UltraViolet

March 6, 2006

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 88 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Schlock is a not really a good thing. But, if done with much style and enthusiasm, I don’t mind it. Such is the case with UltraViolet. Milla Jovovich stars as the movie’s namesake. If you’ve seen a preview, then you get the idea that she kick’s much booty. Indeed she does…and the preview is just the tip of the iceberg!

UltraViolet Violet’s world is in a possible future of ours where vampires (called Hemophages here) exist. They were created by biologists who were attempting to create a bio-weapon out of an old virus…a virus that tended to give the victim some of the symptoms of vampirism - sensitivity to light, pointy fangs, and, of course, a taste for blood. The project is a failure, however, and merely results in created a substantial number of bloodsuckers in the population. The loose virus, thankfully, only appears to be able to be transmitted to another person through blood or other fluids. If you’re in the same room as a coughing or sneezing hemophage, no worries, you’ll be just fine.

Apparently, the hemophages merely wish to be left alone, but the government just doesn’t want to let them be. In fact, by the time the movie begins, the government has been hunting down hemophages for many years. And doing so quite successfully, I might add. Only a few are left, but they are the fastest, strongest and fittest of the bunch. Violet is one of these hemophages. A few years before, she was just one of millions of normal young women. She was in love with her dream guy and was also carrying his baby. After an “incident”, however, she was exposed to the virus, her loverboy was killed and, later, her baby died as well.

That kind of trauma tends to twist you up a bit and Violet is no exception. Since becoming infected, she’s developed herself into a monstrously lethal killing machine. Neo, on his best day, probably couldn’t take her. Yeah, it’s THAT far over the top at times.

Violet is sent on a mission to impersonate a human courier and pick up a very special package from a huge government building. The package, she learns, contains a weapon that would allow the government to kill ALL the remaining hemophages. She succeeds in picking up the package, but after viewing its contents her mind is sent reeling. From that point, the body count continues to climb impressively.

I never thought that scenes of carnage could be described as being beautiful, but the ones in UltraViolet can’t really be described any other way. In fact, the vision as brought to life on the screen is bordering on breathtaking. The fight scenes are spectacular, too, as you may have guessed. The dialogue, however, needs work. Some of the cheesiest lines I’ve ever heard were spoken aloud here. Kudo’s to Jovovich and Bright for actually keeping a straight face while utering them. Also of note is the fact that, at some points of the movie, simple logic is thrown out the window.

Milla is looking FINE, as usual. She leaves her belly exposed throughout the movie in order to show that magnificent tummy of hers and she also gets naked for a minute or so. Don’t get your hopes up, though, because you only see her from behind and she’s lit up with just blacklight. Yep, it’s schlock. But, all in all, it’s VERY GOOD schlock. As such, it gets 4 stars from me…just barely.

Posted by Alex | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Cameron Bright, Milla Jovovich, Nick Chinlund, PG-13, SciFi, Theatrical, William Fichtner