Critical Reception
Ultraviolet was released in North America on March 3, 2006, with Screen Gems deciding not to screen the film for critics. The film was generally negative, with a freshness of only 9% (7 out of 76 critics gave the film a positive review) on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes. The site's critical consensus states the following: "An incomprehensible and forgettable sci-fi thriller, Ultraviolet is inept in every regard."
Criticism was levelled at Screen Gems, who apparently edited the fight scenes for content and eliminated some of the plotline by cutting more than half an hour from the film (which was later restored in the novelization). Comparisons between a rough cut version from the spring of 2005 and the theatrical cut proved there were missing scenes. The original edit was more focused on Violet's desire for a family and suggested that she was swept up in the resistance rather than the cold operative she appears in the theatrical release, which focused on her imminent death. The unrated DVD restored approximately 7 minutes worth of footage from Wimmer's cut, clocking in at 94 minutes, versus the theatrical release's 87 minutes.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, Milla Jovovich and Kurt Wimmer were not pleased with the PG-13 rated release print. Jovovich said 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.
Read more about this topic: Ultraviolet (film)
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