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IMMORTEL (Ad Vitam)
Movie Review by David Blackwell
PLOT: A floating pyramid shows up over Manhattan in 2095, a place
where humans and aliens live side-by-side. Horus must find and get a blue haired (and blue lipped) girl pregnant within 7
days to regain his immortality. He takes over a human body, of a man who has spent 30 years in cyrogenic sleep, to use as
a host.
MOVIE ARTICLE: http://enterline2.tripod.com/immortel.html
ANALYSIS: IMMORTEL is one of the most unique movies I have ever
seen. It is the first movie I have seen in 2005 to blow me away in the same way that DOUBLE VISION and UNDERWORLD have. Also
this movie is easily 100 times better than the somewhat entertaining SKY CAPTAIN AND THE WORLD OF TOMORROW. The CGI environments
used in this movie are fantastic. The visuals bring across the world of 2095 New York City. The New York City in this movie
is breathtaking like 23rd century NYC seen in THE FIFTH ELEMENT. IMMORTEL has a vibrant style of it's own. It makes me want
to go out and buy the NIKOPOL TRILOGY graphic novel (which the movie is loosely based on).
The characters are an interesting bunch in this movie. A minor complaint that I have is I wished the three of the CG characters
(that interacted with the actors) were played by real actors instead. The scenes with the actors stand out the most in this
movie where the scenes where CG characters interacting with each other don't have the same power as a scene with real actors.
I did love the interactions between the totally CG Horus and Nikopol (Thomas Kretschmann) and I even liked the scenes with
the Egyptian Gods.
Linda Hardy is the mysterious blue haired Jill who is guided in her quest (to become human) by the mysterious John (you
never see his face). Just like Jill, many elements form IMMORTEL. It has the visual depth and meaning of a movie like BLADE
RUNNER. The cars being guided on cable tracks from above is a neat concept. I wonder how New York City became a medical dictatorship
where eugenics rule and Nikopol is revolutionary hero with his words floating in the skies (while Nikopol is serving a sentence
in cyrogenic suspension until an accident sends his cyrotube crashing onto a bridge). IMMORTEL is easily a movie you can debate,
discuss, and write essays on.
THE DVDs: A two disc release of IMMORTEL was released in
France a few months ago. Alliance Atlantis was going to release IMMORTEL to DVD in Canada until response to it in a film festival
(in Canada) made them want to release it theatrically first. Various import DVDs do exist, but some of them might be high
quality bootlegs.
FINAL ANALYSIS: IMMORTEL is fascinating work that is unique and fantastic.
I loved it and I hope others will find it as fascinating as I did.
this movie review is (c)2-9-2005 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. send all comments to lord_pragmagtic@hotmail.com and look for additional content (and site updates) at http://www.livejournal.com/users/enterlinemedia
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