Thursday, December 28, 2017

ULTRAVIOLET (2006)



Written & Directed By: Kurt Wimmer 
Cinematography By: Arthur Wong 
Editor: William Yeh 

Cast: Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund, William Finchter 

A beautiful hemophage infected with a virus that gives her superhuman powers has to protect a boy in a futuristic world, who is thought to be carrying antigens that would destroy all hemophages.

A film that tries to be ultra stylish, but offers no substance and more looks at vampirism from more a cool angle. The problem is that the film feels so exclusive and hip that it never connects with the audience as it seems more devoted to trying to be visual and better than anything that has ever been presented.

Unfortunately this is a film that is instantly forgettable. It’s a good thing most seem to have forgotten some things about the film. Which doesn’t matter as there is barely anything her worth remembering.

It’s another sci-fi action film with Milla Jovovich as the heroine only here she tries to put down some roots as more of an action heroine. She isn't bad I just wish the film rised to her level of talent.though she has even disowned the film.

The film is all about flash. The action pretty much never lets up to take a breath and provide a plausible sorry. That tries too many of revelations that are predictable form the beginning of this film. 

The film might as well have been an animated feature for the amount of bright colors, CGI and special effects used in the film. I wonder if director Kurt Wimmer was trying to make his own live action anime cartoon movie because that's what this film seems so hard to be, with it's surrealistic action and very little dialogue or at least maybe a video game character. As most of the characters look like they just stepped off a fashion runway with the clothes to match. This is a let down considering how good and smart Kurt Wimmer's first film EQUILIBRIUM which was serious yet fun and one of the first examples of gun-fu. It wasn't perfect but at least it was entertaining. This is a major diappointment.

I will say that at least the production design of this movie reminded me more of the animated version of AEON FLUX more than the love action movie of the anime starring Charlize Theron did. --This film also purposely seems to go out of it’s way to avoid calling any of the characters vampires. Even though they have all the characteristics of one. It’s almost like the filmmakers were afraid of being sued for copyrite.

This film would be totally forgettable if at the time it wasn’t pushed as a major release. Even if this is the type of film studios try to bury or get as much box office out of before it goes to the 99 cent bin, The type generally released at the beginning of the year when studios seem to be trying to get rid of their disappointing material.

Supposedly, Against the wishes of director Kurt Wimmer, the film was completely re-edited by the studio after they saw the original version which they apparently did not like; they saw it as 'too emotional' for the action film they were expecting and re-edited it so there would be more of an emphasis on the action and to cut it down to a PG-13 rating. The edition shortened the film from its original length of 120 minutes to 88 minutes. The director was quite angry about the edition, and many fans agree that it lowered the quality of the film significantly. An extended version of the film was later released with 6 additional minutes increasing the runtime to 94 minutes. Which would explain quite a bit about the films quality.

Grade: F

No comments:

Post a Comment