Review of Ultraviolet (2006) by Andres B — 30 May 2010

I just feel the need to defend Ultraviolet while my memory of it is still fresh in my mind from my latest viewing.

The movie is just designed as a pure thrillride. The story is lite, the plot has several twists in it, maybe one too many. Its not a complex movie, in fact its quite simplistic. To describe the plot would be to give away the movie's entire narrative thread.

But I still feel the need to defend it. A movie can be simplistic without being bad, I don't think Ultraviolet is bad at all, it lacks complexity, but it isn't a bad movie, just in the way that a single celled organism is not terribly complex when compared to the biological masterpiece we know as the human being. But that doesn't mean that the single celled organism is not a marvelous creation in and of itself.

Ultraviolet is not Kill Bill, its not the Matrix, its not Iron Monkey. Its not any of those movies.

Ultraviolet is primarily a beautiful film. Is it wrong to like a movie that's simply and consistently (throughout almost its entire 90 minute running time) beautiful? Is it wrong to love a woman who's simply beautiful? Answer these questions for yourselves, but for me I like the way this movie makes me feel, its short, it has great action sequences, highly stylized at that, so if unrealistic fighting is not your cup of tea Ultraviolet is going to disappoint you.

Milla Jovovich holds the entire movie together, I would venture to say with the right script she'd be just as great as Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. I've seen the trailer of the latest Resident Evil movie and have seen her fight in those movies, and I have to say that Jovovich is probably the premiere English language action movie heroine working in movies today. In Ultraviolet she manages to be charmisatic even with bare bones dialogue.

And that's another thing, I've heard (and read) several complaints about Ultraviolet's dialogue. Sure, its not magnificent writing, but it does its basic job magnificently, just as a simple nail is not magnificent yet may do its job of keeping a painting on a wall magnificently. "It's on" Isn't such a bad line, its not laughingly surprisingly bad, it didn't register as a blip on either the negative or postive side of my bad dialogue detecting radar, it just landed in the middle, a throwaway line.

Yes Equilibrium, the previous movie by the same director, is more complex, but I venture to say that both movies are just as good as each other. Equilibrium is more thought provoking and can be said to have more resonance, it has a more intelligent script, but Ultraviolet is more of a thrill ride, so these positive attributes balance the two movies out I think.

Ultraviolet is a harmless innocent movie, I enjoy watching it from time to time because it is a delightful feast for the eyes and ears, but it is no where near as horrible as many of you are saying!!!!

The fights in Ultraviolet have been designed, mostly, in such a way that kung fu fans will be appeased. There is one fight that involves Ultraviolet surrounded by men with guns, she flips and twirls and by her clever and quick evasions she gets this mob to wipe itself out. Its a silly scene, but to me its so much fun, and I hadn't seen anything like it.

I have to admit, the fight with the hemophages is disappointing, because in theory these are people with exactly the same level of superpowers that Violet has, and also Violet never loses a fight, but she wipes the floor with her enemies so gloriously that in this particular case to give her physical weaknesses is not necessary.

Violet's weakness is her compassion, this isn't really mined too deeply, but if I have to think of a weakness this would be it.

Its a simplistic movie, but it isn't a shallow movie, and people who like Ultraviolet shouldn't automatically be considered shallow. I like Crash, I like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, its just that when I sit down to a movie, I am opened to being potentially entertained by a movie in completely different ways.

A story is not the heart of all movies. I like movie's with stories at their center, but I don't think a strong story is necessary for a movie to be effective. Does every song tell a story? No. And yet we like some songs just for their melody (others just for their lyrics, still others for both). That's not a bad thing.

I like Ultraviolet for its melody.