lifted right out of a video game (even down to some sequences of first person shooter). The crazed and bizarre editing helps accomplish this feat, and while it was meant to look stylish, it just ends up looking goofy.
For all its faults, the film does have a few intriguing moments. It has a few moments where it also proves that it could have been good if it had better direction, and a much better editor. If Sony was thinking the action alone would save this movie from being a laughing stock of putrid trash, then they clearly need to rethink their position as a Hollywood studio. And fast.
1/10.
In some respects, I think I truly wasted ninety-plus minutes of my life watching this movie.
In others, I am just terribly disappointed with Kurt Wimmer, who gave us the excellent cult film Equilibrium just four years ago.
But Ultraviolet, well, Ultraviolet attempts to clone the successful points of any number of science-fiction films that have come before it. Only it fails miserably in all respects. Yes, it could easily be pinned on Sony for tampering with the film and taking out so many vital plot points. But even with what's left, I cannot fathom how this movie could have been all that great to start with.
The film is just an incomprehensible mess. Explaining it here would just waste even more time, but suffice to say, Milla Jovovich is Violet, a member of a mutant race that has practically been wiped off the face of the planet. She is sent to illegally intercept a weapon that is being touted to further destroy the race, and is told not to open it. Being a rebel, she does, and finds a human boy named Six (Cameron Bright). Everyone seems to want him dead, so she takes it upon herself to try and protect him from just about everyone.
Original? Far from it, and this is the problem. The material has been done before, and has been done much better. Everyone involved seem to know it, and they are just seemingly trying to deliver something that does not totally reek of being clichéd unoriginal filth. But that is exactly what this is. Jovovich for one reason or another, is invincible, and just kills everything in sight without batting an eye. And since she can do this, she can save the boy from just about any situation. So at a crucial moment when he needs to be saved, what is the audience to think? That she's going to fail? How are we supposed to feel sympathetic for characters who are so unoriginal that we can tell what is going to happen miles before it actually does?
But therein lies another problem - the film does not make any sense. In their infinite wisdom, the editors took out more than a handful of vital plot points needed to really flesh out the characters and the story. As it is, the characters involved seem to have ongoing relationships that the audience only can grasp mention of, they never know the specifics. They just kind of go place-to-place, and it is assumed that the audience will just forget the fact that there is little to no mention of what anyone is doing, just that Jovovich is kicking ass and taking names almost every five minutes. There is no real cohesive storyline to follow at any point. We just get pieces of what was once Wimmer's script, and the film just kind of assumes that those who truly want to make sense of the movie, will just use their imaginations. Is this a good enough reason to blatantly miss key points needed to fully grasp the later actions and events involving some characters? No, and whoever thought so needs to get their heads examined.
On top of a story with no sensical values, the acting and dialogue is pretty terrible too. The few lines within the film are short and sweet. And they do nearly nothing to move the plot. Some of Jovovich's voice-overs do indeed work, but only sparingly (albeit much better than some of her "classy" one-liners like "Watch me", which she repeats about five times). At least with the voice-overs, we do not get to see any acting. When we actually see her physically speaking, Jovovich is just totally unenthused with everything. She has no excitement in her voice, and she has a total lack of any caring for even attempting to make her desire to protect Six look real. Indeed she is not that great an actress to start, but she is only continuing to perpetuate that notion with her deplorable acting here.
Bright is not all that much better. He has a whole total of three minutes of dialogue in the film (but plenty of screen time), and it is all delivered with the intensity of a gargoyle statue. It is so bland and so wooden that you begin to wonder why they even bothered to cast anyone in this role in the first place. Nick Chunland and William Fichtner are not all that much better, but at least the majority of their acting is delivered with some sort of inclination of attempting to act. Sorry to say, they do not appear all that much in the film.
The visuals for the most part, attempt to save the film from complete annihilation, but only work to a point. Yes, they are vibrant and exhilarating, but they never really pique interest. Some of the costumes and sets are downright ridiculous looking, and only continue to beat the film down into being worse. The special effects are titillating in one respect, but in others, they just look like a bad rip-off of something else. What is worse is the fact that the majority of them look like they are lifted right out of a video game (even down to some sequences of first person shooter). The crazed and bizarre editing helps accomplish this feat, and while it was meant to look stylish, it just ends up looking goofy.
For all its faults, the film does have a few intriguing moments. It has a few moments where it also proves that it could have been good if it had better direction, and a much better editor. If Sony was thinking the action alone would save this movie from being a laughing stock of putrid trash, then they clearly need to rethink their position as a Hollywood studio. And fast.
1/10.