Metal Lords

In all honesty this movie starts as a rambling, awkward mess which slowly becomes punctuated by moments of touching brilliance coming out of seemingly nowhere.

Shy teenager Kevin traipses through high school all the while being dragged along by his best friend Hunter, whose dreams of becoming a metal god threaten to tear down the very two man band he's built. Together they traverse friendship, love, and most of all what it means to keep everything "Metal".

While I was struggling to keep myself engaged in this seemingly flop of a movie, a poignant and well executed turn in the story made me sit up straight in my seat. From there on I was treated to what became an increasingly riveting story with characters that extended beyond the superficial.

I was particularly touched with a surprisingly complex character suffering from mental illness, treated with finesse and a level of understanding that I can only surmise comes from real world experience.

Overall this movie was not your typical coming of age teen rom com, and you can expect a somewhat sophisticated peek into the lives of teenagers finding their own, messy ways into adulthood and what it ultimately means to find acceptance in yourself and others.

HEAVY. METAL. FOREVER!!!

This movie rocked! Not only the kids acted great, but they were perfect for their roles: cute when they were playing it real, hard when they suffered and inspiring as rock singers. The film uses metal band shenanigans to tell the story of how young people feel and are treated by the world and how they treat each other, but it is never blunt or preachy and allows all characters to evolve. The more I think about the film, the more I like it.

Also, awesome song at the end. Not really a metal fan, but even if you don't enjoy the rest of the film that much, the ending song makes it worth it.

I wasn't really expecting a whole lot from the 2022 comedy "Metal Lords" from writer D. B. Weiss and director Peter Sollett as I sat down to watch the movie. Why? Well, first of all I hadn't heard about the movie, so I wasn't sure what I was in for here. And secondly, then the synopsis for the movie just seemed a bit too generic for a movie of this kind. But still, I opted to watch "Metal Lords".

Turns out that "Metal Lords" was actually rather enjoyable. Sure, it was somewhat on the generic side in terms of innovation and creativity for a movie such as this. But still, it proved to be an enjoyable and entertaining movie. And that was definitely a large part because of the cast and their performances. But the storyline certainly was adequate enough.

Lead actors Adrian Greensmith (playing Hunter) and Jaeden Martell (playing Kevin) were rather well-cast for "Metal Lords", and they carried the movie quite well.

I will say that "Metal Lords" was definitely a movie suited for me, because I've been listening to metal since I was around 11 or 12 years old or so, and been playing roleplaying games for that very same amount of time, and I am almost 47 by now. So the metal references and the Dungeons & Dragons references throughout the movie were as if tailored for my interests.

I was genuinely entertained by "Metal Lords", because it was a movie that transcended being just another run-of-the-mill movie about youngsters forming a metal band and going against the mainstream. There were also good elements of friendship, love, being an outsider and not a bland face in the crowd, and such, so it was a well-rounded movie.

My rating of "Metal Lords" lands on a seven out of ten stars.

I really enjoyed this movie, not just because I like metal but because it speaks of adolescence, of friendship, bullies, virgins, geeks, love and most importantly for me, it includes mental health as a real every day issue. Sweet movie.

If you're a metal fan this will give you a few laugh out loud moments but otherwise it's fairly standard high school romcom 'battle of the bands' fare. Inevitably I found myself thinking of Jack Black (school of rock) as the die hard Hunter (Greensmith) incessantly goes into ecstatic monologues about how they will dominate all with their band. The love story plot isn't bad - although, a little 'Grease' with the 'good girl turned bad' trope - but you can't help rising to the theme and going all in as Panteras 'I'm broken' is deployed at just the right moment (enjoy!). Add in some surprise metal guest appearances and a few really well executed slapstick jokes and this is really ok for a few laughs but sadly falls short of the 'file under classic' it might have been.