Ultraviolet (15)

Time Out says

Tue Jun 20 2006

Allegedly inspired by ‘Gloria’, in which Gena Rowland’s gun-toting gangster’s moll reluctantly baby-sits a young boy, Kurt Wimmer’s futuristic action movie is more like watching left-overs from ‘The Matrix’, ‘Resident Evil’ and ‘Aeon Flux’ whizzing round in a food blender. In the late 21st century, a mutant strain of smart, fast and lethal ‘hemophages’ (quasi-vampires) rebel against dictator Daxus (Nick Chinlund). The germophobic tyrant has discovered a ‘cure’ for the mutant strain, in the form of a cloned and conveniently flat-packed boy, Six (Cameron Bright, whose role is itself a virtual clone of the one he played in ‘X-Men: The Last Stand’).

As the titular Ultraviolet, ex-model turned ass-kicking über-babe Milla Jovovich changes her outfit and hair colour for each tedious fight scene: in one memorably silly confrontation, her perfectly coiffed avenger disposes of 700 soldiers brandishing enough weaponry to take over a small African country. Fans of Wimmer’s cult debut feature ‘Equilibrium’ claim that this 87-minute studio version is a travesty of his original two-hour rough-cut; the rest of us should be grateful we were spared more of this derivative, adolescent tosh.

Author: Nigel Floyd