Due to coursework and Christmas I ain't gonna be on here too much for a while
Due to coursework and Christmas I ain't gonna be on here too much for a while
Member since:07.04.2007
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Ultraviolet is a 2006 film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer and if the film has any type of underlying message it's that Wimmer doesn't have a lot of imagination.
The film is about a dystopian world where vampire exist. They were created by mistake after a medical company trying to create a form of super soldier (that old story) accidentally released a virus. The virus causes a person to become stronger, faster etc but it also causes a massive reduction of their life span. The humans have taken a disliking to these 'hemophages' as they're called and had them all put into ghettos and eventually killed. However, several of them escaped capture and formed an underground resistance against the humans. Thus starts the blood wars (makes you cringe)
Violet (played by Milla Jovovich) is one of the hemophages, infected whilst pregnant she was captured and experimented on and given a forced abortion. She eventually escaped the compound and has deep hatred for humans for what they done to her. However, Violet comes upon a boy who is wanted by both the vampires and the humans as some sort of final weapon. Violet's maternal instinct causes her to try ad protect the boy from both sides but she is in trouble as she only has 36 more hours to live.
This film as far as I can tell is not actually based on a comic book. The film gives you that impression at the start my a montage of Japanese
style comics that form the credits but this was merely to establish a premise for the style of the film. Throughout the film is made to look like anime with bright colours and ridiculous costumes and settings. (I shall include any pictures I can find.) I found the sets and the costumes to look a bit stupid. You got the whole anime idea and it was well done in that respect and the CGI looked quite good but what is appropriate in a cartoon (they are cartoons, wake up) or a comic just didn't look great in live action. The bad guys in the film also looked an awful lot like the bad guys in Wimmer's other big action film Equilibrium
The directing of the film was quite hit and miss. At times we had amazing shots that looked really cool. There was a brilliant scene with the silhouette of a guard standing on a roof top at dusk but then at other times it looks abit unrealistic and unoriginal. The action choreography is basically where a film like this has to succeed and to a large extent it did in this film. There were alot of exciting well shot fight scenes but then there were also some not so good ones. At times you just feel let down. At one point Violet is surrounded by about 12 vampires with swords and she kills them all in a split second which is all well and good for her and her ability but you feel abit disappointed. That was potentially a very exciting action scene. At other times the actions scenes are just implied, too many times the camera looked away and when it had turned back everyone around her was dead. The actual action was the only strength this film could have and he kept skipping over it. The story was crap. No-one cared about the story. The action scenes were very like Equilibrium when you did see them but they were enjoyable enough and don't take that as a massive complaint.
The story was very unoriginal. The vampire aspect was very like the Underworld series (I believe there's a third one coming). There's a scene were Violet walks past a mot of vampires lounging about in the vampire hideout and they all stare at her as she walks past which really reminds you of Underworld The genetically engineered soldier idea stolen from several computer games and crappy films(incidentally Wimmer will be directing the upcoming Metal Gear Solid film). You really could see strong elements of Aeon Flux and Resident Evil in there as well. Especially as Milla Yovovich plays essentially the exact same character.
The soundtrack wasn't great, it was the same drum and bass track throughout almost and fell short of giving the adrenaline infused music needed for the action scenes. At the opening credits there was a track that sounded almost exactly like something from the Tim Burton Batman films
The acting was pretty bad by alot most of the cast. The vampires especially were rubbish. Milla the same character from Resident Evil and The Fifth Element which was pretty standard for the film and you can't really complain. Cameron Bright from Birth and Godsend played Six and his performance was quite good. William Fichtner plays Garth a small role as Violet's only friend. There were also some really cheesey lines in the film like just before a fight scene the bad guy says "It is on" and Violet approaches a large group saying "You are all going to die"
Overall I think the film lacked a good enough story, you don't expect much from a film like this but the story was too unoriginal. The action scenes weren't enough and some of them just weren't sufficient but the film did have some fantastic action scenes. The acting was mediocre and the soundtrack below average. The style of the film was an interesting move to take, sadly it didn't really work but it was impressively like anime from the settings to the costumes to the way some of the characters looked and acted.
I've given the film three stars because although I have a few complaints with it I found it watchable enough and overall mediocre. I wouldn't watch it again and I definitely wouldn't buy it on DVD. I would, however, recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Resident Evil , Aeon Flux and Underworld . Fans of Equilibrium may find this to be just a slightly dumbed down version. Equilibrium had a great dystopian plot and rather good acting and you could sort of wringe a moral from it, Ultraviolet had al the same action etc but was just a little dryer.
Production Year: 1964 - Action/Adventure - Director: Cyril Endfield - Original Language: English - Classification: Parental Guidance - Starring:Stanley Baker, Jack Hawkins, Ulla Jacobsson, James Booth, Michael Caine, Nigel Green
Action/Adventure - Original Language: English - Classification: 12 years and over - Starring:Jack Ging, Marla Heasley, Lance Legault, Melinda Culea, Mr T, Dwight Schultz, Dirk Benedict, George Peppard, Carl Franklin
Production Year: 2002 - Action/Adventure - Director: Vincenzo Natali - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring:Lucy Liu, David Hewlett, Anne Marie Scheffler, Joseph Scoren, Matthew Sharp, Jeremy Northam
Production Year: 1977 - Action/Adventure - Director: Clint Eastwood - Original Language: English - Classification: 18 years and over - Starring:Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney
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![Ultraviolet [DVD] [2006]](http://picnica.ciao.com/uk/78470270.jpg "Ultraviolet [DVD] [2006]")
Jul 10th, 2008
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