Metoroporisu

I have always been a fan of the 60's and 70's anime. I feel that the 80's and 90's Anime got a bit out of hand, but this film brings me back to the experimentation, the wonder, visuals and the drawing you into forgetting this is only 'anime' at all.

The story is an update of the fantastic silent film Metropolis, and at points in this telling, the story falls flat, but just watching the film drew me in and made up for those story gaffs. There isn't any one who can look at this and not be taken with its ambition. Old anime elements, new ones, stop action, realism -- you name it, its all in one nice package! I am looking forward to additional works from this team, I hope they continue on for I feel this project was a great venture and to what they are capable of. This film is really wonderful, I recommend it highly.

I'm not a big fan of Manga I must admit. The movies I've seen have been few and far between and while I certainly enjoyed the likes of Ninja Scroll, Akira and Ghost In The Shell, I've never had much urge to seek out a really wide knowledge of the genre. That being said though, Metropolis has to rank as one of my top five films of all time, not just the animated ones.

Telling the story of a far future world where humans and robots exist alongside one another, it focuses on the adventures of a Private Investigator and his son visiting the city for the first time and hunting down a missing robot called Tima. And what a city it is! The animation, simply put, is stunning. The epic scope of this vast urban world is beautifully captured on screen. It is richly detailed and lit up like a fantastic world of colour, like a fine piece of dramatic art that has come to life. The animation on the characters meanwhile is no less amazing, it is more akin to French than Japanese in stylistic terms, but is still very detailed and beautifully realised.

But this is no piece of aesthetic beauty with nothing to back it up as the storyline is truly gripping. As the boy befriends a young girl, both of them unaware that she is in fact an experimental robot, you find yourself getting swept up in their plight and they have just as much, if not more depth and emotion than any real-life actor's work.

Come the climax, you'll be simultaneously thrilled and left emotionally stunned. This is a magnificent film, I can't praise it enough.

This is another great masterpiece in anime. Also, it's very different from others, as reviewers have pointed out.

I never expected old-1930-ish-saxopohone jazz music to be playing in an anime movie. It's a great movie, and, like Akira, the Matrix, and Princess Mononoke (or, Mononoke Hime as I prefer), it gets better every time you see it.

and in the climax of the movie, you hear Ray Charles' "I Can't Stop Loving You". Puts in the same touch as how Gene Kelly's "Singin' in the Rain" was put in "A Clockwork Orange". It engraves the scene in your head, never to forget, and it does bring the scene back to your mind once you hear that song. It's happened to me lots of times after i saw Clockwork Orange.

Review: 5/5, Good Movie scale Ratings: US PG-13, UK PG, Canada PG

In the futuristic Metropolis, robots are segregated and used for all the menial work. Many unemployed blame the robots and pushing for revolution. Duke Red is building a vast skyscraper. A robot disrupts the opening and Duke Red's son Rock destroys the robot. Private detective Shunsaku Ban and his nephew Kenichi are hunting for scientist Dr. Laughton who is supposedly trafficking organs. Laughton has actually been hired by Duke Red to recreate his deceased daughter with an advanced robot.

The visual style of this animated movie is beautiful. This is worthwhile watch simply for the visual aspect. The story is functional for more than half of the movie. Kenichi and the robot on the run is pretty good. The rest is a bit disjointed and complicated. Motivation is tricky. The twists and reveals are questionable and the story is overstuffed. It is still a beautiful looking piece of animation.

I knew little about this film but when I saw that it was going to be on television I decided to watch it; there is so little non-Ghibli anime on TV one has to take what one can get. When it started I knew this was going to be different; most of the characters didn't look like anime characters, they looked more like characters from western cartoons of the 1930s. This fitted in with the feel of the whole film which was a 1920s/1930s view of the future reminiscent of Fritz Lang's film of the same name.

Set in the city state of Metropolis where the robot underclass must stay in their designated areas and a scientist is building a robot that looks like a girl but is destined to run a new skyscraper known as the Ziggurat. Into this city comes a Japanese private detective and his nephew Kenichi who are seeking to arrest the scientist for organ trafficking. The state's de facto leader Duke Red's adopted son Rock is determined to destroy the robot thinking his father is replacing him. Rock starts a fire in the lab. During this the robot is activated and escapes with Kenichi although neither know that she isn't human. Rock continues to hunt them as the flee through the various layers of the city to a climax in the mysterious Ziggurat.

I loved the retro feel to the animation along with a sound track that also felt like it was from that time. The use of the song "I Can't Stop Loving You" during the climactic scene was inspired. Even if you don't normally like animation this is worth watching as it is a good story which is well told.

These comments are based on watching the film in Japanese with English subtitles.