Ultraviolet

Much to my disappointment there were very few things about this movie that were actually good. There were some really awesome looking sci-fi effects which were used over and over and over again until they completely lost their novelty, some other effects that were sadly underused, and then great costume design and well choreographed fight scenes. Now normally, even with a bit of bad dialogue, this would still be sufficient material for the makings of a decently entertaining sci-fi/comic booky/fantasy/action flick. But, unfortunately, Ultraviolet simply tanked.

Violet (Milla Jovovich) is part of a group of people who have been infected with some genetically engineered virus, which, created by the military, was intended to produce superhuman soldiers. The hemophage virus was accidentally released into the general population, however, and as is the case with so many epidemics, the government decided to simply isolate and summarily execute all those infected rather than spend time and money on finding a cure. Those hemophages, as they are called, who escaped went into hiding and eventually formed a resistance in order to avoid being exterminated. Oh and apparently the virus made hemophages into vampires or something, which made very little sense since they grew fangs but didn't drink blood, and seemed to only have a slight sensitivity to light or god knows what. Since the plot wasn't forthcoming with any explanations of any kind whatsoever, I had to assume that this growth of vampire fangs was just another random symptom that the government engineered solely to make their supersoldiers look fierce.

Violet is sent to intercept a new weapon that Vice Cardinal Ferdinand Daxus (Nick Chinlund) has developed in order to completely wipe out all the remaining hemophages at once, but upon opening the super secret weapon case, she discovers that this dangerous new threat is merely a small boy named Six who refuses to speak. The silent treatment: deadly. As with all children though, he can't maintain his silence for long, and he tells Violet that he was created in a laboratory with antigens in his blood that, if released into the atmosphere, would instantly kill any hemophage. The mean hemophage leader wants to kill the boy so that his blood can't, um, kill all of them, but Violet insists that murdering children is wrong. Mean Hemophage Leader asks for a show of hands of those who have a problem with killing kids, and when it seems that Violet is all alone in her righteousness, she has to go ahead and kick everyone's ass yet again and escape with the boy.

After a ridiculously dull and uncreative government conspiracy is revealed, Violet has some more cringe-inducing lines of dialogue delivered with about as much enthusiasm as Ben Stein, before ending with a few anticlimactic showdowns. I can't stress enough how disappointed I was in this movie. I mean it really doesn't take much for me to like a sci-fi film--I don't care if there's some bad dialogue, questionable acting, unrealistic stunts, or confusing plots; just show me some great effects and good choreography along with a plot that isn't completely uninspiring, and there's a great chance that I'll walk away feeling pleased. But this was too much. On top of the dispirited acting and insufferable dialogue, the plot was so boring and stupid that I couldn't get into this movie at all, and I couldn't have cared less about the characters or the outcome.

I would rent Ultraviolet on DVD just to see some of the special effects, but don't waste too much money on this one.