Ultraviolet delivers some pretty cool action sequences. Utilizing some soft focus cinematography, it is very stylized in its look and how it works the camera during the action sequences. There is some stuff here that will make you go, "Wow." Dual-wielding pistol action, sword fights, and a sequence where Jovovich’s Violet never even holds a weapon, but instead keeps dodging bullets until all her enemies wipe each other out with friendly fire are mostly eye-poppers.

The main complaint I’ve got when it comes to action scenes is not the scenes themselves, but those where a big group of bad guys lines up for a fight, and then the camera cuts off elsewhere and you can only hear the combat going on. I came in to watch fight sequences, and the camera cuts to some scene that attempts to be dramatic and I couldn’t even care less about.

See, the problem with this movie is that the action is well thought out, but the rest of it isn’t. Much in the manner of the emerging gore-porn sub-genre of horror, where the point is to sicken you out with gory scenes and there isn’t much story, Ultraviolet could have been much better if they hadn’t bothered with a story at all and concentrated instead on piling up the action until you couldn’t take anymore. This is because the story is terrible.

This is the third movie released locally in the past two months that is about a totalitarian/dystopian state that rules with fear, the fear stemming from some virus. The other two were Aeon Flux and V for Vendetta. V, because of its powerful source material and smart adaptation, made a clear call against oppression and abusive authority. Aeon Flux, whose source material was never really easy to understand, was likewise confusing. Ultraviolet, however, doesn’t even confuse. It just throws up some weird explanation that never sticks.

As Violet tells it, in her world there is this new virus that changes people. We’re never really shown the extent of the change. It’s hinted that there are different kinds of mutations, but we don’t know what they are. Then, someway half through the flick you figure out that one strain is vampirism. You don’t get this through any logical explanation, but rather because some of the characters are wearing goofy fangs. This virus is being used to subjugate and oppress people. So there’s Violet, and people like her who are part of the resistance.

Okay, now let’s get the fighting on, you think. Blah blah blah with all this explanation. This ain’t V for Vendetta where you’ll be asked to engage in philosophical discussions of order and power. This is supposed to be a big, dumb action flick with a hot chick and balls-to-the-wall martial arts and explosions.

Instead, we are given unbearable scenes that attempt drama. There’s some weird mothering issue that Violet is supposed to have. And there’s also an awkwardly inserted love story. These things are supposed to humanize the film. Instead, they only serve to emphasize how paper-thin its emotional depth is.

Ultraviolet is a movie that begs you to leave your thinking cap at the door. If you want to some eye-popping action though, it delivers. If you’re not an action movie fan, though, you may want to pass on this one.