8Bit Joystick.com: Review : UltraViolet on DVD

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Review : UltraViolet on DVD

This weekend the Netflix pixies delivered the movie UltraViolet to me. I was expecting a decent looking action movie staring Milla Jovovich and I was a bit surprised that I actually fell asleep watching it on Saturday night and had to watch the second half on Sunday.

This is a futuristic dystopian semi-sci-fi action movie made by the same guy who directed Equilibrium.

The entire movie looks like it was run through Photoshop and had the color tweaked so that everything is super contrasty with about ten Photoshop filters applied to the image. Everyone looked like they were going to a space rave.

What is left of the plot goes something like this.. Earth is run as a fascist medical state because there is a vampire virus going around like the flu. This vampire AIDS does not make you suck blood or invincible but it makes you matrix fast but you die after twelve years and you have to wear super tight pleather outfits and cool color changing eyeglasses. Milla Jovovich is a vampire rebel who captures a case containing a bio-weapon that happens to be a quiet kid. She is then hunted by the fascist jackbooted thugs is SWAT gear as well as her former vampire friends. The ability to use space warps to hide weapons and gravity deflecting gizmos were a little cool. A lot of people get shot and/or stabbed but there is almost no real blood and gore as to keep the PG-13 rating. I ended up watching the extended cut that was supposed to make a little more sense than the theatrical cut but not much. This movie would have probably been much better if they went for the R.

This movie plays right into a preconceived audience preconception of what a sci-fi action movie is supposed to be like with a super hot bad ass raver chick who just happens to be a freedom fighting vampire rebel against THE MAN. It just felt that the director was talking down to the audience and cooked up a nice hot steaming pile of blue-screen enhanced eye candy. It was tasty but I did not get a lot of nutrition out of it and I did not see anything that I have not before.

This movie almost broke even at the theaters and Hollywood probably considers it a bomb. Thank God they did not make a crappy videogame based on the movie. UltraViolet was a barely passable stupid popcorn action movie. I like Milla Jovovich and think she is a good action star. I just hope that she gets a better director and script for her next picture.