Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8874 in DVD
• Released on: 2006-10-30
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 84 minutes

Synopsis
In the mid-21st century, a virus has turned part of the earth's population into hemophages, vampire-like creatures with heightened speed and dexterity, and a fascist government is intent on stamping them out. Enter Violet (Milla Jovovich), a hemophage determined to fight for her people. Her battle takes an unexpected turn, however, when she finds herself protecting Six (Cameron Bright), a mysterious young child who was raised in a lab. Although the artwork in the opening credits would lead you to believe otherwise, writer/director Kurt Wimmer (EQUILIBRIUM) reportedly based ULTRAVIOLET not on a comic book but on John Cassavetes's 1980 film GLORIA, in which a woman must protect a young boy who is carrying some information sought by the Mafia. Tailor-made for young action fans raised on anime and videogames who want nothing more than to see a beautiful heroine leave a path of destruction behind her, ULTRAVIOLET cross-pollinates plot threads from popular franchises like THE MATRIX and UNDERWORLD. Creating a brightly hued, soft-focus environment constructed entirely with CGI and a green screen, ULTRAVIOLET's look is much like SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. Cementing the reputation she established with similar athletic, minimally clothed roles in THE FIFTH ELEMENT and the RESIDENT EVIL films, Jovovich will go down in the books as a sci-fi femme fatale for the ages. Her Ultraviolet--who inexplicably changes her hair colour and outfits seemingly at will--is a lethal melding of Morticia Adams at a rave and KILL BILL's Bride. Pulling off moves that clearly demonstrate the training she underwent for the role, and usually with a bare midriff, she gives her fans plenty to enjoy. Wimmer wisely leaves the door open for further adventures in the saga.

Customer Reviews

Undemanding but entertaining Sci Fi
The subject of very bad reviews, I was not particularly keen to see this film. Having actually seen the film, I agree that there are too many fight sequences, to the point that you could be in a PS2 game. These sequences are at times too drawn out and some become predictable and tedious....
Also the plot could have been better developed too.

So what is good about the film?
Set in the future, the world is in the midst of a war between humans and people infected with a vampire like virus which gives them superhuman skills.
Milla Jovovich is actually quite good in the ambiguous lead role. She has fled the laboratory that infected her with the Hemomphage virus which resulted in the death of her unborn child. Now embittered and angry with Humanity, she has become a lethal assassin for the Hemophage movement.
However, her stance is turned upside down when she encounters a laboratory bred, nine year old boy. Well played by Cameron Bright, he is a vessel for a virus that could threaten Hemophages or Humanity. Both sides want to get hold of him. In scenes reminiscent of John Cassavates 'Gloria', this boy's plight cuts through Ultraviolet's cynical exterior and awakens her maternal instincts, and she goes on the run with him, trying to protect him from her fellow Hemophages and the security forces of Humanity's dictator.
She and Bright develop a convincing and sympathetic relationship while on the run, and just like Gloria, this enhances and underscores the moments of danger and peril
The sets are superb and give the film real atmosphere at times, I believe that Shanghai was largely used as the location.

See the film for what it is - undemanding but entertaining Sci Fi.

Even though I've been warned I still went ahead and watch this.....go me
Personally, I believe Milla Jovovich is great, even in this because she handles the 'tough' role really well. Cameron Bright also did a good job in his role. In this film I'm going to hold the director entirely responsible for bringing together this mess. `Ultraviolet' is something that I'd expect from Uwe Boll. The film relies completely on CGI and still manages to fall short of expectations. The movie bears some resemblance to `Equilibrium,' like the art of the Gun-Kata and how society is stratified. If you haven't seen `Equilibrium,' you must. It is Kurt Wimmer's greatest movie of all time.

On this film Wimmer thought that the pretty colors are supposed to distract us from the incoherent script? It didn't work on this film. `The Sky Captain'-style post-processing just makes everything look blurry. (And why is it applied to only half the shots?) Just about everything in this movie is borrowed from something else, and it's slapped together on the thinnest of premises and tarted up with lots of CGI. When there's a break from the ridiculously-choreographed action sequences, you're bludgeoned with nonsensical subplots and indescribably awful dialogue until the heroine met the villain in their final showdown.

Anyways, I think that there is no justification in watching this film, spare yourself the pain and re-watch `The Fifth Element' or any one of the "Resident Evil's" instead.

Forced to write a review too!
I sat down to this with low expectations and it certainly didn't disappoint. I didn't expect the film to be emotionally engaging or that it be brilliantly plotted.

I did expect it to deliver well executed action and have a coherent story.
Actually all we get is Milla Jovovich's bared midriff(which the camera lingers on at every opportunity)and well choreographed, but badly thought out, combat scenes that would seem barely credible in a computer game, finally some chase sequences so poorly rendered that you would be forgiven for thinking they'd actually lifted them whole from the aforementioned video game.

The most annoying thing is the complete absence of internal logic in basics like the fight scenes: in one scene 20+ guards run at her with swords(why are they using swords?), she has guns but fights them with her own swords. In the next scene 20+ guards run toward her with guns. Why? If you had a gun and were faced with a 'killing machine' who'd already killed 350 of your mates you would stand at the side of the room and shoot them(probably hide behind something too), unless of course you were trying to get yourself killed in a movie.

This is the sort of film where the action becomes boring very quickly because there is no sense of danger or tension, you never feel there is the slightest danger that the lead character won't get to fight 'the end of level baddie'.
This comes from the school of film making that suggests that, as long as you keep the screen full of things happening, it doesn't matter what those things are. It DOES matter.

Good action films don't have to challenge the intellect but they should not insult it. This does.