... that dishonour firmly stains 'Aeon Flux.' That said, 'Ultraviolet' is bad, bad, bad. The foundation seems promising: a high tech and conceptually cool Kurt Wimmer project with Milla Jovovich starring (she's very arguably the biggest female action star around right now). Where does it all go so terribly and horribly wrong? I shudder at unraveling barely repressed memories, but the healing must begin somehow.
Milla Jovovich doesn't have the acting chops of Meryl Streep, but then again she's never pretended to either. Her main difficulty here is that what little dialogue she is given hangs her out to dry. Her delivery of terrible dialogue has predictable results on screen. Could a Kate Beckinsale, Natalie Portman or Charlize Theron have done any better? In a way they did by not appearing in the first place. Jovovich is hilarious every time she opens her mouth. This isn't very often because generally she's involved in high octane special effect sequences that 'jump the shark' each time in rapid succession. It is all very cool and she is a stunning beauty who has never looked better. The problem is that we as an audience are trapped in what feels like a ninety-four minute long KMFDM video.
If the soundtrack blares along for too long and the infrequent dialogue weakens the performance of a desperately exposed lead actress, maybe we should cover it up by cgi everything, right? Wrong. There is so much work done here on the green screen that it actually works to great ironic effect. When so much of the movie is fake and unreal, I find myself wondering what else is fake and unreal. It turns out to be the characters and their believability. The computer work isn't bad but manages to be so blatant at the same time that I've sprained my eyes from rolling them so much. That makes typing this quite painful, by the way. All of the character relationships seemed really forced. I would say that the one exception is the William Fichtner and Milla Jovovich interplay. Fichtner and Jovovich are really quite good together and Fichtner shows great tenderness and hurt. He is deeply affected and affectionate of the Jovovich character. I really admired his work here and it gave me the strength to continue watching. Actually ... maybe now that I think about it I should resent his strong work. It kept me watching to the end. Nick Chinlund plays the main bad guy and gleefully chews up every line and scene that he can. It's worth taking the volume off 'mute' to listen to him before putting it back on.
'Ultraviolet' has a lot of cool if unexplained ideas and some great (though obvious and heavy-handed) technical work. The gun-kata system that Wimmer has devised is cool to watch. The problem is that the film lacks any heart or reason to care about any of the characters. I didn't find anyone but Fichtner's character even remotely interesting. Why would I care about any of them? There really was a lot of potential here and there is a lot of potential for future Kurt Wimmer films. Maybe the next film will have some character to it because even in action film extravaganzas, you will ultimately be hooked by caring about what the characters do or don't do. we never really have that reason to care in 'Ultraviolet.' Better luck next time I hope. The value and attraction of this film will likely rest in the hands of hardcore Milla Jovovich fans and Kurt Wimmer gun-kata enthusiasts. If that's all you're looking for than you've hit the jackpot.
Milla Jovovich doesn't have the acting chops of Meryl Streep, but then again she's never pretended to either. Her main difficulty here is that what little dialogue she is given hangs her out to dry. Her delivery of terrible dialogue has predictable results on screen. Could a Kate Beckinsale, Natalie Portman or Charlize Theron have done any better? In a way they did by not appearing in the first place. Jovovich is hilarious every time she opens her mouth. This isn't very often because generally she's involved in high octane special effect sequences that 'jump the shark' each time in rapid succession. It is all very cool and she is a stunning beauty who has never looked better. The problem is that we as an audience are trapped in what feels like a ninety-four minute long KMFDM video.
If the soundtrack blares along for too long and the infrequent dialogue weakens the performance of a desperately exposed lead actress, maybe we should cover it up by cgi everything, right? Wrong. There is so much work done here on the green screen that it actually works to great ironic effect. When so much of the movie is fake and unreal, I find myself wondering what else is fake and unreal. It turns out to be the characters and their believability. The computer work isn't bad but manages to be so blatant at the same time that I've sprained my eyes from rolling them so much. That makes typing this quite painful, by the way. All of the character relationships seemed really forced. I would say that the one exception is the William Fichtner and Milla Jovovich interplay. Fichtner and Jovovich are really quite good together and Fichtner shows great tenderness and hurt. He is deeply affected and affectionate of the Jovovich character. I really admired his work here and it gave me the strength to continue watching. Actually ... maybe now that I think about it I should resent his strong work. It kept me watching to the end. Nick Chinlund plays the main bad guy and gleefully chews up every line and scene that he can. It's worth taking the volume off 'mute' to listen to him before putting it back on.
'Ultraviolet' has a lot of cool if unexplained ideas and some great (though obvious and heavy-handed) technical work. The gun-kata system that Wimmer has devised is cool to watch. The problem is that the film lacks any heart or reason to care about any of the characters. I didn't find anyone but Fichtner's character even remotely interesting. Why would I care about any of them? There really was a lot of potential here and there is a lot of potential for future Kurt Wimmer films. Maybe the next film will have some character to it because even in action film extravaganzas, you will ultimately be hooked by caring about what the characters do or don't do. we never really have that reason to care in 'Ultraviolet.' Better luck next time I hope. The value and attraction of this film will likely rest in the hands of hardcore Milla Jovovich fans and Kurt Wimmer gun-kata enthusiasts. If that's all you're looking for than you've hit the jackpot.