Immortal (2005)

Just what I expected

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Originality and... Originality.Immortel is a one of the greatest sci-fi/fantasy movies I have seen.The first time I watched Immortel, some years ago, I doesn't liked it. Now, several years later, I liked it.It has a multi-layered, workable plot striated with hyper-techno meets Egyptian myth, all in a boy meets girl format.The producers were not working off of a Hollywood big budget, so what minor inconsistencies existed with special effects (which were great, anyway) were negligible.An unwilling hero is a rare Archetype & I applaud the script writer for such realistic characters within the film.Thank you, Enki Bilal, for offering this masterwork to us. Excellent !!

Title: Immortal Condensed Storyline: In future New York a floating pyramid has appeared. Horus has judgement cast upon him, so he must find the body of a male to inhabit so he can impregnate a female to preserve his immortality. Notable Acting: I was happy with the performance of Thomas Kretshmann who plays Nikopol, he was the only character who I actually liked in this movie. But this is understandable because he is a known movie actor, appearing in movies such as 'King Kong' and 'The Wanted'. Whereas the other actors are lesser known. Noticeable Camera work: I think one of the few non-standard ones we were given were the POV shots from Jill, but sadly there isn't all too much else to make this movies cinematography stand out. Graphics: I have mentioned that this movie is an odd mixture between CGI and live action. I would have preferred the movie to be one or the other, or at least not to have CGI actor. The heads of the gods are nicely done on one part, but their mouths do not move this is one thing that annoys me, because it looks like they are wearing masks which are fused to their heads and they are trying to speak in a mask. It also has the same movement of the mask of someone trying to speak in one. There is also no emotion presented by the gods as well, their facial expression does not movie which I found slightly boring. But at least they can blink. Incorrect Science: I don't know... I just don't know, this movie has magic gods so I can't really point out the science is wrong, because magic. I find the car system odd as some seem to run on cables like a tram, yet the same cars can fly. I don't see the full logic in this. Overall Feel: The movie is based off the French comic 'La Foire Aux Immortels' and is just as visually interesting as the comic. The movie mixes live action and CGI, this wouldn't seem odd for today, but its the way that it is mixed that is odd. There are human characters which are made of standard CGI while there are others which are actual actors. I will say this now, in defense of this movies oddness. This movie feels like an auteur movie and was designed in the way it is to be stylized. I have mixed feelings about this movie, part of me likes it because it is a movie about Egyptian gods and not about mummies for once. But the other part of me doesn't like it because the CGI and live action do not mix, if I was watching it and the movie had Avatar style CGI, I would love it. But it has CGI which is easily compared to that of current generation games (Xbox 1/PS4), this isn't a bad thing, but it leaves much more to be desired from this. They also didn't give my favourite god lots of screen time (Anubis) and they straight up left out my second favourite (Set). But you do get to see the rivalry between the gods especially once Nikopol mentions Anubis and gets "Don't mention that jackal's name, only my name" I do like this dynamic that the gods do not like each other. For all the movie's flaws I can't help but enjoy the movie, it is a different type of movie. It wouldn't fit into A-Lists of B-Lists, it would be in its own alternative list. I can understand while people wouldn't like this film, it is a different type of movie and wouldn't be one which everyone would like. But given a chance, it could surprise people.

Years ago Enki Bilal wrote and drew a graphical novel La Foire aux immortels, which then became a first part of his Nikopol trilogy. In this tale the ancient Egyptian gods return to earth so that Horus (Thomas M. Pollard) can spend his last days in the world he created. But he has an ulterior motive: he wants to impregnate a blue haired, blue tears weeping woman Jill, who herself isn't aware of what she really is. Jill (Linda Hardy) is a woman, who can reproduce with higher beings.Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann) is a prisoner convicted into cryofreeze, who escapes because of an accident jettisons his capsule from a prison ship. He looses his leg, but Horus finds Nicopol to be a perfect host from himself, as most of the humans have been genetically altered beyond humanity, so Horus builds him an iron leg in order to be able to uses his body for his own needs.Visually speaking Immortel is interesting looking movie. Most of the characters are CGI and they've been made to look like the original drawings of Bilal. But as the movie is quite old in the age of CGI these computer generated people stand out like a shore thumb when on the screen despite there's no real humans in the same scene. The difference is even more present when there's real actors. But what works relatively well are the futuristic New York landscapes with flying cars and holographic commercials.As a movie Immortel is far more easy to comprehend than the graphical novel it's based on and that isn't a bad thing. Bilal has clearly wanted to make something similar but different from his own work, but sadly enough the end result is a bit of a hit and miss.

I was really looking forward to watching this movie until I actually sat down to watch the movie. I tried, twice, to no avail, but I fell asleep each time. I love Egyptology and sci-fi movies - sort of like a Resee's Peanut Butter Cup; peanut butter/chocolate! - and the thought of the two intermingled like "The Fifth Element" was cool. Then I played the movie. The director cannot decide when he wants to use live action vs. CGI during times of dialog. The CGI is NOT believable as it becomes muddied and mixed in with the live action. The main characters are either live, or not. They cannot be both. Like I said, I fell asleep, lost touch with whatever plot there may have been, and couldn't stomach the movie any further. Maybe, someday after my nausea subsides, I'll take to viewing it again... maybe during daylight hours after I've been well-rested and not at night.