ultraviolet

So the third film I watched this last weekend was called Ultraviolet.

It had Milla Jovovich in it and she looked pretty hot, but the movie itself was pretty awful.

It was written and directed by the same guy who did Equilibrium, which was a film I enjoyed, although it was somewhat flawed and it's these same flaws that have unfortunately been magnified here - the main one being that the plot was quite poor.

Now in Equilibrium it sort of worked. There were enough good bits to counteract the bits that didn't quite make sense and so overall it held together. However, in Ultraviolet the balance was the other way - there were just too many bits that didn't make sense to hold the whole film together.

What's worse is that at the very beginning it started off with this naff voiceover that almost underlined how clichéd everything was. Not that I have fundamental problems with cliché or genre-pieces, but it was contradictory: if you're going to leave stuff out or not explain it properly to make it seem more mysterious/complex, then don't have a narration that says "here's the plot, it's really simple."

The two just don't mesh together and all it does is highlight the fact your plot is a big mess.

It was also very confusing, partly as a result of the plot, but there were other problems too. One of the strangest was that at the very beginning the opening titles played over a series of shots of comics and manga. The music that played was also very reminiscent of the music that's used over the marvel credits for their films.

But here's the thing - it's not based on a marvel comic book. It's not actually based on any comic - it's an original work.

My guess was that the aim was to make it seem like that was the theme of the film and how to take it, but for me it was just confusing. If it's not based on a comic, don't have a load of pictures of comic books at the beginning.

Plus, for me the film owed way more to video games than it did comic-books. The action scenes were all way more like something you'd see if you were looking over the shoulder of someone playing a game than reading a comic.

Which is a fascination I myself don't quite understand - playing video games is fun and entertaining. Sitting and watching somebody else play a game (which is what films like this end up being) is not fun. So why do they keep making movies like that?

And yet, despite the drubbing I've given there's part of me that felt there were some interesting ideas kicking about here. It's like the world that was created and the character of Ultraviolet are kinda intriguing, it's just this film wasn't very good.

And I'm guessing that's why the film has spawned an anime (Ultraviolet: Code 044), although it does also help to explain why that anime is a bit rubbish :/.