Genres

Visitors Review

2013-05-17 03:34:18

Inspired concepts, but failed execution

I purchased this DVD based on some trailers I'd seen last year around the time Casshern was released in Japan. The latest work of Enki Bilal, renowned graphic novelist, the film has some very interesting concepts, a striking use of color and an apparent total lack of budget...The film takes place in the New York of tomorrow. The actual vision of the city is compelling, the execution is cheap with poorly rendered effects that simply do not convince...ever.These short comings are made more obvious by a mixed cast of real actors and CG characters. The CG characters are laughably low resolution and animated so poorly, it is questionable if these animators were learning on the job. The level of articulation in the actual meshes for the 3D stuff is not even up to modern video game standards. What is most odd, is that the majority of the CG characters are just odd looking humans. I have no idea why they didn't just hire actors and dress them up for the shots as needed?The story, acting and script, while trying to be hard and serious, are dead and without feeling. The film was created in English by a non-native English speaker, so the use of slang feels forced and the craft of the lines is...well rather sophmore :(Blade Runner this is not.And sadly that is what this feels like it was going for. A more surreal Blade Runner meets the Fifth Element. It gets close to neither.

2013-05-16 17:26:23

Raw Science Fiction Presented with Distinction

One of the things we as Westerners must realize is how spoiled we are as film-goers in the sense that we expect the best production values. "Immortal", a French-made film based on a very cerebral comic book by Enki Bilal, forces that realization on us by presenting a beautifully made film with deliberately(?) dated CGI effects. The main characters, not including the god, Horus, are all full-flesh actors while supporting charcaters are computor generated, these particular effects predating "Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within" by at least two years. As Western viewers this might seem like a short-coming for a film released in 2004, but this supposed short-coming only adds to the poignancy and distinctiveness of "Immortal".I will not provide a plot summary. The film's story is grand and heavy just as true science fiction was meant to be. French actress, Linda Hardy and Russian actor, Thomas Kretschmann are more than capable of embodying thier characters. And veteran English actress, Charlotte Rampling (Swimming Pool) adds a sense of class as a curious doctor of genetics. This film is a unique piece of art done in a style not seen by most film-goers. "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow" is brought to mind for many, but not all, of the scenes are done in front of a green screen. For those of you who enjoyed "Bladerunner", "Existenz" and any stylized sci-fi of more recent years, "Immortal" will not disappoint in its very unique approach to concise and thought-provoking storytelling. Gorgeous film!

strongmedicine51 2013-05-10 09:36:09

Am I Blue?

Enki Bilal and Immortal January 29, 2008 03:53PMFirstly, I was perusing the science fiction area of my local videorental store, thinking sci-fi films seem to be really good or reallyawful, and trying to find something new to me, that isn't awful.Immortal was in the new section and I just decided to take a chance onit. I am still amazed that I found a used copy to buy. I loved thisflick and watched it 4 times before returning it. It is a blue screenfilm and the sets are based on Enki Bilals artwork from his graphicnovels. He also directed and produced this film. It is also aninternational film (like Beowolf & Grendel) with Charlotte Rampling(English), Thomas Kretschmann (German, also in Peter Jacksons KingKong, and for film buffs, Jackson uses some of Kretschmann's dialoguefrom Immortal) and the perfect actress for the alien/protagonist LindaHardy (French) although the film is in English. The story is based on Bilal's novels about an ancient god's search toavoid death in 2095 by reincarnating although only a very special kindof female will do. To me it has everything a sci-fi film should haveand more. The art is fascinating, the world created interesting andalmost believable. It has a lot of humor and it is super creative, inmy humble opinion. The god's idea of procreation is typical of god'sthrough the ages, that is not exactly by consent. Yet this god, Horusdoes try to find a human host for himself that is compatible but whowill also be compatible with the woman he pursues. I don't know why but apparently this film did not do so well intheatrical release. Still if you did like V for Vendetta I think youwill like Immortal. Here is the Secondly. I HATE films that I have toread. Film is a visual medium and reading a film can make me miss theimagery that is so important. So I am very tolerant of dubbed films butI really appreciate good dubbing. And after watching Immortal at least10 times I was bollixed to learn that Linda Hardy only speaks Frenchand is dubbed. It is the best dubbing I have ever seen. See this movieand decide for yourself and THEN come tell us all what you think.

LivingDog 2013-05-10 04:20:02

Stunning, but...

I thought that this movie was stunning to watch but the plot was eitherconfusing, blank, or slow. In short the story really didn't measure upto the magnificent job the production was able to put on.The cgi was weak in some places - where characters moved in an awkwardfashion and their caricature stood out. At times the cgi was so strongthat I couldn't discern an actor from a cgi brought to life by a voiceactor.Much of the movie was loose threads that go on unattached to the maintheme of the movie ... whatever that was. But once again the imagerywas so wonderfully done that I couldn't miss this and skipped afavorite TV show for this one. My guess is that this is a good one forthe classroom student directors/cgi artists to discuss for years tocome.The plot was too thin, the writing too in-cohesive, but the imagerysaved it from being unwatchable so I gave it a 6 out of 10. See it onlyfor the great cgi.-LD______________________________________________my faith: http://www.angelfire.com/ny5/jbc33/

johaarup 2013-05-09 13:55:13

Ooh why the CG actors!?

I love the comics. Although I do have problems fully understanding thestories – the visual style is unique with all its dirt, dust and decay.So I thought I knew what I was up for. Surprisingly I understood themain plot – but some extremely poorly decisions where made for itsvisual style. I mean - really bad looking "CG human actors"-in close ups? …Why?! Itdid not work at all!! Horus - and the other Egyption gods - wassuccessfully made in CG and very close to the comic version. I think with real actors this movie could have been a cult movie. What a shame.

2013-05-08 23:06:02

Crotch rot

Pretentious and, for the most part, visually underwhelming. There is a reason France isn't well known for its comic books. The story begins interesting, with snippets about bioaugmentation, alien invasions and ancient gods, but it never goes anywhere, its "high brow" diatribes by the main character are empty and worthless, and the movie makes no definitive statements at all, not to mention anything remotely dramatic or thought-provoking. At times it is goofy like Dr. Who, and steals from Fifth Element, Stargate, Blade Runner, etc. Half of the plot is never explained, nor is the reason certain characters are CGI and others aren't, or why so many production companies coughed up dough to make this mess.

jdm619 2013-04-27 01:15:24

Immortal

Great Sci Fi movie, special effects where great to me, and Linda Hardywas Smoking Hot.It was cool how there was a mixture of real actors andcomputer generated characters.The idea of the Egyptian Gods played intothe movie a little odd but original. Like who would have ever thoughtto put Ancient Egyptian Gods in a Futuristic New York city.Some thingsin the plot I feel should have been better explained, like what type ofbeing Jill was previously and where she came from, why she was there inthe first place and maybe what she use to look like. Overall though themovie was very exciting , with many special effects and a descent plotline.This movie was very entertaining and kept me watching to the veryend, I would recommend it and say it was a excellent movie if you areentertained by Sci Fi films.

Joey_Redballs 2013-04-26 19:54:58

Dog Crap

Yet another movie without any purpose, only bizarre imagery. If youwant to make a movie that has bizarre or haunting images without alogical story that can be followed...then make a music video instead.Much like David Lynch's movies, there was no commentary on the DVD. Godforbid that the director have to admit what he was smoking when hethought of this garbage. And much like Lynch's movies, Immortal made nosense. Like Lynch's movies, you are brought to a dead end.I watched the DVD special features with the French computer guys whoreally worked hard on creating this movie, shot for shot. They spent 3years of their life making this movie and had to develop over a dozensoftware programs to get it finished. This movie has more effects shotsthan the Star Wars prequels, simply because the ENTIRE movie is one bigeffects shot. Not any easy task, when you're not ILM and live in acountry where animation isn't popular (hence it's performed in Englishin an attmept to market it.)I couldn't help but think that the whole time they had to askthemselves, "What kind of bizarre, incoherent, maird are we creating?"I'm sure they would have meetings with the dope-using writer/directorand shake their heads "Yes, sir. We'll get right to work on making thebird-god's aura visible during the rape of the blue-haired,blue-nippled vixen."The whole time I was watching, I was wishing that movie was created bythe same computer artists...but instead of this artsy, rape-lovingmovie...they made a good sequel to Heavy Metal.Kudos to the crew that worked diligently to make this beautifullycrafted, yet doomed from the beginning, piece of crap.

2013-04-26 19:13:14

Happy to have found it

This review is from: Immortal (DVD) Had looked for along time for this movie. The cross between CGI and real characters is great. For mature members of the family only! Recommend this seller!

cammiliane 2013-04-26 09:23:40

loved it!

I truly enjoyed this, it was original and artistic and beautiful. Iknow there were some plot gaps, but the from a graphic standpoint Ienjoyed watching the movie. The plot seemed like some crucial pointswere never really explained to us, so some things had to be guessed atto fill in the blanks, but overall I like it anyway. I'd enjoy knowingmore about this world and the characters. It seems almost like therewas too much information to fit into the time frame in which the moviehad to take place. Also I'm sure if I can find the books then I'dunderstand more of it. As it was, you understand enough to participateand enjoy it, and though it does seem to take some elements from othermovies I think this was written first, was it not? And in the sum totalof its parts this seems whole and original. I'm really interested in the soundtrack. Does anyone know where (or if)you can buy it?

2013-04-16 13:26:42

Dark visions of the future

A strange cross between animation and film with very a black and whitecomic book feel to it. The God Horus of Egypt as a semi-Immortal alienleaves a "hero" behind in the Greek classical tradition. The blue hairchild-woman and the freeze dried Russian revolutionist are caughtin a plot that exploits them. Strange aliens and monsters of several sorts roam about in this movie, but their is little Quetin Tarantino gore here. The result is well done sci fi movie.

Resprung 2013-04-15 17:36:45

Beautiful. Uneven. Flawed.

Director Enki Bilal is a supremely skilled comic book artist from thesame stylistic school as Moebius (who influenced the visual style ofBlade Runner and designed part of Alien).Bilal's comics are invariably sombre, textured, exquisitely drawnworlds with strong internal logic."Immortel" is the film adaptation of the "Nikopol" trilogy of comics byBilal. This trilogy of comics I highly recommend.The film opens with some lovely CGI sequences: Nice environment andcraft - gritty, textured, dystopia, a catchy steam punk take on theBlade Runner aesthetic.The main characters work well in this setting, especially thefetchingly beautiful Linda Hardy (a former Miss France).But without warning the quality drops jarringly -- as a host ofsecondary CGI characters are introduced.What you thought was a movie, suddenly turns into something resemblinga video game cut-scene: The amateurishly animated, dated CGI characterswould be booed out of Tron. The voice acting is awful. The lip sync ajoke.To really grind it in, the CGI actors get lots of close-ups. Painful.The plot progresses through a series of surreal events in a New York ofthe future. If you haven't read the comic, things won't make too muchsense on first viewing.Stick around for the ride, for there are a number of very successfulscenes in this movie -- a hauntingly beautiful museum sequence, somefine sci-fi thrills, a gritty symbolist apartment in which a dreamlikelove story takes place. Atmospheric music, too.The really good stuff is invariably bookended by poor scenes, includingthe worst CGI explosions you'll ever see, awful dialog, and tinny soundeffects that suddenly intrude on an otherwise coherent sound design.This has got to be most uneven movie I've ever seen.But give the comic books a go.

2013-04-11 14:20:09

Immortal

This review is from: Immortal [Blu-ray] (Blu-ray) I've read several reviews from others who indicate that because of the stylized presentation of the film they can't make a determination as to whether or not this movie looks better in BD than SD. My take is that yes, it DOES look better - the transfer may have some minor flaws (very minor banding in spots, and some occasional digital noise) but the increased resolution and color saturation more than makes up for it. Sound is far superior to the SD release. Immortal is a different type of visual presentation of a popular comic, and as such may not appeal to all - but for those of us who enjoy the off-kilter and skewed unusual, this movie is real eye candy. Heartily recommended!

2013-04-10 17:40:05

Bilal's art brought to the big screen

I grew up on the "comic book" (now "graphic novellas"?) magazines Heavy Metal/Metal Hurlant, so I know Bilal's work quite well. He is definitely one of the best artists in the genre, though his story lines are somewhat convoluted and extremely multi-layered. It takes a bit of concentration to get the whole story, but the artwork is so fantastic, it's worth the effort. EXACTLY like this movie - which is essentially a Bilal story come-to-life (and CGI). It is quite a feat, especially, as others noted, with a fraction of the funds available for similar Hollywood fare. This is very well done, probably the best comic book-to-screen transfer I have yet seen in terms of remaining true to its source.

erz316 2013-04-08 11:35:46

No, just no.

I love bad movies. I love them with a passion (of a Christ!(Ba-zing!)).But this was too much awfulness. not only couldn't I tell what the hellwas going on, the graphics were awful and it made the film look likeITT tech commercial. Plus Horus' mechanical penis covering was way outof place, I mean, come on, he is a freaking' god, he don't need nopenis covering. I don't see how they managed to squeeze out more thanthirty minutes of this shat, its pretty hefty! the movie may try to beartsy or something like that but, seriously, the topic is of a hawk(ka-kaw!) trying to knock up some chick with horrible makeup. notvisually pleasing to look at, with the bad graphics and the overallgray and dark color scheme kinda doesn't work, NYC isn't that color.NO, NO, NO.

frad71 2013-04-08 03:00:51

Boring movie with misleading resume on the DVD-case

This is a movie to avoid, unless you feel that you need to see a moviewith almost no plot, almost no action and a allover gloomy feeling toit.First of the backside of the DVD-case provides a small summary, wherethey mention all the effects, artwork and so on. Then they go on tocompare it to movies like the Fifth element and Stargate. I actuallydon't know what the Fifth element and this movie is supposed to have incommon, except taking place in the future. The connection to Stargateis obvious, but far-fetched. Yes there is pyramids and some beings thatappear to be Egyptian gods, but the similarities ends there.Then about the amazing FX and artwork in the movie... Well, it didn'timpress me. This is probably because I'm used to effects like those inother sci-fi movies and series. When compared to a Star Wars movie oran episode of Star Trek TNG (or later productions), this is bad. Theyshould have put less time on their effects and more on the plot,because the movie really lacks a good plot. Almost nothing happens andthat which happen, do so in a sluggishly slow tempo. Had there been agood plot, this could at least have been an enjoyable drama. Nowhowever it's nothing but a poor movie with a nice cover.

Pingo-2 2013-04-07 18:22:15

More structured than the comics...

Enki Bilal's film version of his excellent comic from more than 20years ago, is a more coherrent and better structured story than what weread in the graphic novels.The same images are here, in the film, as in the comic. That's verygood, and works well. Some scenes are almost taken directly from thecomic, as when Horus help Nikopol for the first time in the subway.The world is more detailed in the film and the story is now moretightly spun around Jill, Horus and Jill's friend John - plus of courseNikopol who serve as the spider in this web.Many here complain over the computer animations. Especially when itcomes to some of the cast. I can only say that it is was a sad decisionto create the senator and his two friends as computer animations, sincelive actors would probably been a wiser decision. It had helped themovie flow a little bit more, and we hadn't been so hung up on thatthey actually were computer animated. However, after a while, it worksand we don't care too much about it. They have so little screen timeanyway.Horus is also animated, but since he's a God, it doesn't matter. Andhe's better done too. All the other animations are just splendid andwork wonders for this graphical and visually stunning film.Immortel is a very nice film with a better story than I thought. I wasexpecting a difficult and completely un-logical version of the comic -since I've read the reviews - but what we have here is actually a niceand very good movie, told beautifully.If you haven't read the graphic novels, I suggest you find a copy ortwo and read them. They are a good introduction to this weird sci-fiworld, and it is probably easier to understand the overall theme if youhave read them. However, don't get disappointed when some storyelements don't show up in the film. (I especially missed thehockey-game!)I sincerely hope that Enki Bilal makes more movies like this one, oreven a sequel. I would really like to know what happens next... EnkiBilal's mind is beautiful - and this film will be a classic within afew decades. For now, it's just a little bit too before its time to betaken the way it should. But soon, people will discover it and see thenice little details that lay inside the world of future New York.I give it a 7 of 10. I would have given it higher if it wasn't for somebad animations and that I didn't like the way they plotted thesharp-teethed alien that I never remember the name of. :-)

2013-04-07 04:36:24

IT sucks doesn't even begin to describe this movie.

I have read and can appreciate many comic book based films...but this movie barely deserves to be sold and certanly not in 4 different editions. From the opener all the way through to the end the graphics in this movie are elementary at best. The charachters are wholy unbelievable and the storyline if there actually is one is poor at best. This movie has worse graphics than most Saturday morning cartoons.I would like my money back, but that is not possible...so I'll watch this movie burn into a nice pile of black platic instead. Seroiusly don't waste your time and money on this poorly written and executed movie.Don't waste your money on this movie. It isn't even worth paying $1 to rent it from the RedBox at McDonalds.

2013-03-31 07:21:20

A surprisingly good film...

I wasn't expecting much from this one, but I picked it up anyway. I have read that it felt like a combination of The Fifth Element and ___ movie. I'd agree, I'd say it was a combo of The Fifth Element and a largely unseen movie titled Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (if you've seen both films, and you enjoyed them, this one is definately for you). It felt, in a way, also like a Terry Gilliam movie, the director of Brazil and Time Bandits. It did not have the darkness of Blade Runner, but it did convey a similar sense of a more realistic vision of an urban future, if relying heavily on CGI (unlike BR). I hope this review helps!Just by way of background, and while other reviewers seems to prefer to reveal much of the story and plot, I think that sort of ruins the film in many cases. So, you'll want to look for other reviews and reviewers if that is what you are looking for...

hw-13 2013-03-30 19:43:43

Terrible!

Very possibly the worst film ever made. I feel guilty just for havingwasted time to tolerate this film. Don't waste your efforts. Characterafter character walks on the screen, one real, the next animated... Theonly tolerable point is when the main female character steps out of thebathtub to expose herself. If the writers and directors had spent lesstime trying to figure out how to make the hero stick to the wall, andmore time developing an actual believable story line, this film mightnot have sucked so badly. I hated it, if you couldn't tell. I'm glad Iborrowed it from a friend and didn't actually pay for this atrocity.Whoever wrote/directed this junk, please find another job and leave thefilm making to people that don't suck.