Since its premiere last Sunday, Roebuck Studios’ much-vaunted holoreel “Ultra!” has, according to latest box office numbers, skyrocketed to No. 1 on Gallente Federation box office charts and No. 8 on the Amarr charts, whilst barely reaching the Caldari and Minmatar Top 20. The reel’s popularity among the Gallente can be easily explained by the intense proliferation of promotional material among Federation citizens, but its relatively high position on the Amarr charts comes as something of a surprise, particularly given the low regard the Empire has traditionally held Gallenteen entertainment in.
“It’s those commercials,” says Ingotar Pfeiff, Dean of the Faculty of Divinity at the Royal Amarr Institute and author of Amarr bestseller Worlds of Thought. “By painting our sacred traditions as pointless exercises in futility and then displaying their own hedonistic gallivanting next to them as a point of contrast, they remorselessly undermine the values we hold dear for no greater purpose than taking our young ones’ money in order to further fuel their depraved propaganda machine. Clearly this cannot go on.”
The reel has been universally panned by critics for what is perceived by many as intensely lurid subject matter. One scene that’s caused an uproar among various fundamentalist factions involves two of the main characters, Amarr girl Nadira and Brutor male Okar, engaging in a bout of severely salty reparteé immediately followed by quite obviously-hinted-at sexual activity. In another, the Caldari protagonist, a comely young female, enjoys a sultry dance with two other girls, culminating in a show of half-naked flesh that sent mothers everywhere lunging for their children’s eyes. Additionally, the reel contains countless jokes made at the expense of Caldari institutions and corporations and the implicit suggestion seems to be that the Caldari life of discipline might dissolve into a frenzy of partying and revelry, would they but give in to Quafe Ultra. Mentions and displays of Quafe Ultra during the reel’s 89-minute running time number around 110, resulting in an average of 1.23 not-so-hidden advertisements per minute of the film’s running time – another reason, critics say, to throw this reel into the jettison canister where it belongs.
Apparently unmoved by the condemnation of their opponents in the public arena, Quafe and Roebuck Studios have announced that a gala screening of the “Ultra!” film will be held tomorrow at a thus-far undisclosed location somewhere in Gallente space, at a luxurious venue specially rented for the occasion, a former biodome plantation station converted into a luxurious garden of wild flowers and rare animals. The screening -- and the following reception -- will play host to the Federation’s biggest holoreel stars, as well as several celebrated Gallente dignitaries and members of the intelligentsia. The event is expected to take place early tomorrow evening.