'Ultraviolet'

Norman Wilner, Special to Zap2it.com | Zap2It.com

June 26, 2006

William Fichtner in 'Ultraviolet'

In creating "Ultraviolet," the screenwriter and director Kurt Wimmer hits a lot of the same notes he did in the 2002 Christian Bale actioner "Equilibrium" -- which was built along the same trusty rebel-bucks-the-totalitarian-system and featured a great deal of flashy swordplay, as well as the frustrating tendency to deploy elegant photography as a distraction from the gaping holes in its plot.

This time around, however, Wimmer's reach doesn't exceed his grasp: There may not be a whole lot to "Ultraviolet," but damn it all if it doesn't look spectacular.

The film is set in your usual dystopian future, some years after the release of a highly contagious virus that turns its victims into something like vampires -- "hemophages," they call them -- and a paramilitary crackdown by the medical establishment in the hopes of containing the disease.

Into this brave new world comes the midriff-baring hemophage warrior known as Violet, played by Milla Jovovich in an off-handed manner that suggests she got bored sitting around waiting for the next "Resident Evil" sequel.

Violet's mission is to keep a creepy, blank-eyed kid ("X-Men: The Last Stand's" creepy, blank-eyed Cameron Bright) from falling into the evil clutches of Vice Chaplain (Nick Chinlund). This can only be achieved through a great deal of computer-enhanced swordplay and gunfighting, apparently, which starts about 10 minutes in and pretty much doesn't let up.

Now, if one was in a picky mood, one could make noise about the familiarity of the concept (which is, after all, just "Omega Man" meets "Aeon Flux"), or the cheesiness of certain performances, or the way certain chase scenes seem to have been rendered on an old PowerBook. But Wimmer manages to strike just the right tone of straight-faced ridiculousness at the outset, drawing us into the story rather than pushing us away. It's not art, but it's fun, and it's awful pretty.

Sony is releasing two different versions of "Ultraviolet" to DVD: There's the PG-13 theatrical cut, which runs 87 minutes, and an unrated director's cut, which runs 94 minutes. (The unrated disc was unavailable for review, so we can't be certain what the restored footage comprises.)

Both discs offer enhanced-widescreen presentations, and the same special features: A production documentary, "UV Protection," is viewable as four separate featurettes or a single half-hour work, and Jovovich, accompanied by her two tiny dogs, contributes a sporadic (and slightly spaced) running audio commentary.

STUDIO: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
RELEASE DATE: June 27, 2006
RATING: PG-13/Unrated
PRICE: $28.95
TIME: 87 minutes (PG-13)/94 minutes (unrated)
DVD EXTRAS: French audio dub; English and French subtitles; audio commentary; production featurette
INTERNET SITE: www.sonypictures.com/movies/ultraviolet