The Video: Sizing Up the Picture
Presented in 2.35:1 widescreen and encoded at 1080p, 'Ultraviolet' looks about as a good as film created almost entirely in a computer could. It is colorful to the point of being gaudy, never looks remotely photo-realistic and is in general so whacked-out that even the word "inconsistent" doesn't do it justice.
On a positive note, since this a direct-from-digital transfer, there aren't any film-related anomalies to speak of, such as blemishes or dirt or the like. Unfortunately, the image has been so heavily tweaked that I did notice some unfortunate side-effects from all that digital plastic surgery. While all the blown-out whites are fine, there is too much edginess around sharply contrasted objects in some scenes, which gives the transfer an artificial, standard-DVD feel. I also noticed some pixelization and even banding of colors in select shots, which I'm not used to with high-def. However, overall this is still a pretty detailed image, with eye-popping visuals at times and rich blacks which do give the transfer real depth. However, all the processing kept me distracted, and personally prohibits 'Ultraviolet' from looking as smooth as the better transfers I've seen on HD DVD or Blu-ray