Metropolis

A Review

by MattBoySlim

So, I bought Metropolis this week on DVD.  I had never seen it before, but Xero and Shad had seen it in NY and said it was great.  Almost every time they recommend something, I’m sure to like it so I just jumped on in, not really knowing what to expect (You’ll probably notice this as a theme throughout all of my anime reviews).  All I knew about it was that it had great animation, and for some reason I got it into my head that it was semi-based on an old German silent film by the same name.  Of course I’ve never seen that either (it may not even be silent for all I know).  Although it still could have been inspired by the film, as the manga was written years after the film was made.

Guh.  Anyway, I’m getting really off topic.  From this point on I’ll try to organize my anime reviews in a quasi-IGN fashion.  Here goes nothing…..

Created by Osamu Tezuka

Screenplay by Katsuhiro Otomo

Music by Toshiyuki Honda

Directed by Rintaro

The Movie

I thought the movie was great.  At first I thought the storyline was pretty old and kinda cliché, although extremely well crafted and written by Katsuhiro Otomo (the guy who did Akira).  Later on disc 2 I found out that it was originally written as a manga about 50 years ago by Osamu Tezuka (the guy who did Astro Boy among countless others), so I guess the Pinocchio/Frankenstein kinda tale wasn’t as cliché back then. 

Visually, this movie blew my mind.  The use of color is fantastic.  The upper levels of the city are either subdued sepia-type tones making it look like an old pre-color Hollywood picture or an outrageous explosion of pastels and almost any color imaginable.  The next lower level has darker colors, but is still vibrant in its way.  Even the lowest sewer levels are properly dank but are still full of eye candy.  Speaking of eye candy, the animation is some of the best I’ve ever seen.  I may even venture to say that it exceeds Akira in the levels of detail. The characters, though created in a very old style in keeping with Tezuka’s original designs, are surprisingly elaborately detailed and emotive. 

Even the visual direction made me giggle with unadulterated glee like a little school girl presented with a pony of her very own….um...not giggle……. squeal……..well geez, either way I don’t like where that’s going so we’ll leave that where it is.  Regardless of disturbing similies, I was thoroughly impressed by the visual direction.  Every once in a while Rintaro does something that makes it so much like an old silent film that I laugh out loud in delight.  Case in point, on a few occasions he uses black iris wipes to change scenes or illustrate an important element.  (Just so we’re all on the same page, that’s where it zooms to black except for a little circle to pinpoint a certain thing on the screen.)  Well, I don’t know for sure that that’s what they’re called, but try to work with me here in my dearth of film knowledge and profusion of seldom used vocabulary. 

Geez, I digress a lot.  Anyway, what I was trying to say was that Rintaro went a long way towards making a high-budget, futuristic sci-fi anime share many visual elements with old silent films such as Nosferatu.  Watch Shadow of the Vampire and you’ll see what I mean.

Geeky film-class detritus aside, the one thing that really stuck out was the animation.  I know I’ve said this earlier, but even though the characters are drawn in a really simple, old-school style, there is an amazing amount of detail in their animation. Also, most of the backgrounds are done in CG.  Even so, they still blend in seamlessly with the cel animation.  Most of the locations remind me of a couple of odd-numbered Playstation Final Fantasy games.  At one point, when an extremely gigundous (and most likely Freudian) piece of machinery was being readied, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “Geez, if the CG wasn’t as choppy, I’d say this was made by Square!”  The big CG sequences are very detailed.  Even though they seem to suffer from some kind of low-framerate problem, they are still a feast for the eyes.

The Audio

            Ok, so the movie is a feast for the eyes like I said.  Well, guess what?  That’s right, it’s also a feast for the ears.  Geez, if only it smelled like potpourri, you could eat it and it vibrated it would be a feast for all five senses……..if only.  Anyway, the music.  The music kicked ass.  It was very jazzy and upbeat when it needed to be.  It seemed to be based around one single catchy theme.  Most of the score was variations on this theme, which kinda reminded me of something the immortal John Williams would do.  The music permeated the whole movie and was a very large part of the experience.  So large, in fact, that it’s always used in all surround speakers, enveloping you in music-y goodness.

            And speaking of surround, this movie is a perfect example of what a surround sound movie should be.  The rear speakers are used a lot, and they’re not too quiet and not too overbearing.  There was probably a billion times in the movie when I went “Yay!  Surround sound!”  Ok, maybe not a billion, but a whole bunch.  Enough to make me very happy.  There were many instances where someone runs at the “camera” and passes it, and the sound follows it perfectly.  Movies like this make me quite grateful for the fact that my girlfriend’s dad works at the Bose store and gave her very nice speakers.

The Video

            Right, the video.  Here a section where I can’t say too much because of my crappy TV.  Or maybe I can….  When I first watched it with my girlfriend’s nice surround system, the video quality was slightly hindered by the fact that my TV sucks.  There’s a lot of red in this movie, and my TV has trouble containing red to its designated area.  In other words, red gets distorted and bleeds into the surrounding colors.  Sometimes.  And the regular old composite (RCA) video connection doesn’t help.  However, later that week I brought it to my parents’ house and watched it on their new Sony Wega (not HD, but really damn nice) using a component video connection.  All of the colors come through great, and I didn’t really notice any artifacting.

            Regardless of all this previous nonsense, the movie looks spectacular whether it’s a crappy TV or a really good one, so the video quality on this DVD must be good.  

The Extras

            One of the best things about this DVD is the plethora of extras that resides within.  The first disc has mostly just previews, but the best preview anyone could ask for is included.  By that I mean BeBop.  Cowboy BeBop.  The MOVIE.  BEBOP!!!!!!!!!!!  It’s kinda short, but get’s me so psyched that I need to use the upholstery attachment on the carpet cleaner to make the couch presentable again.

            Disc 2 is probably the first Mini-DVD I’ve ever seen.  It blew my mind.  Well, not really, but I thought that putting the extras on a tiny midget-sized disc was pretty cool.  On it are some interviews with Otomo, Rintaro and Honda, some making-of stuff and a history of the story of Metropolis.  Some pretty interesting stuff.

            Sadly, I can’t remember if the movie had a commentary or not.  I’d assume not because it’d be in Japanese, but what do I know?  What did you say?  Why don’t I go look at the box?  Well, smart guy, I’m wrapping up this review on my lunch break at work, and in the 5 hours from now until I get in close proximity to the DVD box, I’ll have forgotten.  Happy?  ……. (7 days later…)  OK, fine.  I did remember.  No commentary, and it was stupid of me to think so.  How’s that grab ya?  Other than that, the extras rock!  End of story.

            Well, there you have it.  Another good review ruined by laziness and surly-ness.  To sum up, the movie was really cool, from a visual, audio and writing standpoint.  This is the part where I rate the movie.

Here’s the scale:

1 = Guaranteed to make you drench your shorts with urine in utter disgust and anger.

2 = Guaranteed to make you drench your shorts with urine in mild dislike and a general melancholy.

3 = Guaranteed to NOT make you drench your shorts with urine for any reason (and who wants that?!?!?)

4 = Guaranteed to make you drench your shorts with urine in slight interest and a non-specific “old-timey good feeling”.

5 = Guaranteed to make you drench your shorts with urine in absolute delight and euphoria.

Well, for this movie I say it gets a 4.5.  Everything was top-notch (except maybe the dubbing).  Anyway, I liked it a lot.  The End.