Ultraviolet

Year of release : 2006

Run time : 1h28m

Genre : Action / Sci Fi / Dystopia

Cast : Milla Jovovich, William Fichtner, Cameron Bright

The movie was written and directed by Kurt Wimmer.

An American weapons lab discovered an obscure virus which has been around for centuries. They tried to modify it to make it stronger, creating a more contagious form of the disease, a blood virus. The disease got out and the government first required the infected to wear arm bands, after which they rounded them up in camps, and then the infected just disappeared (meaning they started k1lling them).

Violet, who used to be a nurse or doctor, was infected the day she lost her husband and baby, as she was pregnant. She joined the resistance, going underground, fighting back in what she calls “the blood wars”.

Violet is posing as a courier at a research facility, and undergoes a very thorough examination to make sure she is not infected, before being given a suitcase that she is told repeatedly she is not to open. She is being found out as the real courier shows up, and Violet also doesn’t know the code word, so, she fights everyone in order to take the case.

She is being followed, and she manages to get rid of everyone following her, reaching the members of the resistance. Who tell her not to open the case. She does open it in the elevator, and is told by the resistance’s leader it’s a weapon against the hemophages (they are pretty much vampires), and they want to destroy it. Violet is against it, as it’s a child, so she hid him outside, placing a hologram device inside.

Violet makes a getaway with the kid, trying to keep him safe and take him to her friend, Garth, a scientist, as she thinks if the kid is supposed to be created to eliminate the hemophages it means it can also be used to cure them.

I don’t know what to say about the movie, because although I enjoyed the fighting scenes, the plot is not that great.

The movie is full of color and action packed. It’s a lot like another movie written and directed by Kurt Wimmer, Equilibrium (when I first watched this I thought it was a rip off of that one. It has so many similarities, it’s ridiculous. It’s the same kind of dystopian world, just with a different background story, and set of rules. It has the same kind of fighting scenes (the gun kata, the sword fights, the way they all gather around her in a circle, and the fight in the dark), the same kind of cross symbol (just not the exact symbol), the same kind of villain, the same kind of outfits for the soldiers / law enforcers, and our lead dresses in white for the last fight. And this is only at the surface level at the top of my head.)

I did like the intro, which made me think it was based on a comic book or an anime.

I loved the fighting scenes and Milla’s outfits. I loved how her outfits changed color.

The villain of the story, the tyrant, takes germophobia to the next level, SPOILERS especially when we find out at the end, he was infected all along.

People can get infected just by touching anything contaminated, blood or even tears contaminating immediately another.

I don’t know what to say about the visual effects which made everything look cartoonish. It almost looks like the ones in “Sky captain and the world of tomorrow”. They are not bad, they just make everything look polished and fake.

The acting was so and so. Milla doesn’t have much range, and the leader of the resistance, when he turns against her looks like he’s trying to seduce her when he’s trying to fight her or stop her from fighting him, but I think that’s his angry / villain look.

The soundtrack, by Klaus Badelt, who wrote an amazing score for Equilibrium, kinda missed with this one, as I only liked how it sounded at the scene on the rooftop when she’s dodging the bullets, while trying to make a getaway with the kid. I did like the choirs, but it felt the music they were put on didn’t match.

The movie has a novel based on it, written by Yvonne Navarro, and an anime series titled “Ultraviolet : code 044”.

The movie grossed 31.1 million dollars at the box office against a budget of 30 million, being a failure at the box office, and with the critics.

The movie has a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and an 18 score out of 100 on Metacritic. Cinema Score audiences graded the movie a D+!

Rating : Could have been a contender !