The only other movies I've ever seen with so much wasted potential were the Star Wars prequels.
2/3 of Ultraviolet is action scenes that were obviously originally written for Equilibrium but not possible on their low budget back then. I mean, it even has what is essentially the Tetragrammaton, except Wimmer changed the symbol from a quasi-swastika to a biohazard symbol and a crucifix/caduceus hybrid. From the Equilibrium DVD commentary, I knew that there was going to be *one* scene like that (which I was looking forward to), but I had no idea that *all* of them would be.
The other 1/3 is dialog that has to be the most ham-handed scriptwriting I've ever seen acted out on screen. Especially the "smack talk" that introduces the action scenes. The writers even stole some of it from *other* movies! The "you're all going to die" line that they swiped from The Crow stuck in my head the most, but I noticed others too.
The CGI is all over the place as well. Some of it looks like the makers were aiming for photorealism, some looks like an attempt to create a comic-book look, and some looks like untextured pre-visualization footage that wasn't finished in time for the release.
I was especially annoyed about the vampire aspect. I mean, not only did it not make any sense or add anything to the story (to the point that it's not even mentioned in the previews I saw), but it meant having those absolutely stupid-looking fangs on William Fichtner. I mean seriously, did they source those from a 25-cent toy vending machine or what? And do the people involved know *just* how hard it is to get me to say that vampires shouldn't be in a film? The vampire factor in Ultraviolet is only exceeded in terms of badness by Blade 3 and Embrace of the Vampire.
The saddest thing is that it had *so* much going for it, just like the Star Wars prequels:
It would have been rad if Wimmer had made it as an Equilibrium sequel. Instead of vampires, there could have been Clerics - relics of a previous time, who were being hunted down by the majority of the population who decided to stop taking Prozium and wanted to ensure that everything the Tetragrammaton represented was wiped out. It would probably have ended up as a 90-minute Klaus Badelt music video starring Milla Jovovich and a cast of thousands of guns and swords, but that's more or less what the parts of Ultraviolet that aren't awful add up to.
2/3 of Ultraviolet is action scenes that were obviously originally written for Equilibrium but not possible on their low budget back then. I mean, it even has what is essentially the Tetragrammaton, except Wimmer changed the symbol from a quasi-swastika to a biohazard symbol and a crucifix/caduceus hybrid. From the Equilibrium DVD commentary, I knew that there was going to be *one* scene like that (which I was looking forward to), but I had no idea that *all* of them would be.
The other 1/3 is dialog that has to be the most ham-handed scriptwriting I've ever seen acted out on screen. Especially the "smack talk" that introduces the action scenes. The writers even stole some of it from *other* movies! The "you're all going to die" line that they swiped from The Crow stuck in my head the most, but I noticed others too.
The CGI is all over the place as well. Some of it looks like the makers were aiming for photorealism, some looks like an attempt to create a comic-book look, and some looks like untextured pre-visualization footage that wasn't finished in time for the release.
I was especially annoyed about the vampire aspect. I mean, not only did it not make any sense or add anything to the story (to the point that it's not even mentioned in the previews I saw), but it meant having those absolutely stupid-looking fangs on William Fichtner. I mean seriously, did they source those from a 25-cent toy vending machine or what? And do the people involved know *just* how hard it is to get me to say that vampires shouldn't be in a film? The vampire factor in Ultraviolet is only exceeded in terms of badness by Blade 3 and Embrace of the Vampire.
The saddest thing is that it had *so* much going for it, just like the Star Wars prequels:
- Gun-kata - Awesome visual design - Klaus Badelt's excellent soundtrack - The hyper-dimensional weapons, even if the swords were obviously there so Kurt Wimmer could make what is essentially a lightsaber fight video - Milla Jovovich - Milla Jovovich looking like a rivethead - Milla Jovovich doing her best impression of Christian Bale as Cleric John Preston - William Fichtner - The "post-collapse" writing style
It would have been rad if Wimmer had made it as an Equilibrium sequel. Instead of vampires, there could have been Clerics - relics of a previous time, who were being hunted down by the majority of the population who decided to stop taking Prozium and wanted to ensure that everything the Tetragrammaton represented was wiped out. It would probably have ended up as a 90-minute Klaus Badelt music video starring Milla Jovovich and a cast of thousands of guns and swords, but that's more or less what the parts of Ultraviolet that aren't awful add up to.
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