Immortal (2004)

A reach into the future further than anyone's gone before.

Have you ever envisioned a future where people reach to the extremes of being perfect? Everyone is a walking CG character unless you are of the lower echelon. Then they discover a perfect being from another world who is a decendent of the past. Ironic. The visuals are stunning in this movie. Not to mention the wonderful mesmerizing slow bent of the movie that I find common in French Films. If you're looking for something a little "out there" then this is it. November 19, 2008

Not Cooked Long Enough

I saw this movie some time ago on cable and jotted some notes down...

'Immortal' suffers from wanting to be Blade Runner. The tie-in to Ancient Egypt and their pantheon was interesting but I missed how that made any sense.

A hi-tech hourglass ticks away. What does the cat goddess think of Horace's procreative trysts?

Intricate plot that is vague somehow. Dialogue written by 'B'-level college creative writing students. CGI characters all look like more like cartoons/anime except for the 'immortals' who didn't seem to fit with the animal heads. Hot bodies, though, for unrated film, they didn't need to cover up Horace's privates. Romance between the 'hero' and the lead female was too forced (literally). Seemed to make light of rape.

The exchanges between the main character guy and Horace were overlong and it was never clear how Horace inhabits him. The doctor (?) female pursuing the alien female protagonist seemed to have zilch character development. Then there was the inexplicable series of shark/squid-like villain accoutrements that were laughably ineffective, though they looked cool in their evil way.

The main problem with the film is that the emphasis really is on surfaces and the 'stylized future reality bit', rather than a story. It reminded me of latter day George Lucas, where the plot gets sketchy, the dialogue gets more stilted, the humor scarce, but everything looks and sounds really cool.

Immortal is sexy, or at least tries, but the reasons it's sexy seems to be to keep focus away from the half-baked plot. The story line gets lost in the jumbled script, half-mentioned, and unfocused. Horace wants to procreate? So he takes over the male protag's body?

The whole thing would've made a great, highly stylized porn movie, but it's obvious they wanted to spice up the story with sex but didn't want to bother with the messiness of making the story at all sexual or make the sexual make sense.

Overall, the movie 'outcools' itself by looking good while saying very little. Blade Runner, though highly stylized, defined a genre of future Earth depictions white tell a very compelling story about the core nature of what it means to be human and, ultimately, the nature of immortality.

'Immortal', on the other hand, is an ancient Egypt fanclub flick, part cartoon, part real that looks simultaneously slick and, at times, ridiculous (Horace talks out of his throat and I swear I could see an actor's eyes peering through his beak at one point).

Given another year or so of massaging, editing, and developing the script, effects, etc. the would make an interesting film, but the kernel of the story focuses on Horace rather than the couple who are.. spoiler alert....






getting back together at the end (ironically, sine she has lost her memory - yet again).

Too many gimmicks, magic pills and magic powers make this movie a two star joint.
October 25, 2008

Immortal

I saw this movie a few years ago and only got to see the last 1/2 of it. It is an interesting story. But it never did explain where the gods where going. September 16, 2008

Why Does Horus Suddenly Appear?

The Good Things
*Very excellent special effects. Visual imagery is so spectacular throughout the film that it is hardly ever dull (even though there's no real action to it).
*Good filming style with lots of vivid imagery.
*Excellent production design. Lots of funky sets, costumes, props, and loads of really cool flying cars.
*Fascinating characters. Lots of emotion; good acting and pretty good writing.
*Very interesting concepts throughout. Some content concerning eugenics. Some parts seem to question the definition of humanity.
*Good music.

The Bad Things
*Rather strange, somewhat confusing story. Definately warrants multiple viewings, however.
*Gets a little slow at some parts.
*Not for kids or the extremely squeamish; contains bloody violence, swearing, nudity, and sex.

The Questionable Things
*I don't get why so many characters were completely computer-generated; it seemed to make everything look more fake and confusing.

Easily comparable to "The Fifth Element," but I consider this to be a little superior in many ways. "Immortal" is what science fiction should be about; intriguing visions of the future and of other worlds. It's also got some deep content concerning the nature of humanity. The storyline suffers from being a little too strange, confusing, and slow at parts, but I was very pleased with the visuals and the emotions of the characters. If you're interested in good sci-fi, I'd reccomend at least renting this.

The DVD has excellent video and sound quality (the video is just a little grainy, but it adds to the overall grittiness of the film). It includes a thirty-minute making-of feature and a couple of trailers. The copy I have came in an awesome metal steelbook case.

If this review has not been helpful, let me know how I can improve for the future. August 25, 2008

Dark visions of the future

A strange cross between animation and film with very a black and white
comic book feel to it. The God Horus of Egypt as a semi-Immortal alien
leaves a "hero" behind in the Greek classical tradition. The blue hair
child-woman and the freeze dried Russian revolutionist are caught
in 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. March 24, 2008

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