Futurefilm Retrospective: Immortel (Ad Vitam)

Yet another French produced film for our sci-fi retrospective: Immortel (Immortal), by Enki Bilal.

Immortel was an interesting film for its time: along with Casshern and Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, it was filmed with a digital backlot, meaning that all of the sets were in CGI. It worked really well with Casshern and it brought a nostalgic yet slightly retro-futuristic vibe in Sky Captain. Here... sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The graphics were mostly done by Quantic Dream studios, who would later make the video game Heavy Rain. Although the CGI was fluid, this is 2004 CGI we are talking about, so some aspects look dated.

The most striking difference in visuals was from one thing this movie did that the other two movies tended to shy away from: the usage of CGI characters. In this film, most of the supporting cast is either pure CGI or a mix of CGI faces and real bodies. It's jarring and hits the uncanny valley a bit too much for my taste.

As for the plot, it's based on Bilal's comic of the same name, and it's a bit of a mess. It's 2095, and humanity has embraced improving himself through biotechnology and eugenics. Most people have replaced their organs with biotech replicas. For some reason, a large pyramid hangs over New York City. Within the pyramid, Egyptian gods (extraterrestrials?) condemn one of their own, Horus, to mortality. For some reason. Also for some reason, a man named Nikopol was arrested for some reason. And, for some reason, a lady with blue hair and white skin appears out of nowhere.

Note that I'm using the words 'for some reason' a lot. And that has a reason, which is one of the film's greatest weaknesses: none of this ever gets explained, ever. The plot, without any backstory at all, is a jumbled mess.

Horus wants to procreate and uses Nikopol as a host body, since he is free of biotech manipulation. This leads to some weird squicky scenes and technical rape (or surprise sex!) Also the lady with blue hair and white skin falls in love with Nikopol, despite the fact that she got raped by him, or Horus in his body.

For some reason. By this point I didn't care about the plot anymore. Other than what I revealed above, nothing else gets explained. The film seems to assume you already know.

So I was left to appreciate the movie with the visuals, which despite the datedness, is pretty decent. The music was partly done by Icelandic band Sigur Ros, but blink and you'd miss their contributions to the film. The acting was okay, but again the disparity between CGI images and real actors is quite jarring.

All in all the movie is deeply flawed. I really wouldn't recommend it; see the comic/graphic novels instead.