ULTRAVIOLET

Ultraviolet (3 1/2 out of Four)

PG-13, 2006, 88 minutes, Screen Gems.Milla Jovovich, Cameron Bright, Nick Chinlund, William Fichtner, Music by Klaus Badelt, Produced by John Baldecchi, Lucas Foster, Written and Directed by Kurt Wimmer.

So, I went and saw myself some of that there Ultraviolet. Kinda fun for a sci-fi popcorn flick. A little hard to understand the physics though. The whole thing has this weird post-filter applied to like every shot as if it was manipulated with simple Photoshop techniques. And I can tell on a second viewing some of the shots will get annoying. Like there's this one scene where she's surrounded by these Chinese dudes and since everyone's cool they all wear shades. Since she's a vampire she has these strange powers that allow her to hear people's heart palpitations and the rattling of the rings against the metal of the guns. The camera swoops into her eye where she sees the reflection of one guy, then homes in on the reflection of another guy through the reflection in his eye so she can see another reflection of another person and on down the line. When the action finally does start, it pretty much kicks ass in all its Klaus Badelt scored glory.

So, the premise is, Milla Jovovich's a vampire of a dying society of vampires, who hunts humans. Turns out that the vampire biology is being used to further advance technology and make these super soldiers, but there's this highly contagious pathogen that turns people into hemophages--that's the flick's way of calling them vampires. But then during this huge opening heist that defies all laws of physics, she escapes and delivers a package that's about the size of a Milton Bradley board game and inside there's a full-grown human child swirling around in a blue nebula. It's treated like it's an everyday thing and then she escapes with the child with all sorts of people in her ass. Now the humans and the vampires are out to get her because the kid's got some sort of virus in him that can kill either all humans or all vampires.

The flick asks a lot to believe that these people can do all these things, but if you can surrender your disbelief and accept this is some strange lucid dream, then I think the emotional beats and action pay offs will work. It's directed by Kurt Wimmer who wrote and directed the supposed Matrix clone, Equilibrium, (and what film hasn't The Matrix ripped off?). But Equilibrium pretty much came into its own and found its audience. Ultraviolet's action is probably what Equilibrium woulda been if he had the budget. I think with this movie is pretty much his bid for a huge big budget superhero flick, but I doubt Ultraviolet will make Spider-man money.

Oh, the flick's PG-13, but she does find a way to take off her clothes and show off her naked ass. And the flick is pretty graphic, but you can tell they muted some of the extreme violent shots and cut away.

The quote of the flick: "You got hemo-blood on me. It's on."

All About Kickin-Ass and Lookin' Hot Doin' It:

Equilibrium, Black Moon Rising, The Matrix, Underworld, Blade, Space Truckers, Johnny Mnemonic, Barbarella, The Hidden, The Island, Species...

The DVD comes out June 27, 2006