Reviews

...and I occasionally love art house dreck. But sometimes the brain needs a break. Enter Ultraviolet.

Ultraviolet has an incredibly sheisty plot, late-night Cinemax acting, and, honestly, pretty soft action sequences. But it's visually fun, super colorful, and Mila is trying way too hard to be bad-a**, which is kind of cute. Basically, what you end up with is a 94-minute (thank you "unrated" DVD version) vignette that I fully expected to see followed up with the name of a perfume or sports car. There are nights when a 3 & 1/2 hour treatise on the sociological implications of man realizing his Super Id amid the shackles of a defeatist human logic as seen through the eyes of a Ukranian milk man is just the thing. And then there the other nights....where I'd just as soon watch a hot chick in multi-colored leather unrealistically battle her way through hundreds of bad dudes to save the day. Can you feel me?

Really, I should probably let this film soak in a bit; I am, after all, on something of a "post-viewing" high right now. However, at this moment, my feeling remains the same from the first installment - this is the movie experience I've been waiting my whole life for. In case you haven't gathered, this movie is visually stunning, literally breathtaking. I mean that, some of the scenes in this film simply stopped my lungs in their tracks, shocked at the pure, enveloping beauty of the shot. Peter Jackson has a profound grasp of visual manipulation like few directors have ever had.

The acting is, as always, superb. Kudos for hiring "actors" not "stars"; "Oscar-worthy" over-acting could have threatened the realistic touch the film's remarkable cast supply. Specific mention goes to both John Rhys-Davies in his well enjoyed comic turn, and very largely to Andy Serkis, who was a major role in creating the most realistic and brilliantly well-performed CGI character I've ever seen (Gollum).

For the most part, and as a fan of the books, I take no offense to the slight plot modifications. My understanding is that Tolkien himself realized that visual adaptation of LotR would require a somewhat different take on his work, and was apparently open to such minute changes. There are also a few tiny bits and pieces I was disappointed to see not make the final cut, however, I'm sure a future inevitable extended DVD will take care of those.

In short, if you found the continual enjoyment I did with the first movie of LotR, this movie will in no way let you down. Not even for a minute.

Highly recommended, 10/10.