Ultraviolet (www.the-usher.com)

"Are you mental?"

In the near future, a new subspecies of human called hemophages, a vampire-like race, are fighting for their very existence as human leader Vicecardinum Daxus (Chinlund) seeks to develop a virus that would wipe them out. The hemophages are fighting back however but when their most lethal weapon Violet (Jovovich) steals a package from the humans she is shocked to find it contains a child known only as Six (Bright), who is the carrier for the virus.

After making an impact with 'Equilibrium' in 2002, Kurt Wimmer became a cult director and the new hope for low budget science fiction but 'Ultraviolet' shatters all that expectation.

While 'Equilibrium' didn't have the most original of plots, it was the 'Gun-Kata' martial art and the performance of Christian Bale that made the film a cult favourite in the Sci-Fi genre. This put writer/director Kurt Wimmer on the radar and when he announced that his next project would cross science fiction and vampires, interest was instantly sparks but it turns out that Wimmer might just be a cinematic one-hit-wonder.

'Ultraviolet' is a complete mess and something that you would associate with the worst director working in Hollywood at the moment, Uwe Boll, than the man who brought us 'Gun-Kata'. The dialogue is laughable, the storyline is clichéd and unintelligible and the visual effects that look more at home in a video game.

Setting out to make an original comic book movie, Wimmer and his creative team just totally get it wrong. While we know that the beautiful Milla Jovovich can handle action and she shows again that she is one of the best female stars to handle a gun or a sword but she is just an amalgamation of the parts she has played before. Nick Chinlund plays Vicecardinum Daxus like he is in pantomime, hamming it up for the camera and proving that he is a very one dimensional actor. William Fichtner is completely underused as Garth, the hemophage gadget man. Cameron Bright plays his usual weird boy who is the subject of scientific experiences and still doesn't impress.

'Ultraviolet' has a few good science fictions ideas, such as the weapon storage system and the mutated vampire virus but the rest is an incomprehensible mess. As a science fiction film it just doesn't work and could be one of the worst examples to ever grace the genre. It looks like Uwe Boll has a new best friend and his name is Kurt Wimmer.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the movie is presented extremely well.

BONUS FEATURES

Commentary with Milla Jovovich
The star of the movie talks about bringing Kurt Wimmer's comic book-like heroine to the silver screen. Even though she is quite intermittent in her comments and her dogs join her, she provides a decent commentary track for single person. She talks about the script, character and the approach of the film. The star also reveals the amount of training she had to go through for the role and what it was like filming in Shanghai. This is a decent commentary from a star that deserves better movies than this.

UV Protection: The making of Ultraviolet (30.52 mins)
Executive producer Tony Mark, producer John Baldecchi, cinematographer Arthur Wang, visual effects designers Ken Jones and Victor Wong, stunt coordinator Mike Smith, costume designer Joseph A. Porro and stars Milla Jovovich, Nick Chinlund and William Fichtner take you through the making of 'Ultraviolet'. The cast and crew talk about the story, the style and look of the film, as they take you behind the scenes of 'Ultraviolet'. The featurette covers the characters, the motorcycle stunt sequence, the fights and the costume design of the futuristic comic book movie.

Deleted Scenes (12.09 mins)
Entitled 'Alternative Opening', 'Violet blends in', 'Stick by me', 'The Opera House', 'The Library fight extended', these deleted or extended scenes suffer from the lack of a commentary track or introduction.

Trailers
Previews of 'The Da Vinci Code', 'The Detonator', 'Fear itself: Dark Memories', 'Freedomland', 'Hollow Man II', 'I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer', 'Population 436' and 'When a Stranger Calls'

OVERALL

Even though the film is awful, Sony has done a good job with the DVD treatment. The featurette covers most aspects of the film's production and the commentary track is fine. If there are any fans, they will be very pleased with this.

DVD

Equilibrium

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2006