Ultraviolet (film)

Ultraviolet is a 2006 American dystopian science fiction action film written and directed by Kurt Wimmer and produced by Screen Gems. The film stars Milla Jovovich as Violet Song, Cameron Bright as Six, and Nick Chinlund as Ferdinand Daxus. It was released in North America on March 3, 2006. The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on June 27, 2006.

This article is about an actual film called Ultraviolet. For the digital content system for films, see UltraViolet (system). For other uses, see Ultraviolet (disambiguation).

Ultraviolet
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Kurt Wimmer
Produced by	John Baldecchi
Written by	Kurt Wimmer
Starring	Milla Jovovich Cameron Bright Nick Chinlund William Fichtner
Music by	Klaus Badelt
Cinematography	Arthur Wong Ngok Tai
Edited by	William Yeh
Production companies	Screen Gems Ultravi Productions
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Releasing
Release date	March 3, 2006 (2006-03-03)
Running time	87 minutes[1]
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$30 million[2]
Box office	$31.1 million[2]

The film follows Violet Song Jat Shariff (Jovovich), a woman infected with hemoglophagia, a fictional vampire-like disease, in a future dystopia where anyone infected with the contagious disease is immediately sentenced to death. With her advanced martial arts skills, a group of rebel hemophages, and a boy named Six (Bright), whose blood may contain a cure for the disease, Violet goes on a mission to overthrow the futuristic government and defeat Ferdinand Daxus (Chinlund).

A novelization of the film was written by Yvonne Navarro, with more back-story and character development. The book differs from the film in a number of ways, including a more ambiguous ending and the removal of some of the plot twists. An anime series titled Ultraviolet: Code 044 was released by the Japanese anime satellite television network Animax, and created by Madhouse.[3]

Plot

In the year 2078, following a global pandemic that causes vampire-like symptoms, including super-human physical abilities, a healing factor and elongated canines. The infected "hemophages" die within twelve years after being infected. The "Archministry", a militant medical group headed by Vice-Cardinal Ferdinand Daxus, has taken control of the government and begun rounding up infected citizens and exterminating them in order to contain the virus.

Having been infected a decade earlier, Violet Song Jat Shariff has become a member of an underground resistance movement fighting to protect the hemophages from the government. Working with the resistance, Violet steals a weapon that was supposedly designed to exterminate all hemophages, only to discover that it is a young boy named "Six". Rather than kill the child, Violet flees with him, believing that a cure for the disease can be reverse-engineered from the antigens before he dies from them.

Violet eventually converses with Daxus, who tells her that the boy is his son, but she does not believe him. Instead she takes him to her friend Garth, who tells her the boy has no antigens and he has no value to anyone. Garth also tells her that the boy has a tracking device embedded in him ("so hot he's nearly radioactive"), that they can track him easily and he has only 8 hours to live. In the meantime, Violet's resistance handler Nerva reveals to her that the antigens in Six's blood are actually deadly to humans.

Furthermore, Daxus clarifies that the boy is his clone, his previous claim to her being a ruse to earn her sympathy. Since the hemophages are nearly exterminated, the Archministry intends to engineer a new plague to maintain its power. When Daxus refuses to give her the cure, Violet escapes with Six and lets him spend his last moments at a playground. Daxus arrives, shoots Violet, and takes Six's body for dissection.

Violet is revived in the facility run by Garth, and she realizes that Six might not actually be dead. Violet storms the Archministry and reaches a laboratory just as Daxus is about to begin the dissection. In the ensuing fight, Daxus reveals that he uses enhancements he gained from an accidental exposure to the hemophage virus to aid in his rise to power. Violet kills Daxus and leaves with Six's body. Six later wakes up, having been immunized by the hemophage virus in Violet's tears. It is theorized that Six might, after all, be instrumental in formulating a cure for the hemophages, although it may be too late for Violet (who is nearing the end of her 12 years).

Cast

• Milla Jovovich as Violet Song Jat Shariff
  • Ida Martin as young Violet
• Cameron Bright as Six
• Nick Chinlund as Vice-Cardinal Ferdinand Daxus
  • Steven Calcote as young Daxus
• William Fichtner as Garth
• Scott Piper as Garth's assistant
• Sebastien Andrieu as Nerva
• Christopher Garner as Luthor
• Ricardo Mamood-Vega as Song Jat Shariff
• Katarína Jancula as Shariff’s new wife (extended cut)
• Jennifer Caputo as Elizabeth P. Watkins
• Duc Luu as Kar Waia
• Kieran O'Rorke as Detective Cross
• Ryan Martin as Detective Breeder
• Digger Mesch as Detective Endera
• Kurt Wimmer (cameo) as Hemophage
• Richard Jackson as Archministry Computer Tech
• Mary Catherine Williams as Purple-haired shopper (extended cut)

Production

Scene featuring Six (Cameron Bright) underneath the Oriental Pearl Tower in Shanghai, China.

Production began in early February 2004 and was shot in various cities across China, most notably Hong Kong and Shanghai. Production was finished in late June 2004. The film was shot digitally on high-definition video using a Sony HDW-F900.

In 2005, the film's trailer was leaked on the internet. Director Kurt Wimmer then visited several message boards and demanded all clips be removed in order to keep the film's plot a secret. The online fan community responded well to this, and all the clips were removed from distribution until the theatrical trailer was publicly released in January 2006. It uses "Clubbed to Death (Kurayamino Edition)" by Rob Dougan as the soundtrack[4] as well as "24" by Jem.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, Jovovich was not pleased with the PG-13 rated release print. She stated that she and Wimmer had been locked out of discussions of the film in the editing stages, and had not been allowed to see her own performance, which she felt might have been improved if she had had some input.[5]

Following his problems with the film, Wimmer has not directed another film since.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 8% approval rating, based on 83 reviews, with an average rating of 2.8 out of 10. The site's critical consensus states: "An incomprehensible and forgettable sci-fi thriller, Ultraviolet is inept in every regard."[6] On Metacritic the film has a score of 18 out of 100 based on reviews from 19 critics, indicating "Overwhelming dislike".[7]Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade D+ on scale of A to F.[8]

Frank Scheck of The Hollywood Reporter called it "The latest entry in the "This film is so bad we're not screening it for critics" genre." He also criticizes the action scenes "Although extravagantly staged, they're more than a little derivative" and "Other sequences are rather more ridiculous".[9] Robert Koehler of Variety magazine wrote: "Pic is hermetically sealed in a synthetic wrapping that's so total -- Sony's top-flight high-def cameras, visibly low-budget CG work, exceptionally hackneyed and imitative action and dialogue --that it arrives a nearly lifeless film."[10]

Box office

Ultraviolet was released in North America on March 3, 2006. The film grossed $9,064,880 in its opening weekend; it grossed $18,535,812 domestically and $12,534,399 internationally, making for a worldwide gross of $31,070,211. The budget for Ultraviolet was estimated at $30 million.[2]

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on June 27, 2006 in North America.[11] There are two versions of the film, an unrated version (94 minutes long) and a PG-13 version (88 minutes long). Additionally, the rough cut of the movie was originally close to two hours long; only 6 minutes of this lost half-hour was restored for the unrated cut. The North American, European, South American, Hong Kong, Korean Blu-ray is the PG-13 version of the film. This is because Sony previously would not allow Unrated or NC-17 content to be released on the then-newly released Blu-ray format, a clause which has since been lifted. However the Japanese Blu-ray does contain the 94 minute Unrated version of the film.[12] The film performed quite well in the DVD market, grossing over $35.1 million in rental sales. In the end the film turned in a healthy profit of over $36 million.[13] Despite this, there are no plans for a true restored Director's Cut.

The DVD includes a four-part documentary: "UV Protection: The Making of Ultraviolet" and an audio commentary with Jovovich. Some editions additionally feature some deleted scenes which were cut from the final release. But not all footage from the unrated extended edition was in the deleted scenes feature.

Extended version

The extended DVD version includes additional footage, increasing the running time and adding more to the storyline / plot. In this release there are additional scenes which include:

• A scene giving more in depth information on hemophagia. Including how it elongates canines, improves strength, speed, vision, hearing, bone strength and regenerative abilities, but reduces lifespan to approximately 12 years.
• A flashback that gives more background information about Violet and depicts all the hardships she went through because of all the hemoglophagia testing and how it resulted in the termination of her pregnancy.
• A scene (near the opening of the film) which explains that Violet has reached the end of her lifespan, and has only 36 hours left to live.
• A later scene shows Violet's reaction to her estranged husband's creation of a new life.
• A scene which depicts a conversation between Violet and Six which develops their characters.
• The chase scene between Violet and the soldiers of Daxus is lengthened.
• The level of blood and gore is also increased by a small amount.
• The amount of action is also increased by a small amount.

See also

• Equilibrium (the previous science fiction-action film directed by Kurt Wimmer)
• Gun Kata (a fictional martial art style created in Hong Kong and used by Kurt Wimmer for Equilibrium and Ultraviolet)
• List of dystopian films
• Ultraviolet (novel) (novelization of the film, using the full plot, instead of the film's cut down version)
• Ultraviolet: Code 044 (animated series based on the film)

References

1. "ULTRAVIOLET (15)". British Board of Film Classification. March 17, 2006. Retrieved November 17, 2014.
2. Figures from the film summary (which includes box office totals, gross etc.) on boxofficemojo.com
3. "Ultraviolet Anime Announced". Animekon. Archived from the original on April 4, 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-18.
4. Which also features on The Matrix soundtrack (though not in the trailer)
5. "ROTTEN TOMATOES: Milla Jovovich On Resident Evil And Her Ultraviolet Beef".
6. "Ultraviolet". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
7. "Ultraviolet". Metacritic. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
8. "ULTRAVIOLET (2006) D+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
9. "Ultraviolet". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on 2006-03-16.
10. Koehler, Robert (3 March 2006). "Ultraviolet". Variety.
11. Movies.go.com profile page detailing North American release date
12. "Amazon.co.jp： ウルトラヴァイオレット [Blu-ray]: ミラ・ジョヴォヴィッチ, キャメロン・ブライト, ウィリアム・フィクトナー, ニック・チンランド, カート・ウィマー: DVD". Amazon.co.jp. Retrieved 2013-07-27.
13. Rotten Tomatoes list of top grossing DVD rentals where Ultraviolet is featured at 37 as of September 17, 2006 (grossing $35.1 million)

External links

• Ultraviolet on IMDb
• Ultraviolet at Box Office Mojo