She is discovered and has to shoot her way out, but she manages to do so, all the time being told not to open the case with the secret weapon inside. Of course, she does, and inside the case she finds a child who supposedly is carrying a virus that will ultimately kill her. Her maternal instincts kick in, and she decides to save the child (Bright), so she turns against the people who hired her while hacking and shooting scores of men along the way.

Violet finds refuge for a time with a superinventor named Garth (Fichtner), who equips her with some superweapons, which mysteriously materialize in the palms of her hands when she wants them. Her hair, and even her skintight outfits, seem to change color at her whim as well.

Chasing her, and the boy, is Daxus (Chinlund), who is not only the leader of the medical-governmental complex but also claims to be the boy's father. He lives in an industrial complex shaped like a giant cross, and he seems to have some knowledge of Violet and her past.

The ultra-tough Violet discovers that there are few people she can trust in this new world except for this child—who has something inside him that could eventually kill her.

Color her purple—in hi-def

The opening credits show a series of comic books of Ultraviolet in various languages, but don't be fooled. There is no comic book or graphic novel based on this female antihero. In fact, director Wimmer wrote the comic-book-like story specifically with Jovovich in mind.

The voice-over explains, "Hello my name is Violet. I was born into a world you may not understand." Frankly, nothing can be more true. It's tough to tell who's good and who's bad, or who's infected and who's not in this bleak futuristic world, which all seems vaguely familiar. The world is filled with vampires a little like those in Underworld and soldiers who wear Darth Vader-like masks in a city that is a cleaned-up version of Blade Runner (perhaps because much of it was shot in Shanghai). The savior of the world—the secret weapon—is a human, not unlike the role Milla played in The Fifth Element—and the boy is the same creepy-faced kid from Godsend and Birth. He really doesn't do very much except stand around and watch her hack people to death.

It doesn't seem all that original, but there are flashes of brilliance in the production design, like the attack at the opening of the film, where giant bowling balls seem to be launched from planes and then pop into soldiers.

The whole film is shot in a disconcerting high definition that seems to make the colors muted and flat at times, but it obviously adds to the mood and allows for some of the super effects. Some of the slow-motion fight sequences are a bit different, more like a dance than martial arts, and one scene on a roof shows the camera lingering on the reflective sunglasses of the fighters and even snakes through an ear and out the other side. The cartoonish sense of the whole thing gets a bit over the top when Violet drives up the sides of skyscrapers and seems to have an impenetrable force field around her even when an army of marksmen have their machine guns aimed at her.

Here are a few insider insights: One of Milla's stunt doubles (Youlia Galenko) is from an Olympic rhythmic gymnast team and is a fighter in most of the scenes, but she does show her beautiful blond locks when appearing as the real "Expedia 154" courier at the opening of the film. And two of the other trainers she had during the three months of shooting are Robert Alonzo and Mitchell Gould, who have long dreadlocks and fight with her in a cemetery. And, finally, director Wimmer makes his Alfred Hitchcock appearance as one of a trio of Hemophage leaders who gets gunned down execution-style by Daxus.

The film attempts some emotional moments, but when Violet does try to relate to the boy, whom she dubs "Six," she warns him, "The real monster is me. You don't want me knocking down your door." And then, when she is brought back to life by Garth and he tries to get her to settle down and take a breath before continuing her rampage, she says, "These moments are as beautiful as they are evil when they are gone." It seems that the film is trying for the depth of a Japanese anime, but it really misses at every turn.