Ultraviolet Parent Guide

Can you count the number of movies where something goes wrong in the weapons lab? Add the tale of Ultraviolet to the list! This time it appears to be the fault of some smart aleck who figured he could use an obscure virus to create faster and stronger soldiers. Instead, a disease hits the streets, creating a new race of genetically modified people called “Hemophages.” Their higher intelligence, superior stamina and ability to change color, has the government concerned. Soon paranoia divides the population and those who are not yet infected (referred to as humans) walk around with filtering masks and nose plugs.

This test-tube blunder sends society into an era known as “the age of the disease.”

Like many science-fiction movies, all of these issues are recounted during the opening act with Violet (Milla Jovovich) filling us in via an ongoing narration—which takes up a good portion of this short film. She closes off her bedtime story by finally introducing us to Vice Cardinal Daxus (Nick Chinlund). He’s a tyrannical ruler housed inside a prominent imposing building within their city’s futuristic landscape. Determined to wipe out the plague, the eeeevil mastermind has created the ultimate biological weapon: A scientifically engineered nine-year-old boy named Six (Cameron Bright) whose body chemistry has the potential to kill every Hemophage.

Now the fate of the world rests with our heroine, the woman with chameleon-like hair (part of her DNA toolkit) and a secret, personal reason for despising Daxus. But to take this bad guy out for good, she must find a way to get past his hundreds of clone-like guards… and that’s what she will spend the remainder of this movie accomplishing.

Thus, we are “entertained” by watching her slice, dice, and shred Daxus’s soldiers (choreographed to a deafening score I’m sure escaped from a dance club), and listening to captivating conversation between the two rivals:

Daxus: “I have seven hundred soldiers here. What do you think you can do to that many men?”
Violet: “I can kill them.”

Aside from these content issues, the script contains a few mild and moderate profanities, as well as a storyline requiring Violet’s character to remove all her clothing and walk down a disinfecting corridor. As a result, we see her nude from the back.

If you’ve ever been stuck watching someone else play a video game for over an hour, you will have a feel for how mind numbing this movie can be. Although all the shooting, stabbing, and chopping are usually bloodless, such altercations are almost a constant companion in this heroine’s world, making Ultraviolet more suitably named Ultraviolent.

About author

Rod Gustafson

Rod Gustafson has worked in various media industries since 1977. He founded Parent Previews in 1993, and today continues to write and broadcast the reviews in newspapers, on radio and (of course) on the Internet. His efforts also include writing and researching media in all its forms and observing how it effects society and culture. He and his wife Donna have four children.