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Immortal (2004) DVD Review
Immortal (2004) DVD Credits:
Immortal (2004) Directed by:
Enki Bilal
Immortal (2004) Written by:
Enki Bilal
Immortal (2004) Cast:
Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschmann, Charlotte Rampling
Immortal (2004) Released by:
Not available at this time
Region:
2
Immortal (2004) DVD Release Date:
4th June 2006
Our Rating: Extras Rating:

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Immortal (2004) Synopsis:

In the year 2095, a giant extraterrestrial pyramid appears over New York. Inside, the ancient Egyptian god Horus is told he has just seven days on Earth before his destruction. Seven days to revisit the world he helped create, and mate with the beautiful blue haired woman Jill Bioscopin (Linda Hardy) in this maze of a city. Directed by influential comic book artist Enki Bilal, based on his own graphic novels, Immortal is one of the first films in the world to be shot almost entirely on green screen, along with Sin City and Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow.

Immortal (2004) DVD Review:

New York, 2095. As a huge pyramid floats over the city, aliens, mutants and aliens try to co-exist in one of the largest cities on the planet. Inside the pyramid, the Egyptian Gods have returned to judge Horus (Thomas M. Pollard) for his crimes and they decide to allow him seven days amongst the people he created before he loses his immortality. Jill Bioskop (Hardy) is also new to the planet and is discovering humans for the first time before she becomes one herself. Nikopol (Kretschmann) has been accidentally released from his prison in suspended animation. These three soon become connected and they could change the balance of the future forever.

Visionary comic book writer Enki Bilal gets the chance to show what he can do with all the advances in technology but can we understand it?

Based on his cult comic series "La Foire aux immortels" and "La Femme piège", writer Enki Bilal brings his vision of the future to the silver screen but while the imagination and creativity is first rate the storyline is very hard to follow.

The main problem with the story is that you feel that you have been thrown into the middle of something that is already happening and you never get the chance to find out how we came to this point. As the film starts we discover that the pyramid is already over New York, Jill has arrived in the city and Nikopol is in prison for a thirty-year term. Without any background on the main characters, the importance of re-emergence of the Egyptian Gods, who is John and what Nikopol was jailed for and what makes him so dangerous to the authorities.

The world that Enki Bilal has created however is a visual spectacle. A combination of live actors and computer generated characters, Bilal uses the latest advances in computer graphics to create a vision of the future that transforms New York into a combination of old and new buildings to make a metropolis. The humans, aliens and mutants that inhabit the world are also extremely imaginative, from the classic look of Horus, to the mutated, fish assassins. This is a world that you want to spend time in.

‘Immortal’ might have a much lower budget than most films produced by Hollywood, but Enki Bilal and his creative team push the technology to the maximum to engulf you in a world of the bizarre and wonderful. The only real let down is the story that is confusing from start to finish because of the lack of backstory for the plot and the characters. Even so this is still a very enjoyable piece of science fiction.

PICTURE & SOUND

Presented in Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 with Dolby Digital 5.1, the movie is presented well.

BONUS FEATURES

Making of CGI (10.53 mins)
Executive producer Pascal Herold, visual effects producer Catherine Macresy, animation director Fanny Le Maol, animation supervisor Fabrice Delapierre, special effects director Jacquemin Piel, character supervisor Gulliaume Terrien and decoration supervisor Christine Gatto reveal how the visual effects of ‘Immortal’ were created. Here we see how the aliens, mutants and humans were created as fully computer generated characters using green screen and motion capture techniques to bring them to life.

Trailers
Watch the original theatrical trailer and two French teaser trailers for ‘Immortal’

Making of Documentary (35.59 mins)
Writer/Director Enki Bilal, producer Charles Gassot, executive producer Dominique Brunner, special effects director Jacquemin Piel and stars Linda Hardy, Thomas Kretschmann and Frédéric Pierrot take you behind the scenes of ‘Immortal’. From the storyboards to green screen and motion capture filming, we see how the movie was put together before the computer graphics were added. We also she how the makeup, hair and costumes were designed for the human actors and the actual sets were created to look like Bilal’s original comic strip.

Stills Gallery
View publicity stills from ‘Immortal’

OVERALL

The DVD package for ‘Immortal’ is pretty good. The two featurettes cover most aspects of the film’s production (with English subtitles), offering an insight into how this predominately CG movie was put together. Fans of the film should be pleased.

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Immortal (2004) DVD review written by: Jamie Kelwick

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