Yesterday I thought I was going to see my first French film since arriving, but it turned out not to be so. The makers are French, but they have made it in English, so I caught a Version Originale screening at Gaumont. I guess in this way its a little like Besson's The 5th Element, but that's where the similarities end. Where the 5th element was comic, self-deprecating, colourful, and slickly produced, Immortel (Ad Vitam) is none of these, sometimes by intention but at its worst by either lack of money or lack of skill.

The worst decisions made are in terms of effects. The majority of the film's supporting characters are computer-generated, and the resulting contrast between the very poor animation and the "real" (and I use the term generously) characters is jarring and uncomfortable. Worse still, in one case, in one of the cases when they don't use CG, they really should have - instead they go with a red rubber hammerhead that brought me back long-repressed memories of a rubber axe in Dungeons & Dragons. I can't even comment on the acting, since not even the two main characters were developed enough to justify comment on their presentation.