Now, I couldn't say why her films intrigued me exactly. Sure, she's attractive in that Maybelline movie face way -- I mean that as no disrespect -- so I can be visually wooed just as much as the next guy. But I recall thinking that she had kinda/sorta inherited the mantle of 'Genre Queen' from so many other talented actresses in the past; and she was doing a respectable job trying to seek out and explore any and all scripts that put her in like-minded fare. While I wasn't a fan of the film The Fifth Element (1997), I did love her work in the picture; and -- so far as I'm concerned -- she's really one of the chief reasons to see that flick even now, decades later. (That, and some very, very, very good production values. But -- ugh -- it's story is kinda hot garbage.) And, yes, I think I've sat through all of the Resident Evil franchise; even though I likely couldn't distinguish one or the other of those stories in a police line-up if my life depended on it, I still went back to appreciate what Milla was doing in them.
What can I say? Some faces -- and forces -- deserve some appreciation, and she's always been dynamic and watchable in my book.
That said, I've only seen her Ultraviolet (2006) once, and that was during its theatrical run. I vaguely recall walking out of the theater and turning to my lovely wife to ask, "What the Hell did I just watch?" It seemed more than a bit contrived, void of any real central intriguing narrative, and a bit of a mess, so far as characters go. (I've since learned to not be so hard on B-Movies, but back then I remember expecting a bit more from flicks.) So this one-timer was something that came and went, easily and quickly forgotten mostly because it just didn't resonate in any manageable way. This can happen, and methinks Ultraviolet deserved a better fate.
From what I've since come to understand, both its top star and writer/director Kurt Wimmer have pretty much disowned the property. As best as I can explain it, the storyteller delivered a two-hour hard R final cut to Sony, an incarnation of the tale that apparently confused the suits. They were smitten -- quite obviously -- with the female action star premise and thus expected a bit more frenetic action, something the studio had hoped to release to fans hungry for much of the same. As executives will do from time-to-time, they locked both Milla and Wimmer out of the project, trimmed it down to something like 90-minutes, and shoved that into theaters ... even without all special effects sequences being fully completed!
As you can imagine, the film mostly crashed and burned at the box office. I have read that it actually made very good money with a subsequent home video release -- I think I've also noticed that some of the cut footage was re-installed -- but as I've never seen it since I can't speak to whether or not the surviving incarnation is any better than the confusing lot I witnessed with my own two eyes.
Here's the plot summary as provided by IMDB.com:
"A beautiful hæmophage infected with a virus that gives her superhuman powers has to protect a boy in a futuristic world, who is thought to be carrying antigens that would destroy all hæmophages."
As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!
-- EZ