Immortel (ad vitam)
Rating: * * 1/2(out of 5)
Director: Enki Bilal
Running time: 104 minutes
Language: English
Currently showing
[See Japan Times movie listings]

The future is not now, it's retro in "Immortel (ad vitam)" (released in Japan as "God Diva") -- the latest Euro sci-fi created by French comic-book artist Enki Bilal.

Bilal, whose work has a cult following in Europe and Japan, is famed for adapting his own work for the cinema. His second directorial feature, "Tykho Moon" (1996), was his breakthrough work. Eager fans had all awaited this followup, rumored during production to be ambitious and blindingly futuristic, using digitally animated characters alongside real actors.

Surprise: "Immortel" has very little that's not old, chipped and nostalgic. Visually, it's eye candy, but the pleasure is that of wandering into an antique shop and rediscovering the exquisite familiarity of objects from the past. Considering that the story is set in New York, 2095, this seems like an exercise in paradox, a cinematic oxymoron.

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