Metropolis Review - 90/100
Now this is a movie! Most of you probably figured out by now that I’m on a movie spree, but most of the movies tend to be lots of style and not a lot of substance. While these are perfectly fine to watch, I’d rather watch a movie that’s good in every aspect. Unfortunately, these are quite hard to find, though Metropolis definitely belongs in that category.
For those of you who don’t know about Osamu Tezuka, this link should give you a fairly good impression of why people call him the “God of Manga”. Without him, anime wouldn’t be what it is today, and even now remakes of his works are still being made, and his stories prove to be very good to age. First Hi no Tori baffled me, and now it’s the turn for Metropolis.
Due to the fact that this movie really received a great budget, it has been really detailed, up to the point where it can be seen as on par with Ghibli-movies. The sceneries we see throughout the movie are filled with life and people, who actually react to the things around them. On frequent occasions, you can find different things happening at once. Characters who stand in the background discussing things, for example. When compared to usual anime, where characters don’t move unless they really have to, it felt really refreshing.
Not only does this movie spend a great amount of effort on its details, they’re also used really well in combination with its story and characters. Both of them are really given the time to develop throughout the movie, and if you combine this with the details, you get some pretty interesting character-development, which comes together perfectly in the climaxes, later in the movie. Especially the ending must be one of the most brilliant ideas for an ending in a anime-movie ever; you’ll either absolutely love it, or you’ll absolutely hate it. ^_^;; (you’ll understand when you see it).
Like Hi no Tori, Metropolis also is quite thought-provoking. Even though the themes introduced are nothing I haven’t seen before (they may have been new when the story was first published, I’m not sure about that one), where the setting is a city, fully controlled by the government, where Robots take over most of the dirtier tasks, the movie uses its characters to ask enough interesting questions about morality.
It’s hard to point out any flaws in this one as well. The characters all fit well into the movie, and each of them has a good enough reason to be involved in the events. The main character and especially his father really start out like normal people, and yet it seems perfectly logical why they became the main characters. Each of the important characters is fleshed out well, and the story flows from one event to the other in quite a logical way. I guess the biggest flaw is that this remains a movie. I still like Hi no Tori better than this one, simply because it had 13 episodes. Metropolis used its time well, though there’s only so much you can do in an hour and a half. Because of this, the ending did turn into a collection of clichés, despite the brilliant part.
Like you, I was amazed at the artwork of Metropolis and drawn in by the warmth of the characers, but felt that it was a bit messy in terms of storyline. That’s what prevents it reaching absolute awesomeness, which is a shame when it has so much going for it (the old-school Tezuka character designs, social commentary, music, the list goes on).
If you’re referring to the music played towards the end as the ‘love it or hate it’ thing though, I loved it. A classic song that fits the refreshingly different choice of score for the film as a whole. It’s different but is still really powerful.
Comment by Martin — August 18, 2007 @ 1:33
Ahhh….I like Metropolis too, it’s a good movie. Rock is the one who have my most sympathy anyway since other characters have a good-ending for them.
Comment by saris — August 18, 2007 @ 11:59
Hmm, I must be in the minority group then. I found the movie boring.
Comment by hayase — August 18, 2007 @ 15:00